Movie Review: "Snow White And The Huntsman"

"Snow White And The Huntsman": B+.  I would imagine that the retelling of "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" as a fairy tail featuring epic battles, gorgeous cinematography, special effects and a beauty desired by two guys with Hollywood looks is a challenge which would be nearly impossible to tackle, but as President Dub once famously said, "Mission accomplished!" Nice going, Director Rupert Sanders! "Snow White And The Huntsman" is a very worthy offshoot, a retelling of the familiar story but with twenty-first century technology.

Charlize Theron is the conniving and vain Ravenna with a master plan to become the all-powerful queen of the land. She is an accomplished schemer whose good looks belie the fact that she's also a cold blooded killer. The slain king's daughter, little fair-haired Snow White, is imprisoned by the queen in solitary confinement in the castle's grim north tower. Snow White's playmate, Prince William (Sam Claflin), looks on in futility as he barely escapes capture himself, instead being ridden away on horseback by his father as he pledges that someday he'll return to save the princess. Many years go by, and after Snow White has grown into a beautiful brunette, played by Kristen Stewart, she pulls off an exciting escape not unlike the one seen in the movie "The Fugitive." Thus ends the first third of the movie.

As luck would have it, as she is fleeing Snow White comes across an abandoned white stallion, which she rides bareback through the heather toward the Dark Forest, barely ahead of a mounted posse led by Finn (Sam Spruell), the queen's creepy blonde brother. The Dark Forest is too treacherous to ride horses, so Snow White continues on foot, with the bad guys still in hot pursuit. Just as Snow White was lucky to find the white stallion, Finn and his men stumble upon the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), whom they enlist to track and capture Snow White. The girl is no match for the Huntsman, who calls the Dark Forest his home and easily captures the exhausted Snow White as she cowers under a huge tree. But, the Huntsman smells a rat (or maybe Snow White's Chanel Number 5) and decides that, rather than handing her over to Finn and his dastardly gang, he will aid her escape and bring her to safety. This middle third of the movie is my favorite part. The haunting Dark Forest and its contrast with enchanted bright magical land of the seven (or eight, if you're paying attention) dwarfs are both brilliantly captured by the film makers. It is here that the Huntsman and the dwarfs realize that the pretty young girl they've been protecting is, in fact, the royal princess.

The final third of the movie leads up to the battle royale between the forces of all that is good and wholesome versus the wicked queen's loyalists. I will leave it for you to guess which side prevails. Then there is the final scene, for which the script writers could easily have chosen a cliched ending. To their credit, they did not.

There are a few places here and there which deserve criticism. I will mention just two. The supernatural powers of the queen are a little too over the top for me. (Yes, I realize this is a fairy tale.) Apparently she has the ability to remotely control almost everything that lives and breathes, such as Finn who seems to have more lives than a cat. The other nit has to do with William. He pretends to befriend Finn and rides with Finn's army, but when the army attacks innocent people William conveniently disappears. (Or, did William target innocent people too, but offscreen?) Maybe we are supposed to believe that Finn is as dumb as a post and doesn't see this for himself.

It has been a few days since I saw the movie, yet certain things have stuck with me. For example, the "mirror mirror on the wall" from which Ravenna seeks confirmation that she "is the fairest of them all" is spectacular. The gray castle on the shores of a huge body of water is awesome. The aptly named Dark Forest is the perfect setting for the initial stages of the relationship between the two title characters. And the colorful grove beyond the Dark Forest, with its talking flowers and woodland creatures, goes perfectly with this fairy tale. I absolutely loved the dwarfs; couldn't get enough of them! There is even an angry troll which, of course, is unable to speak but whose thoughts and emotions are clearly visible through the artistic and creative skill of this movie's special effects team.

Regardless of whether you have an HD television, this is not a movie to place into your Netflix que. Rather, you should cough up the price of a ticket to see it in a first run movie theater. That way you'll be in position to enjoy fully all this movie has to offer.