Review of Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) by Judgeholden — 09 Jun 2012

Great gothic scenes in the mysterious, dark forest mix up with some dull moments in a cartoonish, Narnia-style Sanctuary and literally epitomize the movie's positive and negative aspects. A great idea of bringing to the cinema an adult representation of the classic fairy tale is marred by indecisions about whether this film should appeal more to the adults or to the younger audience.

It has some very good elements, above all a stunning Charlize Theron as bad queen Ravenna, some music and atmospheric special effects (the forest, the mirror). At the same time, the acting of other characters (except for the dwarves) is unconvincing, marred by the same undecision, while many scenes are literally copied from other movies: the final charge on the beach (Ridley Scott's Robin Hood), the Sanctuary (Narnia), gothic villages (Solomon Kane), the representation of the dwarves (Lord of the Rings) or even the troll (Pan's Labyrinth).

Finally, the plot lacks some deeper insights, offering only some generic explanation of the motivations of the protagonists (why is the huntsman drinking so much? why is Snow White not surprised at all by the charm she has suffered? why everyone wants to go to a war after her speech, if no one wanted to do that for the past 20 years? why is Ravenna's motivation to kill and destroy so badly explained and neglected?), as well as mixing very nice action scenes with lengthy, dull and unconvincing moments that force you to put matches into your eyes to keep them open.

.