Warning: I will be talking about the plot in this review, so if you don’t care for spoilers, don’t read until after you’ve seen it. If you’ve already seen it, or if you simply don’t care for the film, go ahead and read.
Before even seeing the film, I’ll admit, I was skeptical. Why? Because Kristen Stewart stars as the main role. And as far as I’m concerned, any film with her in at all, never mind being the starring role, is never the set up for a good film. However, the trailer convinced me that perhaps the story behind it, and the supporting actors could turn it around and make it a worth while watch.
After having watched the film, I came to one very firm conclusion: This is a badly written film, disguised with good graphics and effects to make it appear to be a good film.
The film itself, looked very good. Visually, it was wonderful. Everything else? Fell flat. Very flat.
The beginning was good- I enjoyed the first 20 or so minutes thoroughly, and I dared to hope that this film would prove my skepticism wrong. The film looked good, thus far the acting was good, and even Kristen Stewart’s slightly off British accent hadn’t completely ruined the entire thing. So far, so good. Dark, sadistic, disturbing, and just mild enough to keep its 12A rating.
However, it wasn’t long before Stewart began to regain the classic qualities that make my regard for her “acting” stoop to between poor and horrific. No change in facial expression, too much “breathy” talking, one tone of voice, regardless of situation, and strange, stiff movements. That and painfully unconvincing attempts at portraying different emotions (probably due to the one tone of voice and no change in facial expressions).
Besides the flawed acting abilities of the “fairest of them all” (just me, or did the Queen really have nothing to worry about in comparison?), the writing of this film is what really let it down. There were some really interesting ideas in the film, that brought new life into the well known tale, but they were simply brushed over, and never looked at again, leaving the potential hanging in the air untouched. Instead, the writing seemed more focused on showing random, out of sequence events all surrounding the protagonist, and ultimately leading to a very anti climatic ending.
The star of the show was undoubtedly the Queen, played by Charlzie Theron. She was dark, threatening, beautiful- everything the character required, and more. Plus her performance outshone every other actor effortlessly. I’ve gotta say, Charlzie does “evil” very well.
There were several things I particularly had a problem with in the film- I’ll run through them one by one.
1) This is in regard to the costumes. For the most part, they were good. They suited the characters and they worked in the grand scheme of things. There was one thing that totally baffled me though- Snow White enters the film wearing a long tradition but dirty dress. In the forest, it becomes obvious that underneath this very traditional dress, she also happens to be wearing… trousers? Tight black trousers? I mean, am I nit-picking here, or did this really confuse anyone else too?
2) The strange love triangle they seemed to be trying to include (because apparently Stewart won’t be in a film now unless there’s a really weird, inexplicable three way relationship with her in the middle of it all), between The Huntsman (that’s another thing- he’s never given a name. He’s just “The Huntsman”. Seriously. He’s even credited as such at the end.) Snow White, and some kid she used to know called William, the son of the Duke (another character not worthy of a name other than his title). Not only is this triangle really, really weird (The Huntsman has to be at least 20 years older than her in this, right? And as for William? Well… they haven’t seen one another in 10 years in the film… and yet when they meet again they’re inexplicably in love?), but it simply doesn’t go anywhere. It’s utterly bizarre. The writers touched on this concept, and then decided just to leave it there. They didn’t conclude it, they never explained it, and they never developed any of the characters far enough to even make the audience care enough to want to find out. (This means, by the way, please please PLEASE don’t attempt a sequel…)
3) This one is a carry on from my last point; the character development. Or lack of. Seriously, there is none, whatsoever. No character in the entire story stays for long enough to have any kind of identity. And the ones who do stay around are so incredibly one dimensional they belong in a 90’s video game. And for some reason, the writers decided to try to big up some of the characters that served little to no purpose to the entire film by concluding it with them all alive and well. As if the audience ever knew enough about them in the first place to care. Le sigh.
4) And finally, it was far too long. The film was 2 hours, 7 minutes long. And nothing happened in it. The beginning was good, then there was 2 hours of useless filler and no direction at all, and then there was a really rushed final 20 minutes to conclude the entire thing? What? Come on, director, come on.
Overall, I was disappointed by the film. It had great potential, some fresh ideas, and one good performance, which unfortunately, wasn’t enough to save it. I’m amazed that they managed to ruin such a good idea, with such promising concepts, but it all just fell flat. Bad writing, bad acting and bad direction.
4/10.
Oh, and Kristen Stewart? Just change careers please. Now. This clearly isn’t your calling, is it?
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