Remakes are a very common and ordinary aspect of filmmaking in
modern-day Hollywood. With that being the case, I can't say that I was
surprised at the fact that there was a remake of Snow White coming to
the big screen called Snow White and The Huntsman. This one is different
from some of the other films based on this story. This one is darker
and has more action than the others, but it's also more mature.
With
a familiar story, Snow White and The Huntsman has an evil queen
(Charlize Theron) who will do anything to keep her power. When it is
learned that Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is destined to replace her,
she learns of her whereabouts and orders a hunter (Chris Hemsworth) to
track her down and prevent it from happening. The huntsman however has
plans of his own once he comes to understand who she is and why she is
so important.
Snow White and The Huntsman got off to a solid start
and stayed that way for a decent amount of time. They took their time
building up the story and much of the early stages of the movie keeps
the spotlight on the Queen, her rise to power and her continuous fight
to stay there. After keeping allowing her to be the center of attention a
while, the focus then shifts onto the other characters and their roles
in the story.
Once that happens, the movie takes an obvious and
significant hit and slows down a bit because of it. There were quite a
few "nothing" scenes during this time and I know that some of it could
have been greatly reduced in size. Stretching out thin material is one
of my pet peeves and it can hurt any movie that it occurs in. In Snow
White and The Huntsman, this practice made things truly boring at this
point in the film.
In between these stages of boredom, they did
manage to continue the story as the are almost fully focusing on the
journey of the characters Snow White and the huntsman, but they also put
in some quality action. The fights/battles that are taking place make
the movie at least somewhat tolerable when nothing else is happening.
That's important for me, because everything around the action is so
drawn out and tedious. I never actually make an early exit, but some
movies make you think about it and this is one of them. I thought about
it on at least a couple of occasions during this movie.
One of the
primary reasons for the failures that existed here, is because Snow
White as a character is so bland and rarely brings anything to the
screen that's worth caring about. Stewart has no charisma and really not
much personality to speak of either. Creating these scenes around her
wasn't the greatest of ideas and that becomes easier to see when you
look at the fact that there's nothing going on outside of the action.
Another
problem that I had with Kristen Stewart was the fact that she was given
the role in the first place. Snow White is supposed to be extremely
beautiful and that can't be said about her at all. I'm betting that you
can walk down the street and find a plethora of women more attractive
than she is. She's not ugly, but the fairest of them all? Seriously? If
this version of Snow White was the most attractive woman in the land,
then I feel sorry for the men who had to live there. The rest of women
couldn't be anywhere near close to hot. Charlize Theron has her beat by
miles in the looks department and this doesn't allow this aspect of the
movie to come off plausible or genuine in the least.
Now that I've
spoken about some of what I don't like, I'll look at what I did like.
Throughout Snow White and The Huntsman, the best scenes are easily the
action sequences. Just about all of them are good, but the last one is
unquestionably the best of the bunch. As I said earlier, I wanted to
leave a couple of times, but these are some of the reasons to stay.
That's especially true for the finale. Without the action, I shutter to
think how bad this movie could have gotten if they would have replaced
any of it with more empty scenes that include an uncharismatic and dry
lead actress.
To summarize things, I'll say that there's no way in
the world that this movie should have been anywhere near two hours
long. Outside of the early parts led by Theron and the action, there's
not enough material to make the epic that they dreamed of creating. Snow
White and The Huntsman could have been better if director Rupert
Sanders would have shortened some of the scenes, given Theron more to do
after a stellar start and put a little more action and adventure into
this action/adventure. It would have also helped matters if they chose a
lead actress who had the ability to give life to a lifeless version of
Snow White.
Score: 2/5
Rating: PG-13
Director: Rupert Sanders
Cast:
Kristen Stewart
Chris Hemsworth
Charlize Theron
Sam Claflin
Ray Winstone
Bob Hoskins
Nick Frost
Toby Jones
Ian McShane
Kristen Stewart
Chris Hemsworth
Charlize Theron
Sam Claflin
Ray Winstone
Bob Hoskins
Nick Frost
Toby Jones
Ian McShane
Film Length: 127 minutes
Release Date: June 1, 2012
Distributor: Universal Pictures
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