Snow White and the Huntsman: Reviewed (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Snow White and the Huntsman: Reviewed

8:13am Wednesday 30th May 2012 in Film Reviews & News By Mark Foker

Yet again Hollywood has released two similar themed stories within months of each other. Remember ‘A Bug’s Life’ vs. ‘Antz’ and ‘Deep Impact’ vs. ‘Armageddon’? All released in the same year 1998. Now In 2012 we have ‘Mirror, Mirror’ and ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ both have a different take on a world famous fairy story.

While one is extremely colourful and boasts a sweet heroine. The other, ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ is a much darker affair. However, the basis of the story is still very Grimm . Young Princess Snow White (Raffey Cassidy ‘Dark Shadows’) skin white as snow and lips red as blood, has a loving childhood until her mother the Queen dies of an illness and her Father re-marries the beautiful Ravenna(Charlize Theron). All a bit too soon if you ask me? It’s not long before Ravenna shows her true colours and viciously murders the King, basically she just hates men particularly Kings and she should know, she’s bumped off a few!

When Snow White reaches the age of seven, the magic mirror, an impressive molten blob of gold tells the evil witch Queen that there is another in the land fairer than she. The Queen is far from happy with this news and has Snow White locked in the highest tower where she grows up to be Kristen Stewart a well sulky teenager. It’s not long before she makes her dramatic escape and is chased into the Dark Forest. The Queen summons the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to find Snow White and bring back her heart.

Things do not go according to plan and the Huntsman not only falls under the charm of Snow White but also teaches her how to handle a sword and dagger and kick some baddie ass. While hiking through the Dark Forest they come across eight dwarves (obviously seven wasn’t enough) who join forces to help rid the Kingdom of the evil Ravenna. For some reason the first appearance of the dwarves, particularly Ray Winstone, raised a few laughs at the screening. The other vertically challenged helpers include Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Bob Hoskins, Johnny Harris and Brian Gleeson. The laughter soon faded as it became apparent that the special effects bringing the actors to life as properly proportion dwarves was pretty ground breaking but the laughter soon returned for the right reasons as the dwarves provided the comic relief element.

Chris Hemsworth makes a worthy hero with a heart (not hers by the way) and Charlize Theron really gets her teeth into the role of the evil stepmother. Even Kristen Stewart played her part well and pulled off a reasonable English accent.

For a first time film director Rupert Sanders brings an atmospheric fantasy gothic feel to the screen, visually stunning.

A very entertaining yarn and does exactly what it says on the tin.

3 out of 5 stars.