Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Source: kissthemgoodbye.net

I don't usually do movie reviews, but I loved Snow White and the Huntsman so much (and had so many thoughts on it) that I decided to make an exception!

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), starring Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, is a retelling of Snow White made by Universal Pictures. I get that Disney "has to" make live action versions of their beloved animated films to keep the copyright, but after watching Snow White and the Huntsman, I am convinced that there was absolutely no need for Disney to remake Snow White. Universal did it perfectly. And that, in a nutshell, is my rating of the movie.

(Also, I just found out there's a prequel/sequel, so you'd better believe I'll be watching that!!)

I'm bad at analyzing things, so I just made a list of notes I wanted to share. These are my (mostly unedited) thoughts on Snow White and the Huntsman. There are some spoilers in here, but not any huge ones, so read with caution if you haven't seen the movie and want to! (Or just come back and read this after you've watched it.)

Mostly Unedited Thoughts

• Sorry, but the king kind of brought his doom on himself. I mean, we hear later in the movie about how he was such a good man/king/husband/father, but in his approximately five minutes of screen time, we get to see him 1) look at his baby for 2 seconds, 2) mourn his wife for 2 seconds, 3) hack apart a fake army for 3 minutes, 4) feel pity for a gorgeous, "helpless" woman he knows nothing about for 10 seconds, 4) lust after a gorgeous, "helpless" woman he knows nothing about for 1 minute, and 5) die for 46 seconds. I just didn't feel like he was such a shining example of manhood.
• Do all producers go, "How can we make this woman evil-er? Ah, let's add a whiff of incest"? (Okay, I have been guilty of doing this too.)
• I was a little confused about the world building; everything was very "this is a made-up fantasy world" except for a few small instances–i.e. Snow White whispering the Lord's Prayer to herself (while about to burn a voodoo doll??) and later the Huntsman mentioning that she's in heaven with the angels.
• What does it mean that Snow White is "life itself"? And how did that come about? It's all very vague and I have Questions. Is this "life itself" thing the reason Greta (and a whole bunch of other people, I have to assume) come back from being old women again at the end? And why can the queen only suck life from beautiful women (i.e. why does scarring themselves keep the women of the Fenlands safe)? Speaking of which, I want to know more about the queen's background! Why exactly does she hate men so much? How long have she and Finn actually been alive??
• Speaking of the queen, she had a fantastic villain moment when she sacrificed Finn. In Timothy Hickson's On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume I, he talks about showing what the villain is willing to give up to keep their power, and Snow White and the Huntsman did this so well when Ravenna realized that saving Finn would take everything she had and sacrificed him to keep her own youth/beauty/power.
• If you're a horse or a stag, stay away from Snow White. She's bad news for you, pal.
• I appreciate that Snow White and the Huntsman are covered in dirt for 99% of the movie. Plus, Snow White's fingernails are filthy. I love those kinds of details that make stories more realistic and believable.
• The dark forest was AWESOME. I loved the elements from the original Disney animated version (moving trees) paired with the hallucinogenic gas that brought to mind the Scarecrow from Batman. The "it feeds off your fears" thing was a fantastic addition as well.
• I appreciated the overall lack of gore! There was a lot of violence, but on the whole it wasn't too messy.
• I love the way the apple was handled; Snow White thought it was someone she loved and trusted giving it to her as an inside joke, which made it believable that she'd take it and eat it of her own accord.

Source: kissthemgoodbye.net

• I find it ironically hilarious that BOTH William and the Huntsman kissed Snow White without her consent, and the only kiss she initiated turned out to be her evil stepmother in disguise.

Source: kissthemgoodbye.net

Source: kissthemgoodbye.net

• I love that Snow White didn't choose William or the Huntsman at the end. Both played their part and the ending is ambiguous as to whether she chooses either of them (although it is called Snow White and the HUNTSMAN, not Snow White and William, so ...)
• There were such unexpected pops of humor throughout the movie that I laughed out loud several times. ("We both go together" ... [Struggle] "You first.")
• The filmmakers really made it feel like the good guys' defeat was possible every time they went up against the bad guys, which is no mean feat, especially in a fairy tale where you KNOW the ending!

If I had to sum up all these miscellaneous thoughts, I suppose I would say: the magic system and world building were weak or just poorly explained at certain points and I wish they had been slightly more developed, but the characters and the overall story were fantastic.

This was everything I wanted and more in a Snow White retelling. Have you watched Snow White and the Huntsman? What's your favorite Snow White retelling (book or movie)?