Review of Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) by Clarisesamuels — 17 Sep 2012

This is the third Snow of the year, if you count the television series, Once Upon a Time. In the TV series, we have Lana Parrilla as the evil Queen with magical powers, who starts out as a normal teenager, but because of life events becomes a complex psychological character, driven by grief and despair into the shadows of the dark powers.

Julia Roberts takes up the evil Queen in Mirror, Mirror, which follows the traditional fairy tale with a lot of spoofing and exaggeration that cannot be taken very seriously. Now we have Charlize Theron as the evil Queen, and as far as evil queens go, she is truly over the top.

She might have been normal as a small child, but was endowed by her mother with magical powers at a young age under vaguely stressful circumstances that are never properly explained. After her conversion, there is no turning back.

She is the archetypical Evil One, whose sole objective is to "give this world the Queen it deserves." Like the villain in most cartoons, she just wants to take over the whole world because she is infested with evil, and evil must prevail, no matter what.

A good part of this movie is a classical "chase movie" like Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. Snow White is imprisoned, she escapes, and she is chased by the Queen's army and then specifically by the Huntsman, who falls in love with her.

But she is also protected by her childhood love, William, the duke's son, who gave her up for dead, and then comes to her rescue when he realizes she is alive and being hunted. The rivalry between these two swains is never mentioned; Snow White never expresses any preference for either and there are no love scenes.

Who will win her hand after Good conquers Evil is a loose end that never gets tied up. The chase takes us into the Dark Forest, with dead birds, snakes, dead trees, and a troll. Then we meet the eight dwarves, soon to be seven, and yes, they should have hired the real thing instead of using camera tricks, because how else are these petite actors going to find employment? The dwarves take Snow White and the huntsman into Fairyland--this is the land of Nature and Good Spirits.

The fairies are tiny creatures that ride turtles and hide under bird wings. Then the Great Spirit appears in the form of a white stag. He blesses Snow White for being the purest spirit of them all, but never speaks, unlike Aslan in Narnia.

When the chase is finally over, unlike other chase movies, this movie continues. Snow White is welcomed at the castle of the good Duke, whose son has helped to rescue her. She was told she must inspire others.

Thus, she becomes a Jeanne d'Arc who rallies the troops and leads them into battle, even though she has said earlier in the film she could never even wield a knife. Kristen Stewart is an unconventional Snow White--her hair is not as black as ebony, her skin is not as white as snow, and her lips are not as red as blood; nevertheless, she is still an effective Snow White, but with missed opportunities for confusion about romance, true anger about her father's death, and true heroism in battle.

Theron also is denied the complexity of having feelings for anyone but her brother, and it's not clear she likes him either. The Huntsman is a very good-looking Australian with eyes that are blue enough to qualify him to replace Mel Gibson as the national export.

In spite of the flaws, the film is visually enticing as it takes the viewer deeper and deeper into the forest, leading us onward with tension and suspense, but ultimately letting us down. Snow White is finally Queen, but again, an opportunity for complicated and nuanced emotions is missed.