Snow White and the Huntsman

Lips red as blood, hair dark as night...and you know the rest. And yes this is not the first film based on the classic "Snow White" fairy tale to come to the silver screen in the last year (the last three months to be more precise). However, it was very obvious from the first trailer that the makers behind "Snow White and the Huntsman" did not want this movie to be the traditional, happy fairytale. In fact, one of the taglines for the film states, "This is no fairytale." With a really evil queen, scary monsters, and some epic looking battle scenes filling up the trailers, I had high hopes for this new "Snow White" epic...HAD being the key word here.

It's obvious from the very beginning that Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) is bad to the bone. First off, she has been sucking the life out of women for years to preserve her youth and magical powers. Second, after killing her newly wed husband, who happens to be the King, she imprisons her step daughter Snow White (Kristen Stewart) in the dungeon for fifteen years. At the end of this long period of time, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White's beauty is capable of ending the magical powers of the Queen and that if she consumes Snow White's heart, she will live forever with unlimited power. So naturally, she tries to have her killed. But this Snow White won't go down without a fight, and that fight leads her right into the Dark Forest. 

Enter the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), whom the Queen employs to track down and bring Snow White back. But of course if that happened there would not be that much axe swinging action. Yes, the Huntsman is persuaded onto the side of Snow White and together they start a plan that will dethrone the Evil Queen forever...and yes there may be dwarfs involved. 

So does "Snow White and the Huntsman" live up to it's promise to be a darker, more intense fairy tale? Absolutely. Everything about the film feels as if the Grimm brothers themselves made the movie. It's violent, eerie, and has some pretty freaky monsters in the dark forest. The Queen is the main reason that this movie sells its promise. Theron is fantastic at being bad and most of the time I was more interested in what was happening with her than what was happening with Snow White. 

The film also delivers plenty of action. Chris Hemsworth brings his rage over from his other role (Thor from "The Avengers") to end the life of many a henchmen by his axe and dagger. Some cool CGI effects add to it, along with some incredible make-up work used to make the Queen look younger/older.  All of this contributes to a refreshingly dark atmosphere that we don't usually see in fairy tales. 

And yet a key ingredient is missing. An ingredient that, whether you want it to be a traditional fairy tale or not, should always be in a Snow White film...romance. Where is the romance? I'll tell you where, not in this movie! I try to stay away from spoilers in my reviews but I can't help it this time...so if you don't want to be spoiled, skip to the next paragraph. (SPOILER ALERT) Sure this movie has all the classic elements of a Snow White story, such as her eating a poisoned apple and her needing "true love's kiss" to wake her up. And she does get the kiss (I won't say who) but guess what? The two NEVER fall in love. In fact, the film never makes mention of their feelings for each other for the rest of the movie, not even in the very end. For this reason, the true magic was ruined for me. 

I applaud "Snow White and the Huntsman" for truly living up to their intentions. They have created a dark, action packed tale that will likely impress many moviegoers. But unfortunately, they have tried so hard to make this movie not like a fairy tale that they have failed to include one of the greatest assets to ANY film...love. The movie is void of all compassion, romance, and love, and because of this, the film as a whole is about as magical as the crow on the Evil Queen's chair. I give it two stars out of four.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" has a running time of 127 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and brief sensuality.