Review of The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016) by Yoshi S — 17 Aug 2016

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall! Where can I find a better movie for this talented cast? "The Huntsman: Winter's War" is an entirely unnecessary sequel".

Movie Review: The Huntsman: Winter's War.

Date Viewed: April 26 2016.

Directed By Cedric Nicholas-Troyan.

Written By Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin, Based on characters created by Evan Daugherty.

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain,.

Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Sam Claflin,.

Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Alexandra Roach, Colin Morgan, Sheridan Smith and Liam Neeson as the narrator.

If you ever wanted to see a more darker version of "Frozen", "The Huntsman: Winter's War" is your answer. It's the follow-up to the 2012 fantasy hit "Snow White and the Huntsman" and Kristen Stewart is nowhere to be found in "Winter's War". We can all understand why. Nearly four years ago if you can recall, Stewart cheated on her then boyfriend Robert Pattinson with director Rupert Sanders who made "Snow White". The cheating scandal not only tarnished Sanders' filmmaking career, it also caused R-Patz to break-up with K-Stew. I have to admit that I did like "Snow White and the Huntsman", sure the first movie was no classic but it had stunning visuals, lavishing costumes and fine performances from Chris Hemsworth as The Huntsman and Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna.

"Winter's War" however fails to make a mark.

Despite having three of the most talented actresses in the movies today, Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain, "The Huntsman: Winter's War" is a really dull fantasy epic that has no reason to exist. Setting itself as both a prequel and a sequel, Ravenna's young sister, Freya (Blunt) abandons her kingdom after a devastating betrayal, she builds herself a solitary ice palace and calls herself The Ice Queen. She then takes children away from their villages and have them trained to become huntsmen. Several years later, her two most exceptional warriors, Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Chastain) engage in a love affair and plan to runaway from the kingdom.

Love is absolutely forbidden in Freya's kingdom so after learning of the affair, she separates them by creating a massive ice wall, this leads to fellow huntsmen killing Sara and Eric getting expelled from the kingdom. After the events of "Snow White and the Huntsman", Queen Ravenna (Theron) is dead and her Magic Mirror has gone missing. Eric sets off to find the Magic Mirror along with his two dwarf allies, Nion (Nick Frost) and his half-brother, Gryff (Rob Brydon).

After getting attacked by a legion of Freya's huntsmen, he gets rescued by Sara who is surprisingly still alive. She is still angry with Eric for leaving her in the kingdom but he believed that she was murdered which leaves Eric to believe that it was just a vision conjured by Freya to keep them apart. The two of them eventually agree to work together and find the Magic Mirror but they get ensnared by a trap well-executed by two female dwarfs, Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith) and Doreena (Alexandra Roach). They eventually let them go and join along with Eric and Sara to find the mirror.

Freya is on the hunt for the Magic Mirror too but it has a major surprise in store for her, before she was killed by Snow White, Ravenna sent her spirit into the Mirror, that means when Freya retrieves the Mirror and recites a spell on it, Ravenna will come back to life. This grim tale might be entertaining for horny 13-year-old boys who would love to take a glimpse at the three talented divas on screen but the rest of us will see it as a big visual mish-mush. The special effects are dazzling and the costumes are once again spectacular but it doesn't compensate for needless narration from Liam Neeson, muddled storylines and lack of character depth. Since Rupert Sanders also got dropped from "Winter's War" due to the cheating scandal, he is replaced by debuting director Cedric Nicholas-Troyan who helped supervised the visual effects for "Snow White and the Huntsman".

Nicholas-Troyan makes a competent directorial debut here but the story as a whole is silly and boring. Hemsworth is fine in his second outing as the Huntsman, Chastain, Blunt and Theron do the best they can with their mighty princess roles but there's hardly any flair from Blunt and Chastain's performances, both of which were inspired by characters from "Frozen" and "Brave" and Theron who doesn't get much to do here barely has any screen time, she disappears from the movie for more than an hour until the climatic battle.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall! Where can I find a better movie for this talented cast? "The Huntsman: Winter's War" is an entirely unnecessary sequel.