Review of The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016) by Harry W — 01 May 2016

With the most minimal expectations for The Huntsman: Winter's War, I had to witness it to truly determine if it sunk as low as I expected.

From before the film even begins, everything about The Huntsman: Winter's War screams out that the film will be a failure. The film is a prequel and a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, a film which itself received mixed reviews. Since that film was an attempt to cash in on the trend of live-action Disney reboots turned into stories of battle alongside Malificent (201_) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). I've never bend too fond of all these, but The Huntsman: Winter's War is a particularly ridiculous case. Inspired by the story of Snow White, The Huntsman: Winter's War takes supporting characters from the story while completely neglecting the titular protagonist. Snow White is taken out of her own universe for the sake of a film which is desperate to cash in on the success of Frozen (2013). And on top of that, the titular is a blatantly obvious attempt to capitalize on the hype of Captain America: Civil War (2016), a film set in the Marvel Cinematic universe where the Huntsman himself portrays Thor. Every single idea behind The Huntsman: Winter's War is completely pretentious, even if there is a talented cast lined up. Of course one cannot judge a film completely lest they watch it. In the case of The Huntsman: Winter's War, that is the ultimate mistake.

The narration warns viewers that "There is a story you have not yet seen" as if someone actually believes there is any innovation in the narrative whatsoever. The story in The Huntsman: Winter's War is one which has in fact been seen. By everyone. What can't be foreseen is just how pathetic the narrative logic ends up being so that the film can desperately bring back the audiences that tolerated Snow White and the Huntsman. The ridiculous cop-out method used to bring Ravenna back from the grave is cheaper than a 25c stamp. If antagonist Annie Wilkes from Stephen King's Misery (1987) were alive to see this she would no doubt break the ankles of the writers behind The Huntsman: Winter's War. Anyone who sees this film would agree that she is not out of line to do so,atrial,y because it removes the fear of death from the story. With her ability to protect herself from dying and Sara's death being merely an illusion created by Freya , there is no believing that anyone in the story is capable of dying. Or at least not without being miraculously brought back from the dead. As a result, tension is impossible. It's enough that we know the heroes will survive in the end due to the story's obsession with playing it safe as a fairytale despite pretending it enters darker territory, but since nobody is capable of dying there is no point in anything happening in the story whatsoever. Immortality in a fairy tale is both a cheap ploy to open the story up to an extended universe as well as a reliance on childish storytelling, and it pays no credibility to the strength of any characters.

The script is just awful. Let's start with the narration. Liam Neeson's voice is perfect for the role because he commands it with sophistication and articulation along the line Of Morgan Freeman. Unfortunately, he has to force himself through the most tedious words to get through the film. One of his many lines is "Once upon a time a man and woman fell in love". Of course, that's the story of essentially every movie ever. The generic narration stretches the film's contextualization on for far too long, and the establishment of the tale as a love story proves to foreshadow an entire film obsessed with using the word at every turn. CI'm not a fan of love stories since I find their romanticization to be excessively melodramatic and unrealistic, so logic suggests that a love story in the poor context of a production like The Huntsman: Winter's War would be even worse. Logic is correct, it's a shame nobody used it in this production. Antagonist Freya, the Ice Queen states "In my kingdom there is but one law: Do not love". I don't know how many times the word love is dropped from there because the characters are torn between the ultimate happiness of love and the ultimate pain, but being such an endlessly recycled theme cements the status of audiences into a cold aversion to the word. With its adherence to fairytale cliches, The Huntsman: Winter's War raises the idea of love up to a new standard of overkill, bringing on a new level of misbegotten storytelling.

The entire tale quickly anchors itself down into the deepest conventions of fairytales while also being a pretentious mimicry of the journey chronicled in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003). We watch the characters journey across the land at a slow pace while learning nothing along the way. There is very little action to use those even though the film's title promises a war of some sort, and despite some high definition cinematography which is able to capture some fairly solid choreography over long shots with superior editing to most PG-13 action films of today, there is ultimately so little of it.

Since the focus is mainly on the journey of these characters through the snows and forests, the scale of the story ends up being far too small to ascend to the sweeping scope that the narrative desires. The universe is given an effective design with powerful visual effects and convincing costumes, but we see far too little of it to grasp how wide the story intends to reach. The entire story focuses too much significance on its few characters even though characterization is slim, but even the efforts of a talented cast fail to distract from a film that inexplicably cost $115 million without much of a war to depict.

For Chris Hemsworth, The Huntsman: Winter's War is another film in the long line of abysmal failures he began in 2015 and has continued into 2016. Chris Hemsworth attempting to break down a wall of ice in the film's intro is not so much of an empowerment of Eric's love for Sara, rather a reminder of a Family Guy joke where Ronald Reagan attempts to break down a McDonald's wall while shouting "Reagan Smash!". But I put this blame to the poor direction of Cedric Nicolas-Troyan because as the story moves on Chris Hemsworth manages to pick himself up and let his natural charm take over. Given that the man's finest talents come from his ability to play a larger-than-life action hero, once The Huntsman: Winter's War finishes its poor intro and completely devolves into its shallow spectacle ambitions we get to see Chris Hemsworth flailing his muscles around again as he battles the generic script. His accent is half-assed but his energy is strong, and the determination is enough of a hook to offer some fan appeal.

Jessica Chastain manages to take a stand and transcend so many narrative limitations for The Huntsman: Winter's War, reminding audiences why she is such a respectable actress. Despite the ridiculous narrative content, Jessica Chastain is able to combine both the gentle human nature of Sara with the stance of a real warrior, successfully combining both characteristics without leaning too heavily towards either end of the spectrum. She is comprised of two archetypes combined into a gimmick, yet with her natural charisma she bring the part to life with real feeling. If you can look past the accent and examine the physicality and emotion of the character, you'll find Jessica Chastain is a worthy adversary to the weak script.

Emily Blunt is a fairly solid antagonist. Restraining her emotions into a cold heart of confusion which stretches beyond its hollow potential, Emily Blunt evoke memories to Emilia Clarke's performance as Khaleesi Daenerys Targaryan in Game of Thrones (2011-present). There is such a limit on the extent of characterization the film will deliver to the role, but Emily Blunt takes the minimal range of emotions and gives it the maximum effort which brings an edge to the character that proves sharp yet also slightly gentle as a means of echoing Freya's lost innocence. Emily Blunt lives up to her name and consistently delivers a restrained effort without being empty.

However, fans of Charlize Theron are advised not to watch The Huntsman: Winter's War. By intentionally misrepresenting the active role that Ravenna plays in the story, trailers suggested audiences will witness far more of Charlize Theron than is actually presented in the final film. After her tremendous success as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Charlize Theron is arguably a major hook to bait viewers into mistakingly watching The Huntsman: Winter's War. After her cameo in the prequel section if the story, Charlize Theron fails to return to the screen until beyond three quarters of the way through. There's nothing wrong with her performance, it's just that she's on screen for a matter of minutes before she's off it again and so you have to wonder what the hell the point of it all was. The same can be said about Nick Frost because he is so short on screen time that you'll forget he was ever in the film.

The Huntsman: Winter's War has a talented cast, but its titular promise of war leaves viewers unsatisfied with very little action or Charlize Theron while the script doesn't even pretend its pretentious reliance on fairy tale tropes is of any worth whatsoever.