Review of The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016) by Dory C — 26 May 2016

The Huntsmen: Winter's War.

This is the prequel/sequel to the first movie Snow White and the Huntsmen. It's a story about the ice queen Freya (Emily Blunt), her sister Ravenna (Charlize Theron), Eric the Huntsmen (Chris Hemsworth), and Sara (Jessica Chastain). We are first introduced to the Huntsmen and Ravenna in the first movie, where the Huntsmen and Snow White (Kristen Stewart) team up together to fight and kill Ravenna. You also see a little bit of a love triangle in the first movie between Snow White (Kristen Stewart), the Huntsmen (Chris Hemsworth) and William (Sam Claflin).

What was the purpose of this movie? Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) was already defeated and killed in the first movie. Why bring her back in the last 20 minutes of the movie only to have her killed again? Did they actually succeed in killing her this time, or is there going to be another movie where she comes back and they end up having to kill her for a third time?

Then you have her sister Freya who is almost as evil as Ravenna is. It seems that all queens with magic are going to be evil and want to conquer all the other kingdoms and make everything dark, cold and miserable. Freya set out to kidnap all the children and kill their parents, so that she could build an army of huntsmen. She did this so that she could defeat and take over all the other kingdoms.

In the first movie the Huntsmen talks about his wife, who was killed when they were trying to escape Freya's castle, only to find out in this movie that she never died and has been living with Queen Freya all along. It's kind of sad that the Huntsmen wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Sara. She is actually a better fighter than the Huntsmen. She proves this when she saves his life and then captures him. They should have had her be the main Huntsmen in this story instead of Eric, considering she would be able to survive a lot longer than Eric could.

Comparing the budget $170,000,000 and opening weekend $56,217,700 amount for Snow White and the Huntsmen to the budget $115,000,000 and opening weekend $19,445,035 amount for The Huntsmen: Winter's War, you can see that not only did they not have as big as a budget for this movie but it also didn't even make half as much as the first one did. Was this movie worth the amount of money paid to make it or was it just a waste of money better spent on something else?

The whole point of this movie was to find the mirror and take it away, because it was making Snow White unwell; only to have Eric break it with his axe at the end of the movie. They should have done that at the end of the first movie and not made this one. This wasn't my favorite movie, but I wouldn't go as far to say I hated it just that I probably wouldn't watch it again.