Snow White and the Huntsman is a long film. It is made even longer by the fact that it is effectively a story about nothing, packed with poor performances, an average score and some truly terrible writing. The film has two saving graces though: a fiery performance by Charlize Theron and some amazing cinematography.
Let's start with the story. An evil, un-named queen (in these types of stories names are unimportant), rises to power by seducing the King (off-screen, of course) and killing him in his bed. Her reasoning for killing the king and seizing power is that men are pigs and can not be trusted with power. She proceeds to throw the King's daughter, Snow White, by throwing her in jail for the rest of her life. But, as soon as she learns that Snow White's heart could bring her eternal youth and beauty, she sends her Brother (who also, does not have a name), to bring Snow White to her for some lunch time heart-harvesting. Naturally, the princess escapes and a long, dull chase into two mystical forests ensue.
Here lies the film's two central problems. For one, if we were to care about the protagonist's fate, she should be a captivating, well-written and acted character, she is none of these things. Instead, she has almost no personality at all. Who is Snow White as a person? According to the story here, she is "life itself", "pure", and completely "good". Okay, but why? Does she do good deeds? What does it mean she is 'pure life? She just is. The writers didn't think it was important to SHOW these things, merely telling us that Snow White is a very good person should suffice. It doesn't. And if the writers assumed it did, they should be ashamed to be calling themselves storytellers.
On the other hand, we have the evil Queen, who wants to stay young forever. But unlike the dull Snow White, she actually acts out her attributes. She kills the King because she believes he merely uses women, but does not respect them. She allows the kingdom to wither, because she believes it doesn't deserve happiness. She is evil, because she believes that people deserve nothing more than evil to come their way. In the end, I agreed. Wiping out these lifeless characters is exactly what they deserve, and then some.
Unfortunately, the film concentrates almost completely on Snow White, played lifelessly and without emotion by Kristen Stewart, who has the incredible ability to find leading roles in big films without evidencing a shred of acting talent. Her co-star, Chris Hemsworth, does not help matters much, as he tries to carve some kind of a performance out of an under-written character, but there is only so much one can do with nothing.
In the end, the film's script is so terrible that some of the film's virtues, such as beautiful cinematography, can not overcome how bad the overall film is. Which is, truly terrible. It manages to be shallow in every conceivable way from shallow characters to a shallow story. The film has no moral to its story, it shows nor teaches us anything. It just goes from one pointless scene to another until credits roll. And by that time, you'll wish Snow White had been hacked to pieces to be never seen again.
Let's start with the story. An evil, un-named queen (in these types of stories names are unimportant), rises to power by seducing the King (off-screen, of course) and killing him in his bed. Her reasoning for killing the king and seizing power is that men are pigs and can not be trusted with power. She proceeds to throw the King's daughter, Snow White, by throwing her in jail for the rest of her life. But, as soon as she learns that Snow White's heart could bring her eternal youth and beauty, she sends her Brother (who also, does not have a name), to bring Snow White to her for some lunch time heart-harvesting. Naturally, the princess escapes and a long, dull chase into two mystical forests ensue.
Here lies the film's two central problems. For one, if we were to care about the protagonist's fate, she should be a captivating, well-written and acted character, she is none of these things. Instead, she has almost no personality at all. Who is Snow White as a person? According to the story here, she is "life itself", "pure", and completely "good". Okay, but why? Does she do good deeds? What does it mean she is 'pure life? She just is. The writers didn't think it was important to SHOW these things, merely telling us that Snow White is a very good person should suffice. It doesn't. And if the writers assumed it did, they should be ashamed to be calling themselves storytellers.
On the other hand, we have the evil Queen, who wants to stay young forever. But unlike the dull Snow White, she actually acts out her attributes. She kills the King because she believes he merely uses women, but does not respect them. She allows the kingdom to wither, because she believes it doesn't deserve happiness. She is evil, because she believes that people deserve nothing more than evil to come their way. In the end, I agreed. Wiping out these lifeless characters is exactly what they deserve, and then some.
Unfortunately, the film concentrates almost completely on Snow White, played lifelessly and without emotion by Kristen Stewart, who has the incredible ability to find leading roles in big films without evidencing a shred of acting talent. Her co-star, Chris Hemsworth, does not help matters much, as he tries to carve some kind of a performance out of an under-written character, but there is only so much one can do with nothing.
In the end, the film's script is so terrible that some of the film's virtues, such as beautiful cinematography, can not overcome how bad the overall film is. Which is, truly terrible. It manages to be shallow in every conceivable way from shallow characters to a shallow story. The film has no moral to its story, it shows nor teaches us anything. It just goes from one pointless scene to another until credits roll. And by that time, you'll wish Snow White had been hacked to pieces to be never seen again.