Rebooting fairy tales is all the rage these days. Currently on TV is the series Grimm (which I haven't seen) and Once Upon a Time of which I am quite fond. The show is a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale complete with dwarves, evil queen, prince Charmings and with nods to other stories such as Red Riding Hood.
Earlier this year we had Mirror Mirror a live action movie that also tackles the Snow White myth. I have not seen this movie, by all accounts it's a "family friendly" retelling starring a prostitute .. I mean, Julia Roberts
All of which brings us to Snow White and the Huntsman, the reboot of the fairy tale that we recently saw. This ain't no Disney story one could say. Yes, there is an evil queen (Charlize Theron) there is an innocent princess (Kristen Stewart) there is an apple and there are dwarves; there is even a scene where Snow White walks through a forest and much like the Disney cartoon birds sing, flowers bloom ... But there is also a scene where she walks through another forest full of dead birds, slime that eats horses and blackened trees that expel noxious gas
Let's start with the story: SPOILER ALERT YADDA YAADA: Snow White is the daughter of a beloved widowed king who is beguiled by a young woman; Ravena (Theron) turns out to be far from your average damsel in distress. She is, in fact, the Evil Queen and along with her brother (a relationship creepier than most of the dark magic in the movie) she kills the King and sets about killing the kingdom. She endugeons Snow, needing the girl's beauty to keep herself beautiful, not to mention immortal
There is of course a mirror that the Queen consults and from which she gets advise, very much like in the TV series Once Upon A Time. This mirror starts out as a large bronze disc then morphs into a kind of liquid metal human figure, like a medeval T2. Morhping, or more accurately, shape changing is a common theme in the movie, as it is in many mythologies. Ravena can morph into a murder of crows and with the help of enough virgin girls, much in the way of Elizabeth Bathory, morphs from old hag to .. well .. Charlize Theron
Needless to say Snow eventually escapes from Ravena and goes in search of the one Duke who fights the Queen and her childhood friend William. Right, here comes the Huntsman, a drunk emotionally crippled by the death of his wife, hired by Ravena to enter the Dark Forest and retrieve the escaped princess
The dwarves are stumbled upon and they are not the Dopey, Sneezy etc we've come to know. But they are indeed miners, or once were and it is through them that we realize Snow's true purpose and power and the little fellas, along with the hunky Huntsman, devote themselves to helping Snow regain the kingdom
Mostly the story is as simple as all that sounds but Ravena is given a backstory that provides her character with some empathy; I would have liked to learned more about her past but really, this movie is about the visuals and they are spectacular and they do help to tell the story. Some of the visuals remind me of director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) while at other times, with the dwarves and the Huntsman and William and Snow trudging across mountains, it harkens to the Lord of the Rings.
For the most part the cast works well. Charlize Theron absolutely tears up the scenery as Ravena but she is the most watchable thing in the movie; this is Oscar calibre hambone and it's incredibly entertaining to watch.
Chris Hemsworth is a viable Huntsman, he has none of the hautiness of his previous work as Thor, he conveys a human side, but like his superhero outings displays an impressive physical capability, even when it's fighting drunk. Drunken fighting can be an art form, ask Jackie Chan. As William, Sam Clafin does an awful lot with very little. His character as an adult does not have a ton of screen time but he invests in the role and looks handy with his bow
Kristen Stewart as Snow White is another matter. She physically suits the part perfectly. But she's given a lot of scenes where her character is required to show emotion without dialogue and Ms Stewart often fails in that regard. What should be pain or regret often comes across as "Should I order the extra foam on my latte" Whereas Theron dives into her character with both feet, a pair of Goth waterwings and a rose in her teeth, Stewart just drags her toes through the water
The other problem I had with the movie were the dwarves. Overall, the acting was very good and, like Sam Clafin, the actors did a lot with very little. But these are some very good actors including Bob Hoskins and Ian McShane. And therein lies the problem. All of the dwarves are portrayed by full sized actors. For one, I find this a bit disapointing, anyone who has seen Game of Thrones realizes that there are gifted little people actors out there. Secondly, the visuals to make these tall actors look little just doesn't quite work. When contrasted against "unaffected" actors the dwarves just don't seem quite right. And although they are sometimes given gravitas, they are often the main source of giggles in the movie
These concerns aside, Snow White and the Huntsman worked for me. I expected it to be dark but it was a bit more substantial than I had expected. I don't know if the story and characters will linger with me for long but they were compelling in the moment of watching. The visuals were powerful, the score very effective and Charlize Theron was more than worth the price of admission.
I see this trend of rebooting fairy tales continuing for some time. What will be next. Humpty Dumpty the First Expendable.
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