"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"
Hello everyone!
Sometimes you just have to circle back and find things that you thought you didn't enjoy, watch them again, and then make a decision about it.
I think the only sin this movie would be guilty of is the fact that it was released around the same time as another on the same topic, Mirror Mirror, and of the two it seemed that the latter one knew what it wanted to be and to do, whereas this one was kind of stuck in between genres.
That said though, it isn't as bad as everyone made it sound at the time, and even my own personal opinion changed while I watched it.
There really are some things which you look at differently over time, after all, and I think time has actually helped this one a lot.
Time is a magical thing like that.
Snow White and the Huntsman is probably the biggest example of it.
As I've seen the sequel and probably a few other Snow White themed movies, all connected reviews will be down at the bottom of the page, as per usual of course.
On to the reimagining of this fairy tale!
Snow White is a princess born to the king and queen of the kingdom we never know the name of, because it isn't really important; the important bit is that the queen wished for a child with 'hair black as night, skin white as snow, and lips red as blood' after pricking herself on a thorn.
She gives birth to Snow White, but afterwards becomes ill as the girl grows, and sadly passes away much too soon, leaving her husband in deep mourning ... until his kingdom is attacked, and he rides out to deal with the army, only to find that they're some sort of phantoms that have a captive, a beautiful woman named Ravenna (Charlize Theron).
The king is instantly smitten (or, well, he just wanted her in his bed) and marries her the next day, regardless of the fact that her wardrobe seemed to consist of bones or something. Ravenna, of course, is the Evil Queen of the story, poisoning the king and killing him in their marriage bed because "a king like you ruined me once" and now she wants revenge on every single man of royal pedigree in the world.
Logic, am I right?
The King's right hand man and his young son escape, but Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is snatched before she can, and locked in a tower where she grows up under the creepy eyes of the Queen's brother, Finn, who can't seem to decide if he wants her or if he wants to preserve her for Ravenna.
It isn't until she comes of age that she poses a threat, because a magical golden mirror the Queen has tells her that she USED to be the fairest in the kingdom, but now Snow White surpasses her. Naturally, this means she has to die (because the Queen, apart from bathing in the weirdest milk I have ever seen which covers her like glue, needs beautiful young women to survive, since she sucks out their life or beauty or something, and thus can live on and on and on).
Finn underestimates the princess and she manages to escape him, his guards and the lot, slipping into the sewers to make her way to the beach following two birds who guide her to a horse just chilling there, which she then mounts and rides into the Dark Forest with him. This appears to be the one spot in the kingdom where the Queen's powers don't work, so while Snow is dealing with hallucinations and weird gas, Finn finds the Huntsman.
This guy (Chris Hemsworth) can supposedly track anyone, and the Queen promises him she'll bring his wife back from the dead, considering that's the only reason he's a hopeless drunk, so he takes off and finds Snow for Finn fairly quickly, only his conscience is having some doubts there, which of course ends with Snow on the run, Finn knocked out, and Eric right behind the girl.
They reach an uneasy truce and she promises him double what the Queen did to get her to her father's right hand man, who apparently still opposes the Queen all these years later, and his son (Sam Claflin) takes off to find Snow, his one true love, because he isn't going to leave her a second time.
How does he do this? Well he joins Finn and his goons on the hunt, as you do.
Anyway, Eric and Snow reach the edge of the Forest where they're attacked by a troll who, after tossing Eric aside like a puppet, bows its head before Snow White, something Eric doesn't understand at all, but he takes her to a community of women and children who are all scarred and living out on the water, hiding out from the Queen, who finds them useless if they're not beautiful.
Eric, finally learning who Snow White is, tromps off in a huff, but the community is attacked and so he hustles back once he sees the fire in the distance, snatching Snow White before Finn (or William!) can, and they take off on the run once more.
This time around they finally run into the Dwarfs this fairy tale has been missing, and it turns out that Eric knows them pretty well, which would have been a problem if the oldest one didn't order that Snow White shouldn't be harmed, because he can see who she is even though he's blind. So off they go to a place called Sanctuary, which is the home of the fairies, and they explain to Snow that, while her father ruled, they were a prosperous people who mined for gold deep in the Earth, respected and loved, but once Ravenna took over she slaughtered them all, except for those still in the mines who didn't know what was happening.
With one more incentive to get to the bloody throne, Snow White meets with White Hart next morning, a large white stag who seems to bow before her, but the oldest Dwarf explains he's blessing her, and that she is life itself (at this point it's revealed that Ravenna was cursed with her magic and immortality by her mother because she was so beautiful, but that only the other most beautiful girl can end it).
Well, life itself isn't much against arrows when Finn and his goons attack again, causing the group to scramble and scatter; one of the Dwarfs sacrifices himself for Snow, and Eric kills Finn, finally, as it's revealed that he, too, has been given long life by his sister and they're connected somehow, but she cuts him loose so she survives.
At this point William joins their little motley crew and off they go, with William looking after Snow with longing puppy looks as she hangs out close to Eric who helps her forward, but the Queen has other plans and disguises herself as William to get Snow to eat the poisoned apple, so by the time they actually get to the king's right hand man, Snow is ... well, she kinda dead.
Now, here's where things get a little tricky, because William kisses her right after she drops, and other than a tear from one of her eyes nothing happens. At the castle, ERIC kisses her, as well, saying she reminds him of his wife, and this seems to be enough to wake her up. This is a little bit weird because, if you remember the story, true love's kiss will be the one to wake the princess up, so there's two explanations here: either William isn't her true love, or she has two and both were needed to save her.
It's confusing, but point in fact is she's awake and alive and rallies the men to her father's banner, with more coming in on their ride to the castle as news spreads the princess is alive and fighting for the throne. Sending the Dwarfs to open to portcullis (through the sewers), Snow goes directly for the Queen and the two battle it out in the mirror's room, to the point where Snow eventually uses the trick Eric taught her way back at the beginning and stabs Ravenna, marking the only person she ACTUALLY kills.
With the Queen dead, the kingdom is freed from oppression and Snow White is crowned Queen with everyone who helped her along the way in attendance, but weirdly enough she exchanges a look with the Huntsman right at the end before credits roll, so honestly, is there a triangle here or not?!?
No one knows, because that's the end!
The movie is an ambitious retelling of the beloved fairy tale with a lot of added elements thrown in, but it doesn't really know if it wants to be an action movie, a comedy, or a grotesque so it turns out into a mix of everything, though it IS enjoyable. Interestingly enough, Snow herself speaks very little in the movie in comparison with other adaptations, and I wonder if it wasn't because Stewart might have struggled with the British accent?
Also, for some reason Snow is Christian in this one, which I completely forgot!
But it's definitely entertaining, with Theron playing the deranged Queen who apparently wants all the pretty girls dead so she can stay pretty, and all the men dead because one idiot didn't glower and worship at her feet. Hemsworth makes a compelling huntsman who seems to find some sort of redemption through helping Snow, and Claflin delivers the final knot in this with his true love role (or is he?).
The effects definitely help turn this movie magical (or terrible at times) but there's a degree of realism here with the fighting and the final battle as the assault on the castle begins, which grounds this in something else, not fantasy, but I think the main issue this movie ended up facing was the real life scandal that overshadowed it.
Because all in all, it's not a BAD movie, it's just not one of the best that's ever been made, but that's not a crime. And it's actually entertaining enough if you aren't actively looking for negativity.
I plan on watching the other retelling soon enough, so stay tuned for that, but until then, remember not to ask your mirror any kind of silly questions, just in case it suddenly starts answering you and giving you some ridiculous advice!
xx
*images and video not mine
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