'Snow White and the Huntsman' Review
Nominated For: Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design.
I apologize for posting this a day late, but I'll outright say that this film is extremely difficult to sit through. I distinctly remember being fairly excited to see the film in theaters because Chris Hemsworth would be playing the Huntsman, and having recently seen The Avengers I was excited to see what he could do here. I also remember that this is one of the first films that I actually disliked seeing in theaters as I was starting to get a taste for critiquing films and having more of an opinion of movies aside from the "It was ok/good" or "I enjoyed it", and really prior to seeing this generally had positive opinions about most films. The one positive thing I can say about Snow White and the Huntsman is that it shaped my ability to critique film and allowed me to begin to form more of a stance on my opinion of all kinds of art. Prepare for an onslaught of negativity. First and foremost, the narrative is extremely flawed. There are abundant plot holes and lack of development in the plot or characters that amount to an incoherent mess. For example, many of the Evil Queen's action's didn't make logical sense despite the fact the screenwriters making her motivation clear. Like why does she bathe in milk exactly? And every character is static, showing no signs of progress or development for themselves. Really if I were to describe the film in one word, I'd be conflicted between "strange" and "boring". The strange elements are derived from many of the creative elements. The creative team must have an odd obsession with milky gooey substances because there's abundant liquid imagery placed throughout the film that was just gross. While some critics praised the visuals, I found them to look atrocious and thought they all looked jagged and unfinished. On the subject of visuals, the film's cinematography is abysmal. There seems to be almost no color palette onscreen till an hour into the film that makes the film all the more hopeless. There are a few impressive shots but the editing quickly takes away from any awe an audience member could possibly have in reaction. The editing in the entire film is off the wall as there are quite a few scenes featuring the Evil Queen with no dialogue that came out of nowhere and add absolutely no significance to the narrative or the film as a whole. The film tries many times to emulate the epic feel of The Lord of the Rings but falls flat on it's face as the action sequences suffered the brunt of the lousy editing as it has an unhealthy mixture of slow-motion and sped up footage. What I mean by this is that some portions of action occur too quickly for anyone to possibly comprehend what just happened and the slo motion is unnecessary as it's merely a slower take of a character's reaction to something that drags the pace of the action through the mud. If it weren't for the pitiful editing, the action scenes had potential to look awesome. In regards to story beats, the film tries to drag out of it's dreariness through attempts at humor and romance but none of it works. Now for the inevitable, the performances. Yikes. Kristen Stewart is awful in the role of Snow White delivering all her lines with almost no emotion or any indication she cares by lack of any facial expressions aside from a blank stare and a few very awkward faces. Chris Hemsworth is easily the best performance on display here with the only actor oozing any charisma whatsoever, and it's probably the reason he is the lead in the new spinoff/prequel/sequel? However, he has an inconsistent Scottish accent that he attempts to use that was a little bothersome. Sam Claflin is fairly decent as Prince William and fills the role well but the character he portrays wasn't given enough depth for me to care about. There's an assortment of dwarves of course, and they're utilized as an attempt to elicit humor but it never really clicked with me. Each of the actors are fairly mediocre and seem to be taking this as a paycheck gig so I won't bother listing out the actor's names. Without a doubt one of the worst performances in the film comes from Sam Spruell, who plays the Evil Queen's brother, and he embodies the personality of the over the top cheesy lame villainous stooge. The most praised performance seems to have been Charlize Theron as Raveena, the Evil Queen, but I stand to disagree. In every scene she's either screaming at everyone, spreading a malevolent gaze, or in some strange liquid. She's good in this capacity, but none of it is impressive in the slightest as the character is evil, purely to be evil. Everything aforementioned amounts to a bleak, dreary take on the classic Snow White tale that's just a snooze-fest.
I apologize for posting this a day late, but I'll outright say that this film is extremely difficult to sit through. I distinctly remember being fairly excited to see the film in theaters because Chris Hemsworth would be playing the Huntsman, and having recently seen The Avengers I was excited to see what he could do here. I also remember that this is one of the first films that I actually disliked seeing in theaters as I was starting to get a taste for critiquing films and having more of an opinion of movies aside from the "It was ok/good" or "I enjoyed it", and really prior to seeing this generally had positive opinions about most films. The one positive thing I can say about Snow White and the Huntsman is that it shaped my ability to critique film and allowed me to begin to form more of a stance on my opinion of all kinds of art. Prepare for an onslaught of negativity. First and foremost, the narrative is extremely flawed. There are abundant plot holes and lack of development in the plot or characters that amount to an incoherent mess. For example, many of the Evil Queen's action's didn't make logical sense despite the fact the screenwriters making her motivation clear. Like why does she bathe in milk exactly? And every character is static, showing no signs of progress or development for themselves. Really if I were to describe the film in one word, I'd be conflicted between "strange" and "boring". The strange elements are derived from many of the creative elements. The creative team must have an odd obsession with milky gooey substances because there's abundant liquid imagery placed throughout the film that was just gross. While some critics praised the visuals, I found them to look atrocious and thought they all looked jagged and unfinished. On the subject of visuals, the film's cinematography is abysmal. There seems to be almost no color palette onscreen till an hour into the film that makes the film all the more hopeless. There are a few impressive shots but the editing quickly takes away from any awe an audience member could possibly have in reaction. The editing in the entire film is off the wall as there are quite a few scenes featuring the Evil Queen with no dialogue that came out of nowhere and add absolutely no significance to the narrative or the film as a whole. The film tries many times to emulate the epic feel of The Lord of the Rings but falls flat on it's face as the action sequences suffered the brunt of the lousy editing as it has an unhealthy mixture of slow-motion and sped up footage. What I mean by this is that some portions of action occur too quickly for anyone to possibly comprehend what just happened and the slo motion is unnecessary as it's merely a slower take of a character's reaction to something that drags the pace of the action through the mud. If it weren't for the pitiful editing, the action scenes had potential to look awesome. In regards to story beats, the film tries to drag out of it's dreariness through attempts at humor and romance but none of it works. Now for the inevitable, the performances. Yikes. Kristen Stewart is awful in the role of Snow White delivering all her lines with almost no emotion or any indication she cares by lack of any facial expressions aside from a blank stare and a few very awkward faces. Chris Hemsworth is easily the best performance on display here with the only actor oozing any charisma whatsoever, and it's probably the reason he is the lead in the new spinoff/prequel/sequel? However, he has an inconsistent Scottish accent that he attempts to use that was a little bothersome. Sam Claflin is fairly decent as Prince William and fills the role well but the character he portrays wasn't given enough depth for me to care about. There's an assortment of dwarves of course, and they're utilized as an attempt to elicit humor but it never really clicked with me. Each of the actors are fairly mediocre and seem to be taking this as a paycheck gig so I won't bother listing out the actor's names. Without a doubt one of the worst performances in the film comes from Sam Spruell, who plays the Evil Queen's brother, and he embodies the personality of the over the top cheesy lame villainous stooge. The most praised performance seems to have been Charlize Theron as Raveena, the Evil Queen, but I stand to disagree. In every scene she's either screaming at everyone, spreading a malevolent gaze, or in some strange liquid. She's good in this capacity, but none of it is impressive in the slightest as the character is evil, purely to be evil. Everything aforementioned amounts to a bleak, dreary take on the classic Snow White tale that's just a snooze-fest.
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