Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman was a good adult twist on the original "Snow White" fairytale. The idea was a good one but I thought that the screenwriter could have put in some more lines for Kristen Stewart, Snow White, to work with. Maybe that's why people didn't like her performance but unlike live-theatre the lines in films are always recorded the way they are written in the script unless the director changes it at the last minute which is frowned upon by most film people because you can do so many takes of one scene to get it right, although that does get more and more expensive with each take. So I think that Stewart played Snow White well with what she was given. I know everyone will not agree with me but that's not my problem. This is my review, if you don't agree with it or like it, I do not care and will continue to annoy you with as much purpose as before so get over it. Anyways, the movie had nice names to put on their list of actors in the credits. Charlize Theron was amazing as the evil queen and Chris Hemsworth was a good Huntsman. Throwing in an equally evil brother, Finn, for the evil queen played by Sam Spruell was a twist I didn't expect but it had nice qualities and pulled more elements from the evil queen's side of the story and why she wanted to kill Snow White, (and eat her heart). The Duke's son, William, was played very nicely by Sam Claflin and he was obviously the character with whom you would identify as the prince in other versions but then again things are not always what they appear, more on that later. The music was well written by James Newton Howard and the film was directed by Rupert Sanders.

Scene Shots from "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Snow White's Mother during the opening narration

Young Snow White

The film starts off with a narration by the Huntsman (Hemsworth) on how much a queen wanted a child that was "as white as snow, with lips as red as blood, hair as black as a raven's wings and with all the strength of [the] rose." And soon after a daughter was born to her and she named her Snow White. Snow White grew to a young girl (Raffey Cassidy) who brought an injured bird to her mother.
She and the young William (Xavier Atkins) went and played in an apple tree where William tricked Snow White by saying that he picked the apple for her only to pull it away and take a big bite of it himself. He dropped the apple and Snow White chased him off screen and there was a slow fade out on the apple. The next winter Snow White's mother, the Queen, died. The King's mind was affected by grief and an enemy was able to lure him out into battle while in that state of mind. He and his men rushed up to fight an army of men all dressed in black armor who stood so still on the battlefield that one might think they were statues until the King's army ran into them and they started to fight. But all was not what it appeared. The King's men were able to hit them with sword blows that seemed to turn them into thousands of black glass fragments. The army of "phantom" men were defeated and a "prisoner" was found in a black carriage with chains around her wrists and ankles.

Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen Ravenna in her wedding dress

 Her name was Ravenna (Theron) and the King was so enthralled by her beauty that he married her the next day and that night she took his life and his throne from him. She welcomed a real army into the castle led by her brother, Finn (Spruell), and a fight ensued in which the Duke (Vincent Regan) and his son William were able to escape but as they tried to bring Snow White with them the man holding her on the horse was shot with an arrow and he and Snow White fell in the courtyard and the Queen's men captured her while she was screaming at William to save her and he was in turn yelling at his father to go back for her but the portcullis was shut and there was nothing that the duke could do and so they fled. (Note: this following part is only in the Extended edition.) The Queen ordered everyone that remained to be killed except Snow White for "one never knows when royal blood will be of value." In the theatrical version this is implied and later confirmed except that Snow White was alive. Back to the Theatrical Version.

The Evil Queen and the Mirror Man

 The Queen goes up into a room in which a mirror, which is the shape and color of a cymbal/gong, is brought and hung up on the wall. The evil Queen speaks the words "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is fairest of them all?" She looks at the mirror and it sort of melts onto the floor and forms the shape of a man under a sheet except it's all in gold colored metal, this Mirror Man (Christopher Obi) tells the Queen that yes, she is the fairest of them all. The camera goes back to where the apple fell below the tree where William and Snow White played and Eric, the Huntsman, continues his narration while we watch the apple and its surroundings slowly die; "So poisonous was the reign of Ravenna that nature turned on itself and people turned on each other. The land died and with it, hope. And all that time, she kept Snow White imprisoned high up in the north tower."

Snow White imprisoned in the North Tower

Evil Queen in Beauty substance

The narration ends and we are in the cell at the top of the north tower where Snow White (Stewart) is kept imprisoned. A woman is brought and locked into a cell opposite of Snow White with whom Snow White speaks with. Meanwhile, the Queen is down in a chamber with a large tub being filled with a watery clay-like milk colored substance. While she waits for it to be full she speaks with her brother about how they were once wretches begging in the streets for scraps. When the tub is full she takes off her robe with the camera behind her so that we can only see her from the waist up as she wades and then sinks into this substance over her head which still has her crown on. She emerges coated in this substance that looks like it is making a plaster cast of her body with her arms crossed over her breast so that they are not revealed. This was obviously suppose to be some sort of beauty treatment but I don't think the writer thought that out enough for the audience to understand. She sort of looks like a white Statue of Liberty without holding the torch or the book. We do not see her emerge farther than her waist before we cut to a scene in the throne room where Ravenna is presented with two prisoners who have been captured leading a raid on one of her supply trains. They are a father and son. The Queen walks over to the son who is kneeling on the floor and he grabs a knife from the guard(who is next to him)'s waist and plunges it into the Queen's side in an attempt to kill her. She pulls it out of her side and there is no blood on it. She then kills the son by only putting her hand on his chest over his heart and you heard the blood pounding and then he is dead on the floor. The guards move to kill the father but the Queen stops them and says to "Let him return to the Duke and speak of the generosity of his queen." We go with the camera and see the waves beating on the cliffs by the castle as an indication of time passage and then we are in the mirror room with the Queen staring at herself in it and using her claw-like finger ring traces the shape of a wrinkle that has appeared under her eyes and she is almost fearful of it as her brother comes to console her and to tell her that he brought her something to help take the wrinkle away. It is the prisoner who was put in the tower opposite Snow White and she is obviously scared and almost sobs as the Queen comes toward her. The Queen lifts her up with her magic and consumes her youth and beauty turning the prisoner into an old woman. We see the wrinkles go away and her face is perfect again.

Evil Queen consumes beauty and youth

The guards then throw the prisoner back into the tower where Snow White calls to her and gets no response. Back in the mirror room the Queen is talking with the Mirror Man who tells her that the reason her powers are fading is because Snow White has come of age, (It's her birthday! in other words), and is more fairer than she. He tells her that to gain immortality and never need again to consume youth or beauty she must eat Snow White's heart. So the Queen sends her brother to fetch Snow White out of her prison cell. We jump to Snow White who sees a bird calling on her prison barred open window. She goes to the window and he hops onto a lose nail in the casement and then flies away. Snow White tugs and finally pulls out the nail only to hear the queen's brother coming up the tower. She rushes to her bed and lies down on it while concealing the hand holding the nail. The brother comes in and tries to almost feel her up but when he gets close enough she slashes his face with it and runs out of the cell closing and locking the door behind her. She goes to try and unlock the other prisoner's door when she sees the old woman that that girl had become. She tells Snow White to go without her and Snow White runs.

She almost gets captured by guards before she escapes through the sewer that leads out to drain in the ocean with a very long drop to actually reach the water however, only after a slight hesitation does Snow White jump in and washes ashore on the beach near the castle entrance. The same bird as before shows her the way to a beautiful white horse on which she gets on and escapes into the Dark Forest only for the horse to get pulled into a muddy bog on the edge of it. She is forced to abandon the horse as the queen's men get closer and then their horses balk at going into the bog and they lose her. Snow White runs into the Dark Forest with really creepy things and branches around her. She accidentally falls into some sort of plant that releases a hallucinogenic gas causing Snow White to see monsters where there are none. She runs and runs until she falls down and passes out. We return to the severely unhappy evil queen berating her brother for betraying her. She tells him to find her someone who can hunt Snow White. Cue quick camera change to a very dirty man getting thrown out of a pub and beat up by a man to whom he owes money. He passes out and is woken up by being dumped into a water trough by the queen's men who take him, clean him up a bit but not too much, and bring him before the queen who tells him to go hunt an escaped prisoner in the Dark Forest. After some "haggling" she promises to bring his wife back from the dead if he brings her Snow White but she does not tell him who she is or why she's valuable.

So the Huntsman leads the queen's brother and his men into the Dark Forest. We move to Snow White who is still passed out on the ground in the forest but then she wakes up and appears to hear the men moving towards where she is. She starts to run again but the Huntsman quickly finds her trail and within a minute or two has caught her by the arm and Finn and his men approach them. As they approach Snow White tries to convince the Huntsman to help her because the Queen is going to kill her. He doesn't  believe her but does a double take when he sees her beauty and this makes him hesitate to give Snow White to Finn and his men. So he asks them what they intend to do with her and Finn says it's none of his concern and that he should keep his word and hand the girl over. This angers the Huntsman and he demands that the Queen keep her side of the bargain before he'll hand over Snow White. Finn stops and makes fun of the Huntsman for actually believing that the Queen could bring back his wife from the dead and that causes the Huntsman to let Snow White's arm go and instead attack Finn and his men with his axe. Snow White runs while this takes place and the Huntsman quickly gets rid of the 2 men Finn brought with him and hits Finn in the stomach with his axe. However, this does no good and he pulls it out of his side and continues to fight. He almost wins but gets knocked down onto the same plants that Snow White hit and they release their hallucinogenic gases which cause Finn to see things and he calls out to the Huntsman or Snow White or both saying "I will find you!" before he passes out. The Huntsman covers his nose and mouth and runs away from the fumes and catches up to Snow White. She starts to scream but he covers her mouth and tells her to stay calm and he releases her. She quickly steals a knife off of him and holds it between them so she is ready to fight if necessary. The Huntsman wants to know who she is and why the Queen wants her. Snow White replies "You should know, you're the one hunting me." The Huntsman winces and feels his chest and finds a bleeding wound so he walks away from Snow White and she goes after him. She finally convinces him to help her get to Duke Hammond's castle without revealing who she really is.

We leave them and find ourselves at Duke Hammond's castle where the man who's son tried to kill the evil queen is reporting what happened to the Duke and telling them the very bad news that the Queen cannot be killed. He adds one more thing that they did not expect. He revealed that instead of dying all those years ago, as previously thought, Snow White is alive. The Duke immediately asks "Where's my son?" Cut to a supply train led by the queen's men traveling through the woods and an ambush occurs led by the Duke's son William (Clafin). They ambush succeeds and we cut back to the Duke's castle and see William and his men bringing in the spoils. The Duke tells him that Snow White is alive and had been kept prisoner by the queen for all these years but she has now escaped from the castle into the Dark Forest. William declares that he's going after her, his father tries and fails to stop him with William telling him that he "Will not abandon her a second time" so he will find someone to help him in his search through the Dark Forest since he does not know it well.

We cut back to Snow White and the Huntsman as they travel through the Dark Forest. Snow White gets caught between to fallen tree limbs that suddenly turn to snakes and she starts to yell and the Huntsman comes and cuts one of the branches in half with his axe which shows her that there weren't really any snakes there and he says "The forest gains its strength from your weakness." He pauses to take a drink from his drinking bag and Snow White asks him why he drinks but he doesn't tell her and instead comes up to her and starts to rip her skirt off of her dress. This causes a bit of stress for Snow White and she tries to keep her skirt and backs away from the Huntsman afraid that he's going to take advantage of her but he only ripped the skirt so that it wouldn't get in the way while they are traveling and she has pants on underneath. When he sees the look on her face he remarks, "don't flatter yourself."

Do you need a bowman?

We go now to one of the villages between the Queen's castle and the Dark Forest where Finn is leading a group of men through the middles of town in the pouring down rain. This is a hunting party. They are stopped by a hooded man who asks if they need a bowman. Finn does not like being stopped and tells his bowman to kill the one blocking their way but the other bowman misses and the one blocking their way shoots two arrows into the current bowman who falls off of his horse and dies. Then the hooded man, whom we now see is William, repeats his previous question. "I said, do you need a bowman?" We see Finn's mouth give a twitch that plainly says umm yes... now we do.

We go back to Snow White and the Huntsman as they travel on through the forest a bit more before he stops her and shows her how to use a knife to kill someone. Snow White says she doesn't think she could do that and the Huntsman tells her that she may have no choice.

Cut to a shot of the evil Queen in the castle garden pulling a small flower (the only flower) off of a tree. She curls it into her fist and opens her hand again as we see black ash/dust fall out of her hand where the flower had been.
Back to Snow White and the Huntsman who have reached the edge of the Dark Forest. There is what looks like a small stone bridge over a ditch filled with water and bones and armor. They pause and the Huntsman pulls a large knife/dagger into a hand where he can quickly use it before starting to go over the stone bridge. They go cautiously and with good reason. Once they reach the middle of the "bridge" it moves and we see it has been the back of a troll they were crossing who now attacks them. The Huntsman tells Snow White to run and turns to battle the troll while Snow White actually stays behind a tree stump and watches the fight and sees that the Huntsman has lost and as the troll raises his fist to kill the now unconscious Huntsman she runs out screaming a sort of imitation roar back at the troll. He stops and his focus changes to Snow White who backs up and falls when the troll roars back at her. However, a curious thing happens and she and the troll stare at each other as the troll calms down and then lumbers away from them just as the Huntsman regains consciousness. He sees she didn't run like he told her to so he repeats it saying "I told you to run." She replies, "If I had, you would be dead."

Snow White and the Troll

We go forward a few hours or so and Snow White and the Huntsman are wading through reeds on the edge of a large lake when they encounter women in boats with bows and arrows aimed towards them. The leader of them says "Only demons or spirits pass through the Dark Forest. Which are you?" and Snow White and the Huntsman tell her they are fugitives of the Queen and the women take them to their village for the night by boat. When they arrive at the village the Huntsman notices that there are no men present and they are told the men are all at war. We also notice as the boat pulls up to the dock that all of the women have scars on their faces resembling tear tracks on their cheeks. Later we find out that they scar their faces on purpose so that they can raise their children in peace without the fear of the Queen taking their girls away to use as beauty victims. After they get to the village Snow White plays with one of the young girls and helps her make a doll while the head woman treats the Huntsman's injury. She finds out that the Huntsman still does not know who Snow White really is and then it is implied that she old him because he comes over to Snow White and the girl and after the girl leaves he confronts her about it and asks why she didn't tell him before. Snow White simply says "I didn't trust you." Later that night when everyone is going to sleep for the night the head woman sees the Huntsman leaving the village and she goes after him to ask him why he is abandoning Snow White now that he knows the truth. He believes that Snow White is safer with the woman and then continues to leave. We go back to the room in a the thatched hut where Snow White is sleeping and an arrow suddenly shoots through the roof and hits one of the supporting posts in the hut but it is a fire arrow and the whole house soon goes up in smoke. Finn and his men have finally come to the village to get Snow White and so they try to burn her out so that they can get her. Snow White quickly helps all of the women and children evacuate into boats that they row away from the burning village. The Huntsman turns around where he is and sees the glow of fire coming from the village. He automatically starts running towards it and when he gets there he tries to find Snow White meanwhile William is in the group of Finn's men while pretending to be a helper to them. He is also looking for Snow White and at one point he sees her and runs after her but she sees him and runs faster then a burning tree branch falls in between them and for a moment their eyes lock on each other's and we see that William recognizes Snow White but she doesn't recognize him and she turns and runs off. As she is getting in the boat to leave with the others one of Finn's men grabs her and starts to take her away but he is stopped when the Huntsman comes and saves Snow White and he takes her and they wade through the edges of the lake away from the burning village and from the scarred women.

We leave that seen and return to the castle where the evil Queen is in her room alone. She has aged and no longer looks very young or beautiful. We see her back with the bones visible as we start the scene and most of the scene is a memory of the queen's own mother being capture and taken away from her and of the spell that her mother put upon her. She made beauty her daughters power and protection by using fairest blood and she warns her daughter that the spell can only be undone with fairest blood and that she should be wary. We leave the Queen with a tear running down her cheek.

We arrive back with the Huntsman and Snow White crossing a small river in between mountains. They fall down in exhaustion when they reach the other side and the Huntsman tries to apologize for leaving Snow White but she keeps saying "You left us!" and she is greatly distressed. Finally the Huntsman promises to take her to the Duke's castle and strokes her face but then they are greeted by the eight dwarves (Yes EIGHT dwarves not seven) in the fashion of being strung up by their ankles and beaten while the dwarves look for valuables on their persons.

The Eight Dwarves

Now this is a moment where I want to say when you look at this movie and you want to find the gems in the cast look at the dwarves and you'll find buried treasure there. There are eight of them, not seven as most people assume since the Disney version is named Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I will start with Muir the sort of Seer/Priest/Soothsayer. He is played by Bob Hoskins who has played many roles but the one i recognized the most was the character of "Winston" in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Coll is played by Toby Jones whose most recognizable and very famous character played was the character of "Dobby" in the Harry Potter movies! Beith is played by Ian McShane who was "Blackbeard" in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Gort is played by Ray Winstone who was "Mr. Beaver" in The Chronicles of Narnia. Nion is played by Nick Frost who was "Flynn" in  Ice Age: Continental Drift. Duir is played by Eddie Marsan who was "Sgt. Fry" in War Horse and "Etheridge" in V for Vendetta. Quert is played by Johnny Harris who was also in War Horse playing the recruiter. And last but not least is Gus played by Brian Gleeson the son of Brendan Gleeson who was "Mad-Eye Moody" in the Harry Potter movies. So all in all, a very nice line up of dwarves that, unlike most movies with dwarves, were played by normal sized people made to look like dwarves.

Ok now back to my summary. Snow White and the Huntsman are captured by the dwarves and strung up by thier heels whilst the dwarves talk about them and beat them. After Snow White tells them not only who she is but that she's being hunted the dwarves take her and the Huntsman to a place called "Sanctuary," it is the home of the fairies. Now this set and set dressing are the best out of all of the ones in the movie. You have to see it to believe it. They settle in there for the night and they have a peaceful evening and go to sleep. In the morning, Snow White wakes up first and finds out that 2 fairies were the influencers of the birds who helped her out of the castle. They beckon to her to come with them and then head into more of the sanctuary. The dwarves slowly wake up as she gets closer to the tree in the middle of sanctuary where an extremely large white deer waits for her to come to him. His rack of antlers is not only huge but also looks like actual tree limbs instead of antlers. He is extremely large and putting two and two together you will find that he was the horse that helped her escape into the Dark Forest. The dwarves and the Huntsman stand and watch with awe as the deer blesses Snow White in an antler embrace sort of. This moment is so beautiful and then the deer is shot with an arrow meant for Snow White by one of Finn's men. They have found her again. A chase sequence ensues with everyone running in opposite directions to confuse the men. Each man falls eventually to one of the dwarves or the Huntsman or William who reveals his true identity to Snow White and helps her defeat the rest of Finn's men. As this happens the Huntsman goes straight for Finn and they have a fight where in Finn tells the Huntsman that he was the killer of his wife. Finn is about to win when suddenly the Huntsman shoves and holds him onto the sharp root end of a tree. Finn's sister, the Queen, is affected by what is happening to her brother who asks her to heal him but the Huntsman shoves Finn harder onto the tree and the Queen can't do anything without losing her beauty and youth and so she asks his forgiveness before pulling his youth out of him as he dies. Back in the castle the Queen crumples onto the floor crying. Back with Snow White, William, and the dwarf Gus we are startled as one of Finn's men who is somewhat injured come and shots an arrow at Snow White but Gus leaps between them and takes the arrow instead whilst William shoots the other man with his bow. Snow White cries and sobs as Gus dies making the eight dwarves only seven. That night they burn him on a funeral pyre and they promise to stay with Snow White and accompany her to the Duke's. During a celtic sounding song they show a series of shots of the company traveling through mountains and hills in the mist and rain. They eventually reach a forested area with snow everywhere. We see everyone asleep in a circle except for Snow White who is walking through the woods alone. She hears a twig snap and looks up startled to see William walking behind her. They talk a bit about what will happen when she's queen but when she asks him a question and his answer does not match her memory then she kisses him and pulls away to see him holding an apple, like he did when they were very young. Snow White grabs the apple from him saying "I remember that trick." William says in an odd sounding voice and with an odd expression "What trick?" Snow White just smiles at him smells the apple and then suddenly takes a big bite out of it. Then Snow White realizes that this apple is not right, it is poisoned and she can't believe that William would do this to her but as she is coughing and gagging and trying to breathe William takes on a different persona and talks to her while she stumbles through the woods. The camera cuts back to the fire pit where everyone is sleeping aoundand the Huntsman wakes up and sees Snow White isn't there he then turns and shakes William's shoulders to wake him up.

The Evil Queen appearing after giving Snow White the poisoned apple

We cut back to Snow White and when she falls for the last time William comes closer and turns into the evil Queen who brought the poisoned apple to the princess. The Queen gloats to Snow White that she ws the only person in the world that could have destroyed her for good but now Snow White shall be the Queen's deliverance to immortality. And just as she pulls her knife to stab Snow White William and the Huntsman race up and William shoots at her with a arrow but she turns in to a flock of crows when the arrow hits and eventually flies way. Then the men see Snow White on the ground, she's still breathing but only just. William falls to his knees and cradles her head and begs her to stay but it is in vain for she stops breathing and all the forest is silent in a state of disbelief. William is crying and sobbing but he finally holds her head softly and kisses her. Nothing happens.

Snow White while the Huntsman talks to her "dead" body

The dwarves and men decide to keep their promise and they take Snow White's body to the Duke's castle where she is cleaned up, put in an ivory dress and lies on  white fur covered bed-like platform in the center of a room filled with candles. Here, the Huntsman sits against a pillar drinking from a wineskin as he looks at Snow White's dead body in despair. He gets up and speaks to her telling her about his deceased wife and how he loved her and when she died he became a person he didn't like until he met Snow White. He walks over to her body and tells her that she reminds him of his wife and that they both deserved better than him and better than the deaths they died and he is so sorry that he couldn't save her.  His tears are flowing down his cheeks as he speaks to her and tells her that like his wife she, too, has gone. "You both deserved better and I'm so sorry I failed you. I'm so sorry. But you'll be a queen in heaven now and sit among the angels." He leans over and gives her a short kiss during which his tears fall down upon her cheeks and then he turns and walks away leaving Snow White's body alone. Almost one second after he is gone does she start breathing again and she reopens her eyes.
We cut to William arguing with his father in one of the military tents outside the castle saying "She died for us! For our cause! We cannot just hide behind these walls and watch this land die with her!" but his father says "You grief clouds your judgement, my son." and walks outside of the tent. William follows and begins to try to again convince him to go and battle the queen and her forces. The Duke starts to reply but there is some sort of commotion coming from the center of the yard and the Duke goes to investigate followed by William and they see Snow White in her burial clothes walk out of the open door. Of course everyone is shocked by this and William walks towards her and she takes his hand for a moment before going before the Duke and requesting help to defeat the evil Queen and basically do what William was trying to convince him to do but she has a better reason. She knows how to kill the queen and she is the only one who can do so. She makes a stirring speech to the soldiers during which the Huntsman hears her and rushes over to the crowd and listens with everyone to her and they all agree to help her.

We go back to the evil queen's room where she has landed after placing the spell on Snow White. Female bodies lie around the center of her room drained of their youth and beauty and we see the Queen looking as young and as beautiful as she was in the beginning of the movie.

Snow White's Army heading for the Queen's Castle

Back to Snow White and her army as they ride out of the Duke's castle and head for the Queen's. The dwarves went ahead of them to try and infiltrate through the very sewer through which Snow White herself escaped. They manage to get in the sewer and Beith says "Hi-ho lads, its off to work!" Quert says to the others "If he starts whistling, I'll smash his face in." This of cousre is a refernce to the Disney version of this fairytale. Anyways the dwarves mangae to get into the gaehouse and are almost successful in raising the gate before the army gets there but a queen's soldier comes up and cuts one of the ewieghts loose and this makes the gate close again so that Snow White's army is stuck there under a barrage of arrows and other deadly items. Finally, the dwarves get the gate up and everyone rushes in. Snow White manages to see where the Queen is and goes hunting for her. William and the Huntsman son follow. Snow White gets to the queen's room in which the Queen is standing alone with no weapons visible as if she were not dangerous. Snow White marches up to her and as she gets closer some of her men make it upstairs to back her and the Queen uses her magic to make characters out of black glass that fight the men as Snow White tries to kill the queen but she is no match for the queen and is quickly caught and held so that she watches the men die one by one. Then when almost everyone is dead the queen goes to kill Snow White for good and knocks her sword way out of the way and draws a knife to stab Snow White with. Just as she is about to stab Snow White uses a knife she has hidden in her hand to stab the Queen in the move that the huntsman taught her. The queen dies and Snow White is crowned Queen.

Snow White's Coronation

The actors played the key roles very convincingly given what they had to work with. I was very upset with the writer who left too many loose ends at the end and did not give Snow White much to work with for character development. The role of the queen was probably the best played character in the movie. Charlize Theron truly brought the evil queen to life and made her 3 dimensional. My expectations were not as filled as I would like that to be but I believe that to be the fault of the screen writer and not the actors. he scene between the Huntsman and Snow White as she lays as if dead is very moving and sad. Chris Hemsworth made that scene perfect. The speech Snow White gives to the men when she asks for help is also very moving but where did it come from? The writer suddenly gave a good piece of work for Snow White but had not built up to it so that it was not very normal sounding. It seemed a bit surreal instead of life like given the lack of character development written in the script. I think the actors did well given what they had to work with.

In Sanctuary

I liked the scene in the fairytale forest the best. It had such awesome detail and attention paid to it that everything that happened there seemed magical. All of the sets for this film were amazing and built to scale for he actors which isn't the normal thing they do when using castles and haunted forests. Normally miniatures are used but they aren't in this film. I like the use of light when Snow White wakes up in "Sanctuary," it makes her green eyes glow. The phantom army in the beginning made of black glass that shatters was visually dynamic as were the black glass figures during the fight between Snow White and the Queen. I liked the slow motion when the first black soldier if fractured in the very beginning. It made sure you saw what happened. The music was fitted to the mood of the movie and had both Celtic influences and modern influences in it.

The King fighting the Phantom Army

I like Snow White and the Huntsman and I think everyone should see it but just don't expect much from the writer. Watch the movie to see the awesome sets and costumes, hear the good music and ambient sounds, and Charlize Theron's portrayal of the evil Queen. I really think that the screenwriter is the cause of everyone's problems, NOT the fact that Kristen Stewart was cast as Snow White because if she were given a better script, Snow White would have more to her. So go see the show but you only really need to see it once or twice. Don't buy the movie, rent it. That's the better deal.

Beautiful Green Eyes of Snow White