Snow White and The Huntsman

[baumer]

RB02, you make some good points and I have no criticism towards you for liking it. Some movies click with some and not with others. I understand where you are coming from. I guess I just didn't not connect with this film on a whole.

[rockNrollaDIM]

Did anyone else LOL when it cuts to the Queen near the end and she's surrounded by like 100 dead girls?

YES. I loved that. She was hungry

[baumer]

Maybe I should see this again now that it has been explained to me properly.

[rb02]

RB02, you make some good points and I have no criticism towards you for liking it. Some movies click with some and not with others. I understand where you are coming from. I guess I just didn't not connect with this film on a whole.

Fair enough. Everyone has different tastes so it's all good.

[75Live]

I saw this opening day and while it was entertaining enough to watch, it was kind of bland and just there. I liked it enough and may even see it again, but it was too long and really anti-climatic.

No one was great in their roles, but they weren't terrible either. That is basically the whole movie to me, just nothing memorable.

I would give it a B/B- just for the visuals.

[fishstick]

I enjoyed this a lot and it could have been incredible in the hands of a director who is a good story-teller. As it is, Sanders isn`t the one although the movie works despite its many flaws. He`s a typical commercial/music video type, all cool visuals that serve zero purpose except that they are cool. I can imagine that his first thoughts when filming this were "what scenes can make a mind blowing trailer?" The movie has absolutely no rules of magic that is used so random and unexplicable it undermines characters who wield it. Case in point is EQ whose mother gave her a power of preserving youth and beauty but where the fuck shapeshifting into Claflin (aka Clafting) and crows and commanding those glass soldiers come from? No clue cause nobody bothers to explain. It looks cool why the fuck are you asking questions? What more do you want? it looks cool, OK? Explained enough.OK, so EQ is so omni-fuckin-powerful she, for unknown reason, relies mostly on ineffective henchmen. There`s nothing worse than a villain who repeatedly hires stupid people. I mean, what`s the point? We are supposed to fear and secretly admire evildoer`s success which is hard when goons fail even at the simplest tasks. The movie works the best when it sticks to tone of its own, which are mainly EQ scenes from the beginning of the movie. Later, as the focus shifts to SWATH, she`s reduced to bitching about old age and is much less effective as an old hysterical crone than as an icey beautiful Queen.This is where scenes start looking like other movies - Arwen and The Nine chase from FOTR, Atreju and Artax from Neverending Story, Dementors from PoA, etc.As for SW, I really dig the character who retained feminity and compassion throughout the movie. Too bad they didn`t let her smile more often as she was absolutely adorable when she was dancing with Gus, trully full of life like the Princess of Life should be. Also, the warrior princess part was done right. They didn`t make her a super warrior, she didn`t have any fight coreography but mainly rode a horse, ducked s lot, and took the beating from the EQ until she had no choice but not to hesitate as Huntsman told her. I thought it was a great touch that she felt sorry for EQ who was such a loony freakin woman. Instead of having her strike a hero pose and spout a quirky line, she showed her sympathy which must be the worst that could happen to EQ from EQ`s POV. Not only defeated by SW but also SW rising above hate and revenge to shed tears over her lunacy. Well done. No "I am no man, SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEK" garbage.OK, so ddddeeee scared me that Chris was bad but he totally wasn`t, WTF ddddeeee? His charisma was intact and it`s script that fails him because it`s too busy taking him from point A to point B,etc that he doesn`t have time to show us more about himself that isn`t badassery and heavy drinking. Until the kiss twist that melted all hearts. :wub: :wub:So the romance or lack thereof. All feminists and quasi-ones should welcome this movie where out feisty heroine doesn`t put a choice between 2 guys or nabbing a guy on top of her to-do lists. The biggest and boldest thing that SWATH did was undoubtly have SW coronated as a single Queen. There`s no love triangle yawnathon here and things are kept so chaste that it`s a real surpise they portrayed sibs EQ and Finn as PG-13 Lanister twins.OK, now the part that you`ve all been waiting for, the actor so talented, he was honored to play not one but two roles in this movie. The one and only Claf!!! from channeling Legolas to channeling ROTS Anakin to impersonating Charlize, this heir apparent to Borelando-dom cannot be stopped. The Legolas thing was ridiculous. They gave him super-speed arrow shooting as if he`s an Elf. Another one of many so-what-it-looks-cool-STFU`s I talked about in the first paragraph. The character was completely unnecessary because everything he said or did is what Huntsman said or did. So redundant. Moreover, I don`t know where all concern about SW comes from since child William came off as a dick, when he bit the apple and tossed it. And SW said they fought all the time so it doesn`t look like they had the best of friendships let alone a foundation for romance. Which makes the Huntsman kiss twist such a relief. And the Claf was barely distinguishable from trees so I recon Ravenna would have done a better job shifting into an apple tree than Clafting into a balsawood.Am I the only one who thought it was a missed opportunity to have DF troll come to the rescue Hulk style and smash EQ`s castle? It was a nice touch that birds helped SW because she cared for injured one when she was child so I`m flabbergasted that they didn`t bring the troll when it really mattered. he could have smashed through the gates instead of having dwarves open it in a slapstic manner.

Edited June 3, 2012 by fishnets

[ddddeeee]

I thought Christ was good during the kiss scene but otherwise I don't think he wanted to be there. His accent was shocking.

[lilmac]

Meh. *shrug*It didnt blow me away but it was better than the RT score. I liked it but prob wont return for a repeat viewing or Blu-Ray.

[lilmac]

Sorry. Forgot to give a score. B-

[rb02]

Thinking about it some more, there were a couple of other bonehead moves by the evil brother:

1. When he is visiting the captive Snow White, it appears that she doesn't totally loathe or distrust him, so he could have easily come up with a good cover story to deliver her to the Queen, voluntarily. Instead, the moron tells her she wants "your beating heart" and sports a big evil grin while doing so.

2. When about to defeat the Huntsman, he starts gloating and tells the Huntsman that he, in fact, killed the Huntsman's wife, which enrages the Huntsman, gives him a second wind, and leads to his own defeat.

So maybe these aren't plotholes; this guy maybe is supposed to be a moron. Thinking of that way actually means his behavior makes sense, in context. And that makes me feel less sorry for him when he gets chewed out and slapped by the evil queen.

[rb02]

I thought Christ was good during the kiss scene but otherwise I don't think he wanted to be there. His accent was shocking.

His character didn't want to be there, at least for a large part, and that's why he came across that way at first. Overall, I thought he was great, unless he was also the narrator at the beginning. If so, he didn't exactly shine in that role. Just not the right voice for it.

[fishstick]

Thinking about it some more, there were a couple of other bonehead moves by the evil brother:

1. When he is visiting the captive Snow White, it appears that she doesn't totally loathe or distrust him, so he could have easily come up with a good cover story to deliver her to the Queen, voluntarily. Instead, the moron tells her she wants "your beating heart" and sports a big evil grin while doing so.

2. When about to defeat the Huntsman, he starts gloating and tells the Huntsman that he, in fact, killed the Huntsman's wife, which enrages the Huntsman, gives him a second wind, and leads to his own defeat.

So maybe these aren't plotholes; this guy maybe is supposed to be a moron. Thinking of that way actually means his behavior makes sense, in context. And that makes me feel less sorry for him when he gets chewed out and slapped by the evil queen.

I see where you are going and it would be interesting psychologically if he wasn`t a moron but consciously sabotaged his sister`s plans because, lets face it, he`s her little bitch and cannot possibly be all that happy in that role unless their obviously incestous relationship is total S/M. But the way the character is written and acted as a moustanche twirling creep, he comes off as a moronic villain who spills the secrets of his own destruction. Revealing to Huntsman that EQ can`t bring back the dead (duh!) before Huntsman handed over SW was just a stupid plot device to have Huntsman side with SW. Revealing that he killed Mrs Huntsman was even more stupid one to make a sure-fire kill more personal. As if we already didn`t want him dead for being such a shit character.

[Captain Craig]

Grade: B-

I'll do my positives first

[*]Thought the acting by most was very well done. The principals at least in Charlize Theron, Chris Hemmsworth, Bob Hoskins and Ian McShane in particular.

[*]The cinematography was well done

[*]I had no issue with the CGI used, it felt nearly all real with exception to the fairies I guess. The mirror entity was cool I thought. Could've used more of him/her

[*]Liked how the movie did't just flip a switch and have SW as some hardened warrior. She was really just a figure head riding into battle. No "Whedon-izing" of her for the sake of things.

The negatives

[*]Why would the queen keep SW locked in the tower? Her brother tells us "another kingdom falls to you" meaning this isn't her first venture at this. Keeping a blood heir alive is just dumb.

[*]The queen drains maidens of their youth. Why would she not have drained SW some time ago? Again, killing her. Nothing in the film gives a plausible reason for why she would keep her alive. She's obviously draining maidens, her brother brought Greta to her afterall for just such a thing.

[*]SW should've escaped as a 10yr old child. This would've allowed for her to gain allies and get to know the kingdoms inhabitants. Even if her nobility was kept hush hush, the time of the reveal would've gave her instant allies. Afterall in the fairy tale she is living among the dwarves, not trapped in a tower.

[*]Having to gain the trust of the dwarves and others of the land only prolonged the 2nd act. I checked my watch twice during the middle of the film. It drug out long, necessarily I get but only cause the set up was flawed from the 1st act.

[*]Kristen Stewart was horridly miscast. That emotional chart of her is funny cause it's so spot on correct. She looked her best when she was "asleep from the enchanted apple".

Overall I think the film is worth seeing. I saw some really horrid write ups that I think were a bit overly slanted in the negative. There are so many more worse films out there or will be.

[Water Bottle]

B-

It's good, but barely.

The bad things:

1) Kristen Stewart. She wasn't terrible, but I couldn't ever get a good read from her. Which takes me to point two:

2) Who the hell is Snow White? I understand she's pure, she's life itself, all that bullshit said about her. I wanted to KNOW her. The movie didn't properly make her a character. This was both due to Kristen Stewart's performance but also the script. The script kept telling us about her character rather than you know...actually making one. This meant that when the movie ended and she was crowned queen, it didn't have the impact it was supposed to have. I didn't leave the theater excited and my heart pumping. I was more like "Eh, she can't be any worse than the Evil Queen." For the record, the Evil Queen wasn't developed much as a character other than she's evil and obsessed with beauty/youth but I still wanted her defeated so not that major of a problem.

3) Worst inspirational speech before a battle ever. This was only minimal on Kristen Stewart since I don't think even Meryl Streep and other actresses of that caliber could have made it work. It felt more like she was trying to get people to grudgingly follow her and not die to make her queen. That speech was just terrible.

4) The movie didn't properly develop the relationship between the Huntsman and Snow White. Considering that's what the movie's title is about, this is a big problem. It should have taken less time with the Prince Charming character and the Queen scenes and more time showing us the Huntsman and Snow get closer. The movie tried for a Han Solo-Leia kind of relationship but failed because it didn't take the time to actually make it work.

5) What were the rules of magic? Why didn't the Evil Queen's magic work in the Dark Forest? Why show us why she has her youth spell but not her other magic spells? The movie didn't properly develop it's world.

In essence, the problem with the movie was it just had stuff happened without any rules and without bothering to make us care. On the other hand, the cool stuff that happened was pretty cool and Chris Hemsworth was entertaining as he tried to mimic Harrison Ford. It was entertaining enough, although it dragged in some places-places where the movie could have better developed it's characters, world, and relationships. I enjoyed this movie despite it's flaws but I felt that if it had a better script and a different lead, this could have been a much better movie.

[FTF]

I saw this movie a few days ago and have spent the whole weekend trying to find a doctor or device with the capabilities of that in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so I can erase this horrible, horrible movie from my memory. Never before have I been so deceived and tricked by a trailer...I felt dirty and violated when the movie was over and went straight home and took a shower while curled up and crying. The Charlize Theron in this movie was awful, and not the same great actor I just saw in Prometheus. The movie felt like it was 4 hours long and was tortuous...the script must be only like 25 pages cause it felt like there was hardly any dialogue. Outside of some nice looking visuals (the troll and fairy forest for example) there was nothing good about this movie. My friends and I almost walked out but I don't like doing that as I want to fairly judge something as a whole. Anyway, it's just a terrible movie.D/D- (it avoids being an F as the visuals and production value were good)

Edited June 11, 2012 by FTF

[cookie]

Is Theron as hammy as the trailers and clips make her seem?

[rockNrollaDIM]

Is Theron as hammy as the trailers and clips make her seem?

Hammier

[cookie]

Hammier

So she finds a way stretch her jaw even wider? Edited June 11, 2012 by C00k13

[Rudolf]

Just another unecessary SnowWhite story. It is practically the same story as Mirror Mirror, but with another touch. The CGI does nothing for the plot. Acting and dialogues are very weak. What a waste of money.

[rockNrollaDIM]

So she finds a way stretch her jaw even wider?

What do you think?