So, I bit the bullet and watched "Snow White and the Huntsman". Don't panic...I did not pay for it. I just don't feel I can legitimately ridicule a movie if I haven't seen it, so I endured the 2 hours to watch.
While it wasn't as bad as I was expecting (gee, where have I heard that before), it wasn't all that great either. Oddly enough, all the bad did not come just from Kristen Stewart's acting. That's where a lot of it came from, but she alone was not the down fall of this film. It was bad all over; from the accents to the story line to the script, it was just bad. Kristen's accent continually slipped throughout the film and I'm still trying to figure out why they insisted on Chris Hemsworth having a Scottish accent. Charlize Theron, while the accent was good, her way of drawing out each and every word was highly annoying throughout the film.
There were some purely Bella, or are they Kristen, moments that seemed to be taken directly from Twilight. The sounds she made while grunting or as she was in pain, were ala the Ballet Studio in Twilight. At one point there was an overhead shot of her lying on the ground in a fetal position that was very reminiscent of New Moon.
One of the storyline down falls is that even though SW was imprisoned as a child, there are those who immediately know who she is upon looking at her as grown girl. It happened twice in the film, once when a female villager tells The Huntsman, "You don't know who she is do you?" and the other when all the dwarves doubt her identity all but one who just knows who she is. There is never any explanation or her having to prove who she is. They just know.
One of my biggest peeves was the messing with fairy tale cannon. Look, it's bad enough that Universal took Snow White back to the darkness of the original tale told by the Brothers Grimm, but even they did not go all warrior princess in their tale. That is all Hollywood. I can't look past that as it was supposed to make a compelling summer block buster. What I cannot over look is some of the other cannon points being messed with. Snow White is supposed to be awoken by True Loves First Kiss from the Prince. This is a fairy tale staple and it's not to be messed with. But on noooo....Universal had to give us a love triangle (again, where have I seen this before). Now granted, there is no Prince in this story as he is the Dukes son, but I digress. Not only does our dear sweat William, the Dukes son and Snow Whites Childhood friend, kiss Snow but he doesn't wake her with said kiss.
No, she is awoken by The Huntman's kiss. I know I'm being rather nit picky, but this is just not how the story goes and while I can over look other "creative license" I can't over look this.
The majority of the reviews seem to be spot on with my way of thinking on the main parts of this story. And I have to agree with them on the high points. The art direction and CGI were great. The forest scene was amazing, though the fairies left something to be desired. The sets were as they should have been, the castle in the opening scenes in particular was done very well. It have a very majestic feel to the opening of the film. And the Dark Forest did just what it should have, brought out that inner seven year old that had the soul scared out of you the first time you saw this film when Disney did it. Over all, this was a part of the film that was done very well.
Costume designer, Colleen Atwood, knocked it out of the park with the costumes for the Evil Queen. However, her fail was to give Snow White leather pants under the skirt of her dress as she escapes.
With the fact that this movie has not even broken even yet at the box office, I can't see Universals desire to fast track the second installment. I know some die hards will scream, "But it is successful" and "It opened at number one" While it has made money, though I'm guessing not near what Universal was counting on, it has not broken even. Don't believe me? This article pretty much sums it up. http://io9.com/5747305/how-much-money-does-a-movie-need-to-make-to-be-profitablehttp://io9.com/5747305/how-much-money-does-a-movie-need-to-make-to-be-profitable It's a great article on what a movie needs to do to be a hit. Don't blame me, I just know how to find things on Google.
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