Movie Time! 'Snow White and the Huntsman'

"In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen."

I saw this movie last night on campus, so I thought that I'd share my thoughts with you!  You know, since I've been rather absent lately.

The entire film was exquisite in its cinematography.  Every image captured on screen was crisp and wonderful, just as any fairy tale captured on screen ought to be.  But once you get past that and look at the actual story, that's where it seems to be lacking.

The story focuses on the relationship between Snow White and the Huntsman (ergo, the title), but I didn't feel that there was much of a connection there.  He was sent on a task to retrieve Snow White, who had just escaped from the dark Queen Ravenna.  The Huntsman had a task and even though he changed and never brought Snow White back to the castle, there still wasn't anything to remark on as far as a relationship.

Kristen Stewart (Snow White) was awfully similar to Bella Swan in Twilight, what with her nervous blinking and heavy breathing all of the time.  Not to mention that both characters took a really long time to die... however, I feel that she's improved a bit as an actress since Twilight, so that's always a good thing.

William should never have been part of the story.  He was in Snow White's childhood and he came back towards the end of the movie to help her get to Hammond's castle, but really, he had such a small function in the movie.  I found it a little funny that he assumed he and Snow White would fall madly in love purely because they had history together.  When he kissed Snow White after biting the apple, it was really strange because they hadn't seen each other in like, ten years or something.  It just struck me as incredibly weird and the director/writer should have figured out a way to edit him out.

The Queen and her brother... ew.  The brother was so disgusting that chills were running up and down my spine.  He was just... gross.  From his haircut-gone-awry to his incredibly confusing relationship with the queen, it raised more than a few questions.

Questions were raised throughout the movie.  There were key things that I felt should have been known about each of the characters, but instead were not.  Why did Queen Ravenna want Snow White's father's kingdom (I believe his name was Magnus)?  What happened to the Huntman's first wife?  That was never really clarified, even though I know they addressed this at some point.  As a result, I really didn't care about any of the characters.  When and if they died or were severely injured, it didn't matter to me.

The ending.  Oh my god.  That was the most infuriating part!  There's no closure!  Snow White is crowned Queen, but we still don't know what happens with her and the Huntsman, the man who is supposedly her true love, given that he was the one to awaken her from the dead.  The movie ends with her coronation and the Huntsman is lurking in the background.

What the crap?!  I feel like there isn't a lot left for a sequel (if the writers and director think so, I'd be very interested in knowing their thoughts), so I'm left to assume that I'll never know exactly how this movie ends.  There is no closure and for me, that's very unsettling.  I'm left to assume that Snow White will fix the kingdom (because of some fickle power that movie-goers can't really see but is implied all the time) and the Huntsman will go back to doing what he's always done, despite being Snow White's true love (and really, who didn't see that one coming?).

Overall, I was disappointed by a lot of things in this movie, but the cinematography and the handful of great actors and characters really saved what could have been an absolute train wreck.  Instead, it was just a small train wreck.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude