3 jun 2012

My Review: Snow White and the Huntsman (5/10)


¨Lips red as blood. Hair black as night. Bring me your heart my dear, dear Snow White.¨

This is as close of a Tim Burton version of Snow White then you`ll ever see (even if Tim Burton himself directs one). The visual style of the film is pretty dark, but fascinating. It stands out in the film, but what the movie has going for it visually, it lacks story wise. The movie dragged for very long periods of time and moved really slowly. If it weren’t for the great visuals I might have not made it through this original version of the classic story we`ve all seen hundreds of times before. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney`s first feature length movie and one of my favorite classics. I recall the darkness of it involving the evil witch, but I also remember the sweetness of Snow White and the playfulness of the seven dwarfs. Director Rupert Sanders does a very good job at setting the dark mood thanks to the strong performance from Charlize Theron, but he fails to capture the sweetness and innocence that embodies Snow White. As much as I like Kirsten Stewart, she really never convinced me as Snow White and that is my greatest complaint along with a lack of a better or more engaging storyline. This film was written by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini (the screenplay writer of my favorite film last year: Drive), but despite being beautifully shot and having great visuals it lacked a bit more heart in the story and a better conclusion. Despite moving so slow during most of the story, it seems to finish rather quickly and abruptly at the end. The movie does have some positive things however, such as Chris Hemsworth`s performance and some of the great actors playing the dwarfs.

We are all familiar with Snow White, although this film does take several liberties and takes us different places (despite having several of the same characters and lines from the original like ¨Mirror, mirror on the wall who is fairest of them all? ¨).  Snow White is played by Kristen Stewart who`s a princess until the day her mother dies and her father remarries Ravenna (Charlize Theron). Once Ravenna becomes Queen she murders Snow White`s father and locks her in the towers. The evil Ravenna begins to rule and the kingdom grows very dark. She`s a witch with eternal beauty thanks to the hundreds of girls she`s killed. Their hearts are the secret to her youth and beauty. She rules along with her brother Finn (Sam Spruell) who is more like her servant. Once Ravenna discovers that Snow White`s beauty is a threat to her powers she sends Finn to bring her in order to kill her, but Snow White manages to escape and hides in the dark forest. That is when Ravenna hires the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to go after her and bring her back, but once the Huntsman meets Snow White he decides to protect her instead. Snow White`s childhood friend, William (Sam Claflin), hears she`s still alive and also begins searching for her in order to protect her and overthrow the evil Queen. Along the way Snow White and the Huntsman run into some dwarfs (played by such great actors as Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones, and Johnny Harris) who also decide to protect her from the evil powers of the Queen and so the journey continues.

 I actually enjoyed some of the supporting characters in this film. The actors that played the dwarfs brought a lot of comedy to an otherwise very dark and serious film. Chris Hemsworth was the other actor who brought some comedic relief to the table, and perhaps my favorite character of the film (reminding us as to why Thor was so good despite the ridiculous plot). The film had its entertaining moments, but I just felt it too dark of a picture for my enjoyment and really wished it would have had a better ending. Was it better than I expected it to be? Yes, but that doesn’t mean it was good either. Kristen Stewart is a beautiful actress, but she didn’t fit the role of Snow White, she is not the typical sweet actress, there is some darkness in her as well. This is not a kid’s version of Snow White and is mostly for adults, but I still was left with an empty feeling from the theater as if something were missing. I didn’t have a terrible time with this film; I would give it a 5.8, almost enjoyable.

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario