Almost Fairest of Them All

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

I was anticipating very little from Snow White and the Huntsman.  Its marketing campaign didn't exactly win me over.  The trailers gave the impression that this film was to be a darker retelling of the classic fairy tale.  The only version of Snow White that will forever be locked away in everyone's memory is the timeless Disney animated feature.  Now I'm not saying that Mr. Disney's version is entirely, if at all accurate to the story conjured up by the Brothers Grimm.  However, was it really necessary for Hollywood to revisit and revamp what we knew and so dearly loved?  And we already had one Snow White adaption earlier in the year with Mirror Mirror.  That was strike one.  At least a big name director attached to direct the picture right?  Nope; strike two.  Rupert Sanders, a no name, rookie director was at the helm.  Universal Pictures was taking a big risk entrusting an estimated 170 million dollar budget for a big summer blockbuster to a guy with no previous films under his belt.  With two strikes there was still a slim chance the film could win me over.  Who did Universal and Sanders cast as their leading lady, the fairest of them all?  Kristen Stewart; strike three!  Snow White and the Huntsman was not going to make it on my list of must see films of 2012.  It did however make it on to the Oscar's list of 2012 earning nominations for Best Costume Design and Visual Effects.  Alas, I am a slave to the Academy Awards as I do try to see as many contenders as possible.  Well, my assumptions were wrong and I was pleasantly surprised.

To join Stewart as Snow White was Thor's Chris Hemsworth as the other lead character in the title.  Charlize Theron was to dawn the task of taking on the role of the evil queen and step mother Ravenna who has many special powers.  Her main power is having the ability to suck the youth and beauty from any girl she has in her icy clutches.  Snow White grows more beautiful by the day despite being locked away in a tower since childhood.  It is then revealed one day to Ravenna by her magic mirror (Christopher Obi) that she is longer the fairest in the land.  She demands that her step daughter be brought forth so her youthful looks can be inhaled.  Fortunately Snow White escapes her imprisonment and makes her way into the Dark Forest.  The queen dispatches a huntsman from the town to track her down.  While trying to stay alive the pair crosses paths with nine dwarves who look to be cousins of Gimli from The Lord of the Rings.  Everyone bands together and journeys across the land to bring back an army in hopes of ending Ravenna's reign of terror.

Despite my skepticism over Sanders, this guy actually has an excellent cinematic eye for what a fairy tale should look like.  The photography and the set design are fantastic.  The landscape of which the film is set against is beautiful and fits the story quite well.  I think that's due in part to Peter Jackson and his raising of the bar for the fantasy film genre.  The film's opening shot is of a courtyard blanketed in pure white snow with leafless trees lining a path for Snow White's mother, Queen Eleanor (Liberty Ross.)  She pricks her finger on a rose and drops of blood fall to the ground blemishing the naturally flawless snow.  What a good initial shot to entice the audience.  The color palettes are ever changing as Snow White and the Huntsman move further and further away from Ravenna's dark, grim, barren castle and kingdom into areas of blossoming flowers and hillsides covered in greenery.  It's a classic yet still effective representation of good and evil.  Three time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood's costumes looked good but not great.  Everything that Theron wore looked exquisite and was quite befitting to her character.   No one else’s costumes really stood out to me though.  I've seen better from Atwood.  I would’ve nominated the production design and photography ahead of the costumes. 

In regards to the visual effects of the film I believe they do deserve to be nominated.  All the creatures looked convincing enough to the fantastical world they resided in.  Also the way the mirror comes alive and actually assumes a form was certainly a different take on the character opposed to just a talking face behind some glass.   Lastly I liked how Ravenna’s dark army were made of shards of glass and how they shattered when one was vanquished.  Sanders had some unique ideas bringing something new to the table that I hadn't seen before and could not be brought to the screen without the use but not abuse of CGI. 

The only film I thought Ms. Stewart earned her paycheck in was Panic Room.  The experiences of having worked alongside director David Fincher and actress Jodie Foster apparently had done nothing to further her acting technique.  And those Twilight films...don't even get me started.  I will say this though about her in the role as Snow White, she's at least tolerable.  Although Snow White is the main character of the film she doesn't actually have much dialogue.  It's more about the presence her character has in the scene and how she affects other characters, creatures, and environments.  Hemsworth is fine as the rough and tough Huntsman.  He has a better shot at furthering his career as an action star than Sam Worthington does.  Theron proves she is certainly worthy of portraying the evil queen.  She was a much more convincing villain in this film than what I saw from her in Prometheus.  Theron plays Ravenna so devilishly because she's written so strongly.  I wanted a few more scenes with her but sadly she's mostly confined to the castle.  And as a nice treat, it came as a surprise to me to see that Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Eddie Marsan, Nick Frost, and Bob Hoskins were cast as some of the dwarves.

Despite all the praise I give to the aesthetics of Snow White and the Huntsman, its screenplay remains clichéd and the characters are fairly one dimension (except for Ravenna.)  In the end I left satisfied that this was a good but by no means great summer blockbuster.  It feels restricted from becoming something truly unique and original because of its source material, after all Snow White is still a just fairy tale.  Sanders’s decisions as a director certainly elevate the picture to being a top notch fantasy film but nothing more than that.  I was impressed but not blown away.  As I mentioned before, Stewart is at least bearable in the leading role although she has a long way to go if she wants to consider herself an actress.  It all depends on how much time and effort the director is willing to spend working on her performance.  Snow White and the Huntsman suffers from typical flaws of being a summer blockbuster by giving us an apple that is somewhat sour but not poisonous.