Snow White and the Huntsman (movie review)

Tuesday, I went to see this with two of my sisters.

I thought I might do a review on it, which is always hard after seeing it only once, but here goes.

     First of all, it was rather intense for a fairytale. That is not a bad thing, but overall the majority of the scenes were dark and it never really gave you a chance to sit and relax. There was one part where I found myself beginning to let down my guard, as in not constantly expecting something or someone to startle me, and it only took about one minute for something surprising to happen. So much for that... I don't really like suspense and I could NEVER do horror movies. :)  Also, there were several times I found the events too gross to watch. I am usually ok with violence if it is quick, but there were several times when it was drawn out and the viewer didn't know what to expect, but just that something bad and gross was about to happen. With that said, Ravenna the witch, was most definitely portrayed as evil. The movie did well in that respect. Good and evil were very clearly defined and the viewer knew which was which.
     Snow White, the classic story, really doesn't have a whole lot to it and was well suited to a hollywood makeover. They could take liberties with it and they did. I was glad that the story had more to it and kept the movie from dragging. I did kind of wonder about some things though. There were some rough edges. I felt that the movie should have answered some more questions, or made a bit more sense. It is definitely possible that I simply didn't catch everything, but I am usually pretty good about understanding what is going on and yet I sat in the theater thinking, "Right, yeah, how is that happening?" A quick example: everyone was terrified of the black/dark forest and they had to search to find even one person who had been there. They found the huntsman. Ok, that works for me, but then he goes off through the wood with Snow White and later, Ravenna's brother and his men just somehow mustered enough courage and wit to get through the whole forest by themselves. Huh? That wasn't very believable for me. Things like that kind of left me wondering. Little things can really make a movie, or unmake it, whichever. I found it somewhat lacking.  One more example of a rough edge: there was a place where a person transformed from looking like one character back into their original character, and it looked cheap and like I was watching a first draft of that part on a computer. With all that can be done today with technology, it should have been more realistic, in my opinion.
     I did not like the feminism in the movie. (I really never do...) I didn't like Snow White leading the army into battle, and a part of me wondered how she suddenly knew how to fight like a warrior. Of course there was also the feminism in Ravenna, but she was evil, so that made sense. If I were to compare the feminism here to the feminism found in lots of other movies it wasn't that bad, but I still don't like feminism. That simple.
      Some scenes, visually, were quite beautiful and I thought the acting was good. Characters were convincing. The music was good. Obviously! James Newton Howard... Since the majority of the movie was dark, so was the music, which meant less of the lush beautiful score. But still good.

     Overall, I'd say it was ok, but not great. There was quite a bit of violence for a fairytale and was obviously for older audiences. Fairly good in terms of acting and scenery/setting appearance. One very interesting element that I liked a great deal was the interpretation of fairies. I thought they looked unique and more folk-lore-ish. They kinda grow on you... or at least they did on me. My first thought was, "Do I like this or not?" I can't find a good picture of their faces or I'd post it. Sorry.

Well, I'd better end this soon.
So bye for now!

~ A Song of Joy