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"SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN"
(2012) (Kristen Steward, Chris Hemsworth) (PG-13)

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QUICK TAKE:
Action/Drama: An orphaned princess must contend not only with her evil stepmother who wants her youth and beauty, but also the huntsman the latter has sent to capture her.
PLOT:
When Snow White (KRISTEN STEWART) was just a girl, her widowed father, the King, rescued Ravenna (CHARLIZE THERON) from a dark army and quickly married her. He was unaware, however, that was her intent all along, and on their wedding night she murdered him and imprisoned Snow White in one of the castle's towers. Now Queen and with her brother, Finn (SAM SPRUELL), as her loyal servant, her rule has turned the kingdom into a desolate place ruled with absolute tyranny.

Vain about her looks and youth, Ravenna often queries her magic mirror about who's the fairest of them all, and thus isn't happy to learn that Snow White has taken her place. But she also learns that if she takes her stepdaughter's heart, she'll have eternal youth and beauty, and thus sends Finn off to retrieve the young woman.

The ever resourceful Snow White, however, manages to escape and rushes off into the Black Forest where Ravenna's witch powers are useless. Accordingly, she orders widowed drunkard The Huntsman (CHRIS HEMSWORTH) to head into the forest, find Snow White, and return her to the castle. He easily captures her, but upon realizing that his deal with the Queen was fake, he fights off Finn and his soldiers and escapes deeper into the woods with Snow White.

With the aid of Snow White's now grown-up childhood friend, William (SAM CLAFLIN), and a number of resourceful dwarves -- Beith (IAN McSHANE), Muir (BOB HOSKINS), Gort (RAY WINSTONE), Nion (NICK FROST), Duir (EDDIE MARSAN), Coll (TOBY JONES), Quert (JOHNNY HARRIS) and Gus (BRIAN GLEESON) -- the two set out to overthrow the Queen and return the Kingdom to its rightful heir.

OUR TAKE: 6 out of 10
For most people, the one thing that immediately springs to mind upon hearing "Snow White" is Disney. After all, their animated 1937 film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is pretty much known by everyone, likely stemming from having been indoctrinated by the pic, its colorful characters and catchy tunes (including "Heigh-Ho" and "Whistle While You Work") sometime in their youth. And for those who've visited one of the Walt Disney parks, they've likely been greeted by the costumed character.

Thus, and since the character and tale are so associated with children, families and vacation, anytime anyone tries to go dark with the tale, people get upset. Granted, there aren't riots in the streets, boycotts or the like, but people don't like their childhood icons being messed with. And that's despite "Snow White" originally starting off dark, so to speak, back in her origins as a German fairy tale presented by the Brothers Grimm in the early 1800s.

Now, and following the decidedly lighter in tone, comedy-fantasy film "Mirror Mirror" from earlier in 2012, we're offered the much darker and potentially nightmare inducing "Snow White and the Huntsman." No, this isn't your parents' or grandparents' version of the familiar tale, and anyone mistakenly taking their young kids to see it and expecting more of the same old, same old Disney magic are certain to be surprised.

That said, it's actually a fairly decent adaptation, although I had my doubts going in. After all, it stars Kristen Stewart as the title character, and while she's certainly a capable actress in smaller, indie films, she often seems overwhelmed in the big budget ones, reduced to pained expressions of emotion as occurred in the "Twilight" flicks. And with this tale offering what appeared to be two potential male suitors, it looked like Team Edward vs. Team Jacob would be replaced by Team William vs. Team Huntsman.

While that's obviously teased and some of that rivalry does briefly appear, for the most part the filmmakers -- director Rupert Sanders and screenwriters Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini -- stay clear of falling into that melodramatic, teen angst trap. While Stewart doesn't really get to show off her acting chomps as much as I would have liked to have seen (but is far better than in those vampire flicks), Sam Claflin's character isn't terribly fleshed out, and Chris Hemsworth is likely to remind many a comic book movie fan of a certain Norse god (whose hammer has been replaced here by a fairly similarly wielded battle ax), their characters are storylines are drawn out decently enough to keep us engaged.

The scene stealers, however, come in the form of Charlize Theron as the evil stepmother Ravenna, and a host of well-known or at least recognizable actors (including Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Nick Frost and Toby Jones among the rest) as the tale's familiar dwarves. The former vamps it up to such a high degree that her villainous nearly becomes camp, but the actress adds enough steely menace to keep that in check. The latter actually give the flick some much needed heart and real emotion, as well as the to-be-expected bits of comic relief.

The filmmakers also nicely mix in variations of the usual "Snow White" trappings, including the little birds that help the title character, the signature apple, the dark forest, the pivotal kiss and, of course, the magical mirror and its "Who's the fairest of them all" exchange. This time, however, the mirror takes on a more eerie persona as part of it melts to the floor and then reshapes into cloaked, human-like form (as if the Harry Potteresque father of Robert Patrick's shape-shifting, liquid metal cyborg in "Terminator 2").

There's also a Potter-like encounter with a monstrous troll, other special effects, and tons of gorgeous cinematography courtesy of lenser Greig Fraser and his crew. But the filmmakers also employ and deploy far too many slow-motion sequences in attempts to make things even more visually cool. That, however, ends up overused and sometimes disrupts the flow of the scenes, especially as they randomly come and go in the middle of otherwise normally time-framed action footage.

Far darker and far more violent than its Disney predecessor, the film certainly isn't suited for family viewing. But for those looking for a variation of the familiar tale that's more in line with what the Brothers Grimm introduced long ago, this might just be what the Doc ordered, and that's nothing to be Sneezy about. "Snow White and the Huntsman" rates as a 6 out of 10.




Reviewed May 29, 2012 / Posted June 1, 2012


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