The Huntsman: Winter's War is the prequel/sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman that nobody really asked for. For those of you that have read my Throwback Thursday Review of Snow White and the Huntsman, you know that I was very dissatisfied with it overall and sadly have to say that is indeed again the case. However with that all being said, I liked this slightly more than Snow White and the Huntsman. When it comes down to it, it's quite easy to see that the root of many of the storytelling issues present here derive from Kristen Stewart's unwillingness to return for another installment. The screen writers and creative team had to side step her character and distance her as much as possible from the events unfolding onscreen. This wasn't too bothersome as I'm not a big fan of Kristen Stewart in general but in order to keep her out of the film, the creative team had to go back and construct an abstract backstory for Huntsman in an attempt to shift the focus to his character. Unfortunately, this doesn't quite work as well as the creative team would have liked as I found myself much more interested in exploring some of the new characters. The production had been troubled from the start as Universal had difficulty finding a director to helm the project. The studio settled on the second unit director from Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, who had never directed a feature film before. I think Nicolas-Troyan has some serious issues with placing proper focus within a scene. Fantastical creatures would fly by and divert attention various times throughout the film. Occasionally during scenes of intense dialogue all emphasis would be placed on random fairy creatures, which was quite bothersome and unnecessary. In fact, I'd daresay it was a waste of the visual effects budget that would have been better spent on action sequences, not that the action looked bad. Actually, the action looked great! The fight choreography was entertaining and intense and you could actually see what was happening as none of the action happened too quickly, although there were a few slo-mo shots that I saw as unnecessary. The cinematographer captured some beautiful imagery throughout and gave the various sequences enough time to breathe and the audience to gaze upon. This helped the film feel much lighter and more colorful than Snow White and the Huntsman, that was certainly an improvement over it's bleak predecessor. The film has many attempts at humor, but falls flat on it's face with every joke. But the film's biggest problem was that it didn't provide a reason for me to be invested in any of the characters so I lost interest easily and almost fell asleep three or four times. And this is coming from someone who stays fairly attentive and almost never sleeps during a movie (especially in theaters). Every new character was a bore, the dwarves in particular. I won't even bother listing out the actors as they put forth little to no effort and the only interesting dwarves are taken out. The rest of the cast's performances range from not even trying to decent. Chris Hemsworth is back as the Huntsman, Eric, and this time around he's much more comfortable in the role as a more seasoned actor. Hemsworth fills the role with as much charisma as he possibly can making for a great lead. He once again has a wonky Scottish accent but he at least sticks with it throughout as in Snow White and the Huntsman he occasionally slipped out of it. Jessica Chastain is decent as the Huntsman's love interest, Sara, but along those lines she and Chris Hemsworth had some very awkward romantic scenes that were a little too long. It wasn't the chemistry that made it weird but rather the awkward long silence of the two gazing at each other that could have easily been cut out. Chastain also had an Irish accent that was just atrocious. Emily Blunt is one of my favorite modern actresses but even I have to admit that her performance as Freya the Ice Queen was just awful. This role was far beneath her and I don't understand why she would take it but unfortunately she tends to end up in projects that bomb at the box office. Almost every line of dialogue was delivered with practically no emotion, but there were glimmers of potential sprinkled throughout as Blunt was terrific in the more emotionally heated scenes. Another returning actress is Charlize Theron and she was terrific in her six to seven minutes of screen time as she just epitomized villainy. However, almost all of her scenes were in the trailers so there wasn't any shock value to anything that happened involving her character. Sadly, the film was a disappointment as I hoped for significant improvements from Snow White and the Huntsman but only got slight improvements. In summation, the film is a snooze-fest that's probably just a waste of your time.
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