Snow White and the Huntsman

This version of Snow White follows on the heels of the comedic but slight version starring Julia Roberts earlier this spring. In this version, the storyline follows a little bit more of the original source story and remains a dark fairy tale, but doesn't quite live up to its premise.

Kristen Stewart plays Snow White, whose father remarries when he is enchanted, magically or otherwise, by the beautiful Ravenna (Charlize Theron). Ravenna kills him and takes over the kingdom, and banishes Snow White to a dungeon where she is kept for a decade. Meanwhile, Ravenna continues to kill virgins to suck their souls and eats the hearts of birds, both to keep herself forever youthful. She is abetted by her brother Finn (Sam Spruell) who is more a minion than a beloved sibling. She is also advised by her magical mirror that when Snow White comes of age, she will be more beautiful than Ravenna, which convinces Ravenna that now is the time to take Snow White's heart to keep her eternally young. Thus when Snow White escapes her prison, Ravenna sends the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) after her.

He follows her into what is know as the Dark Forest, but Snow White's goodness protects her from the insiduous magic there.  Later, she and the Huntsman are befriended by some dwarf miners (there are eight of them), and she is able to draw out a magical elk in the fairy's forest, something that has not happened before. It is Snow White's goodness which is strong enough to defeat the queen. Snow White rallies her father's old friend the duke, who is the father of her childhood friend William, to support her cause.

Although I appreciated that this story went back to some darker aspects of fairy tales, it still had the requisite movie stuff that bogged it down for me a bit. Charlize Theron overacts too much which I guess the movie or director wanted her too. Nothing about her was subtle. Show White's  "goodness" seemed to be all that she was worth, even if she did have her battle royale with Ravenna at the end, which to me was unconvincing because Stewart looks hardly strong enough to support the armor she wears, much less battle it out mano a mano.  Plus she is a physically awkward performer. Logically there should have been no reason for Ravenna to have kept Snow White alive all those years, other than to allow the story to have Snow White become the hero at the end.  The film also throws in a love triangle times two: the Hunstman vs William for Snow White's love, and the Huntsman's memory of his dead wife vs Snow White for his heart. There is little doubt where these manufactured romances are going to end up but these relationships and story aspects are shallowly realized.

I liked the dwarves, played by Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones and two actors I didn't know, Brian Gleeson (actor Brendan's son) and Johnny Harris (and one dies, leaving the requisite seven). Each had some physical or personality trait to tell them apart and I wished there were more of them than of the queen's ranting and raving. As in the other Snow White movie, the dwarves had more personality than many of the other characters, and they could have a movie on their own to flesh out their backstories.

Although the film tries to offer some feminist views--Ravenna is angry that men have defiled women throughout history and Snow White takes up a sword a la Joan of Arc--the characterization gets lost in the movie as it just plays up the tropes of evil witch and pure heroine without stirring our emotions for any kind of real story.