Movies in Review: "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Given the heavy promotion of this film, expectations were definitely high upon release date. I know I was really looking forward to this Snow White installment, especially after Mirror Mirror became a major disappointment. SWATH had blockbuster type marketing, an intriguing trailer, along with some of the best theatrical posters I have seen in a while. So now the question is did it live up to all the hype...

It lived up to some of it, unfortunately not enough to satisfy my tastes. The movie started out ok as we get introduced to the story. It really picks up once Charlize Theron's character came in to play. Theron was remarkable as Ravenna. She was beautiful, strong, and powerful, all the qualities this character needed. Besides Theron, I also thought the film was visually entertaining, especially Theron's costumes. My favorite scene was the one in the enchanted forest...absolutely beautiful. I love Chris Hemsworth, but his opening scene was a bit rocky for me. He did not nail his first scene, he seemed to just stumble through it...literally. No worries though, he did get better.

I was hoping that I was going to be able to give Kristen Stewart props for her role in this film, but unfortunately she was nothing exceptional. She spoke very little at the start of the film and most of her acting was caught in her expressions, which wasn't bad. However as the film went along she seemed to get stiff and did nothing to capture my attention as the lead in this film. Quite honestly I wanted to see more of Charlize Theron's character. I felt a few scenes could have been cut short by 15-20min. this movie was too long for its own good. The 7 dwarfs in this version weren't as entertaining as the dwarfs in Mirror Mirror. And their accents were so thick it made them hard to understand...smh.

All in all the movie was still ok thanks to great visuals and Charlize Theron, but it fell off at the end. They had Stewart dressed as Zena the Warrior Princess...horrible. Nothing was explained why one kiss worked to wake Snow White as opposed to the other. And the last scene with Ravenna and Snow White was weak. There is no reason they couldn't have made that scene stronger. I know I'm not the only one who was expecting more.

In my opinion this movie started better than it ended. There are some entertaining elements, but the running time is too long, and the story is a little warped. It's not all it's cracked up to be...C+