Snow White and The Huntsman
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 02:13 pmLet me start off by saying up front that this movie was great. This movie was great. It completely exceeded my every expectation. It had flash and substance. It had dignity and respect for its predecessors.
Also, it had some amazing acting.
Reasons to see this movie:
Do you like Chris Hemsworth or Kristen Stewart? Then you will like this movie. I honestly didn't realize I would like Stewart's acting, but she was wonderful. I've heard some criticisms thus far that predictably slam her for not being "pretty" enough, but acknowledge that physical beauty wasn't the point.
Well, to that I say: The acting was great. And Stewart is gorgeous, so screw you guys. She's plenty beautiful, whether she's in rags, in pretty dresses or in mail. But more importantly, being traditionally beautiful isn't worth shit if the person in question can't act, and Stewart absolutely can.
Hemsworth is also awesome. Additionally, I loved Charlize Theron. The whole cast was really pretty wonderful, when you get down to it.
The story is fleshed out quite a bit from the fairy-tale we're used to. This is an evil Queen with a life and a motivation and a backstory, and family and desires and goals. A kingdom that is literally affected by some kind of earth or blood magic, and a fantasy world that actually came to life really well.
One of the big things I have to say about this movie is that it succeeded at being a fantasy movie without having long stretches of boring in the middle, which is usually my complaint about fantasy movies. I love them, but slow or sometimes awkward scenes are sort of the norm for the genre, and this movie managed to beat that tendency with a pace that was neither breakneck nor tedious.
A lot of critics are touting this movie as impressive in its feminist handling of its characters, and that I'd say is definitely true. Romance exists but is not the be-all end-all. I really liked that Stewart's character was not restricted by gender; she sought resolution to conflicts in non-violent ways, but was not incapable of violence when needed (or when angry), which is a nice unity of traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics for a hero or heroine.
I only have one major complaint, and two minor ones.
Major: As far as I could tell, there was one person of color in this movie, period. And he was a henchman for the Bad Guys, and he was killed without ever saying a line. It's also noteworthy that CGI was used to make normal-sized actors appear to be dwarves, as opposed to giving actual dwarves the parts.
Minor 1: At the very end, I wanted four more words between Stewart and the evil queen after their final confrontation. They were implied, but it wouldn't have hurt to say them aloud either.
Minor 2: ( This one is slightly spoilery. )
Like I said, aside from the lack of diversity in the cast, these are minor complaints at best. The movie also had really great visual effects, which is NOT something I'm likely to compliment in most cases. Some of the CGI things they did were really clever and unusual, and I thought they for the most part made really good use of what they had. I adored the way they handled the mirror, for example. The costuming was also gorgeous, with some really awesome, crazy looking dresses for the Evil Queen and some very nice leather and mail armor for ladies and dudes alike. The action was fast and exciting, even when it was mass combat-- which is AWESOME because that's so uncommon!
I loved their take on the dwarves. I loved a lot of things about this movie, honestly. So I really hope that anyone reading this will consider giving it a watch! It was absolutely worth the price of admission, and I had no idea that it was going to be when I walked in there. I am definitely buying this on DVD or Blu-Ray the second it hits shelves.
Also, it had some amazing acting.
Reasons to see this movie:
Do you like Chris Hemsworth or Kristen Stewart? Then you will like this movie. I honestly didn't realize I would like Stewart's acting, but she was wonderful. I've heard some criticisms thus far that predictably slam her for not being "pretty" enough, but acknowledge that physical beauty wasn't the point.
Well, to that I say: The acting was great. And Stewart is gorgeous, so screw you guys. She's plenty beautiful, whether she's in rags, in pretty dresses or in mail. But more importantly, being traditionally beautiful isn't worth shit if the person in question can't act, and Stewart absolutely can.
Hemsworth is also awesome. Additionally, I loved Charlize Theron. The whole cast was really pretty wonderful, when you get down to it.
The story is fleshed out quite a bit from the fairy-tale we're used to. This is an evil Queen with a life and a motivation and a backstory, and family and desires and goals. A kingdom that is literally affected by some kind of earth or blood magic, and a fantasy world that actually came to life really well.
One of the big things I have to say about this movie is that it succeeded at being a fantasy movie without having long stretches of boring in the middle, which is usually my complaint about fantasy movies. I love them, but slow or sometimes awkward scenes are sort of the norm for the genre, and this movie managed to beat that tendency with a pace that was neither breakneck nor tedious.
A lot of critics are touting this movie as impressive in its feminist handling of its characters, and that I'd say is definitely true. Romance exists but is not the be-all end-all. I really liked that Stewart's character was not restricted by gender; she sought resolution to conflicts in non-violent ways, but was not incapable of violence when needed (or when angry), which is a nice unity of traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics for a hero or heroine.
I only have one major complaint, and two minor ones.
Major: As far as I could tell, there was one person of color in this movie, period. And he was a henchman for the Bad Guys, and he was killed without ever saying a line. It's also noteworthy that CGI was used to make normal-sized actors appear to be dwarves, as opposed to giving actual dwarves the parts.
Minor 1: At the very end, I wanted four more words between Stewart and the evil queen after their final confrontation. They were implied, but it wouldn't have hurt to say them aloud either.
Minor 2: ( This one is slightly spoilery. )
Like I said, aside from the lack of diversity in the cast, these are minor complaints at best. The movie also had really great visual effects, which is NOT something I'm likely to compliment in most cases. Some of the CGI things they did were really clever and unusual, and I thought they for the most part made really good use of what they had. I adored the way they handled the mirror, for example. The costuming was also gorgeous, with some really awesome, crazy looking dresses for the Evil Queen and some very nice leather and mail armor for ladies and dudes alike. The action was fast and exciting, even when it was mass combat-- which is AWESOME because that's so uncommon!
I loved their take on the dwarves. I loved a lot of things about this movie, honestly. So I really hope that anyone reading this will consider giving it a watch! It was absolutely worth the price of admission, and I had no idea that it was going to be when I walked in there. I am definitely buying this on DVD or Blu-Ray the second it hits shelves.
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