Phubbs
Posts: 660
Joined: 3/4/2012
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Snow White and the Huntsman
Going off on a different route with this classic tale, the Brothers Grimm might be spinning in their graves. I use the term 'might be' as perhaps they would of liked this epic offering, myself I can't quite decide.
The plot is completely upside down and inside out, this isn't your Disney story nor is it even close to the Grimm tale, apart from a few legendary sequences of course. Not that this is a big problem though as the story is constructed well and does flow nicely with all the elements required for Ms White's tale. Its just a rather big swerve from what you might expect.
The main issue with this film is obvious from about the point where we meet the evil Queen. This film is taken waaaay too seriously and is almost bordering on some kind of biopic historical epic. Theron seems to be going for Oscar gold here as she bellows and rants like crazy, most scenes are pretty overly intense, Snow White has her own little William Wallace moment towards the end as if we were in a real moment of British ancient history and there's actually quite a bit of blood and violence here.
Ironic I know, most times I yearn for more darkness and death with a serious tone in films these days as they are mostly aimed at the younger audience. But this time its just too much, amazingly.
Kinda got that feeling when we see Snow White breaching the evil Queens castle walls and hacking her way through lots of knights. Add in the odd slow motion moment and you start thinking we're getting a tad off track from what we have all come to know/think of Snow White.
Her childhood friend 'William' also adds to this notion when he shows us he's pretty much an invincible one man army and would put Hawkeye to shame in the bow n arrow ranks.
The film looks fantastic I must say, the visuals, locations and effects to conjure up this bleak murky fairy inhabited fantasy world are gorgeous. This is right up there with 'Legend' and is one of the best looking fantasy films I've seen for some time. Clear influences from various films jump out at you all over the show of course, the biggest being 'Lord of the Rings' with the sweeping mountain vista's, knights in battle and large CGI trolls. Other films such as 'Willow' especially at the start of the film for instance, infact the film seems to start more family friendly like 'Willow' but slowly morphs into a much darker gloomy affair.
Another problem if you ask me was casting. Everyone was fine in their roles accept for...yep you guessed it, Stewart. Despite my feelings for her (yep I have a crush) she really can't act too well. She tries bless her but all she ever does is pout, sulk and never actually says much whilst looking awkward and embarrassed most of the time...just like young girls do at her age infact. Of course she also brings with her the unwanted baggage of the 'Twilight' franchise which many do not like, not a good start for this fantasy franchise. Its very clear she was cast purely down to her previous fantasy film experience with vamps n wolves.
As for the rest they are all fine. Excellent performance by Sam Spruell as 'Finn' but Vince Reagan is becoming somewhat type cast as bearded men in time. Hemsworth is hard to understand at times with his attempts at an old English Northern accent but he looks the part perfectly. As I said before Theron is just completely detached from the film with her humongous epic attempts at an Oscar or so it seems.
As for the controversy about actors playing the band of dwarfs, I see no problem with that a tall, infact they were one of the best things in the film. These guys should of been in 'LOTR' haha, really well designed and realised, would never have guessed they were top stars like Hoskins and Winstone.
Its good to see some creepy gothic darkness which is what the Grimm Brothers were all about (to a degree), but this film seems to lose that aspect and go down the sweeping historical epic route at full throttle. A great fantasy film that looks tremendous on one hand, but I think everyone got carried away and forgot it was suppose to be based around a children's fairytale.
'FREEDOM!!' oh wait..
< Message edited by Phubbs -- 19/7/2012 7:39:30 AM >
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