The Huntsman: Winter's War
(C+ or 2/4 stars)
'The Huntsman: Winter's War' (directed by visual effects wizard, Cedric Nicolas-Trotan) is both a prequel & a sequel to 2012's modest hit, Snow White & the Huntsman. In the 1st segment of the film (narrated by Liam Neeson), the story takes place circa 20 yrs. before the events of Snow White, when malevolent Queen Ravenna (the deliciously hammy Charlize Theron) has a loving, mild-mannered young sister, Freya (Emily Blunt), who is pregnant with her lover's (an engaged Duke) child. Ravenna tries to convince Freya that 'love' never works out, but Freya refuses to believe that ... that is until said Duke burns their baby girl in her crib {this dark, oft-violent movie ain't for young kiddies, folks}. At that very moment, a disillusioned, rage-filled Freya unleashes magic that she never new she had in her, & becomes an Ice Queen {something stunningly similar to Elsa in Frozen}. She flees her sister Ravenna & creates a vast winter empire where love is ruled a sin by raising an army of 'huntsmen' - children who were kidnapped from their homes & forced to serve as warriors.
About 10 yrs. later, Freya's 2 best warriors, hunky, axe-wielding Eric (Chris Hemsworth) & beautiful, bow-&-arrow shooting Sara (Jessica Chastain), fall in love {forbidden!!}. And so, Freya freaks, Sara is killed {circa the time frame of the 2012 film)}, and Eric is banished in cruel punishment. Action then shifts 7 yrs. later into the sequel portion of the narrative to after Snow White (Kristen Stewart in the 1st film, but she is not seen here) defeats Queen Ravenna. Still mourning the loss of Sara, Eric is then commanded by Prince William (Sam Claflin) to recover & destroy the coveted, all-powerful Magic Mirror before Freya can get her icy hands on it. Eric is joined on this quest by a handful of dwarves, along with someone who is presumed dead. In fact, several of the 'presumed dead' ... are not actually deceased. Chaos, melodrama, betrayals, & action ensues.
While this is not a good film by any stretch and, while the script is often a confounding mess, I still found things to enjoy -- more on that later. For now, it's easy to address what went 'wrong'. Firstly, though she isn't as popular now as she was 4 yrs. ago, it doesn't help that Kristen Stewart/Snow White is a no-show in the film (remember her ill-fated, scandalous affair with the married director of the prior film?). Salary issues surfaced when Sony e-mail hacks revealed that Charlize Theron was to be paid much less than Chris Hemsworth; she rightfully refused to sign until she got the same $10 million-ish payday as her co-star. Then, A-list scriptwriters David Koepp & Frank Darabont exited the project, leaving Evan Spiliotopoulos & Craig Mazin to re-vamp the story & medieval characters so that a plagiaristic Frozen-esque plotline could prevail. All of these factors contributed to the disappointing 'overall' quality of the film; the negatives hang in the air. Having said that, critics just love to pounce on a supposedly bad movie when they get a whiff of bad pre-buzz of a movie and, promptly, they've murdered this film with scathing reviews.
Despite a fantastic cast (Theron, Blunt, & Chastain alone make this near-requisite viewing), Theron's absence for most of the running time (she dominates the beginning & end) takes away its most engaging element -- a treacherous villain. Blunt is a great actress, but her glacial Freya, while fascinating & well-executed, is not as interesting as her older sister ... mostly because we've seen her likeness before as Elsa in Frozen. The romantic subplot btwn. Eric & Sara is sweet, but predictable and, it doesn't help that we don't get to see their interactions through the years as they grow up & stick by each other as child prisoners. We just have to take, at face value, their love loyalty to each other. Individually, Hemsworth is fine, doing his hero thing; looks the part, acts the part, executes some semi-humorous one-liners, and moves on. Chastain is fine, too, but this is far from best role or performance. By the time Theron finally re-enters the plot, it's a sort of 'too little, too late' situation. Her scheming, slithering, hissy fit queen is the best aspect of the movie. Even some funny cameos (mostly, the dwarves) can't redeem the flawed, sometimes confounding script.
When Snow White & the Huntsman was released, it transformed one of cinema's beloved faerie tales into a fantasy adventure. Though that film had assets, the problem with it was that it contained too messy of a script. The main problem with 'Winter's War' is that the script here is messier yet, and the length of the film (104 minutes) is too short (needs miniseries treatment) to properly tell a story of this sort. Wild character arcs, twists, turns, & other assorted kooky fantasy/magical plot points needed to unfold with proper cohesion & time instead of in a rushed fashion. But again, it's hard for me to hate on this film because I DID like several things. Charlize is a hoot. Emily Blunt's quasi-tragic character intrigues. I liked the girl power component (our 3 female leads). Elements of an effective fantasy adventure are still in place: the wondrous faerie tale setting, enchanted forests, the immaculate castles, Colleen Atwood's astounding costumes, some great effects {the shape-shifting liquid gold mirror, those goblins!}, James Newton Howard's propulsive musical score, and a rousing climax. 'The Huntsman: Winter's War' has strong suits & doesn't lack for ideas, but its inability to fuse them into a consistently compelling story that doesn't shamefully incorporate tropes (Frozen) is what holds back this fantasy epic from being more satisfactory.
About 10 yrs. later, Freya's 2 best warriors, hunky, axe-wielding Eric (Chris Hemsworth) & beautiful, bow-&-arrow shooting Sara (Jessica Chastain), fall in love {forbidden!!}. And so, Freya freaks, Sara is killed {circa the time frame of the 2012 film)}, and Eric is banished in cruel punishment. Action then shifts 7 yrs. later into the sequel portion of the narrative to after Snow White (Kristen Stewart in the 1st film, but she is not seen here) defeats Queen Ravenna. Still mourning the loss of Sara, Eric is then commanded by Prince William (Sam Claflin) to recover & destroy the coveted, all-powerful Magic Mirror before Freya can get her icy hands on it. Eric is joined on this quest by a handful of dwarves, along with someone who is presumed dead. In fact, several of the 'presumed dead' ... are not actually deceased. Chaos, melodrama, betrayals, & action ensues.
While this is not a good film by any stretch and, while the script is often a confounding mess, I still found things to enjoy -- more on that later. For now, it's easy to address what went 'wrong'. Firstly, though she isn't as popular now as she was 4 yrs. ago, it doesn't help that Kristen Stewart/Snow White is a no-show in the film (remember her ill-fated, scandalous affair with the married director of the prior film?). Salary issues surfaced when Sony e-mail hacks revealed that Charlize Theron was to be paid much less than Chris Hemsworth; she rightfully refused to sign until she got the same $10 million-ish payday as her co-star. Then, A-list scriptwriters David Koepp & Frank Darabont exited the project, leaving Evan Spiliotopoulos & Craig Mazin to re-vamp the story & medieval characters so that a plagiaristic Frozen-esque plotline could prevail. All of these factors contributed to the disappointing 'overall' quality of the film; the negatives hang in the air. Having said that, critics just love to pounce on a supposedly bad movie when they get a whiff of bad pre-buzz of a movie and, promptly, they've murdered this film with scathing reviews.
Despite a fantastic cast (Theron, Blunt, & Chastain alone make this near-requisite viewing), Theron's absence for most of the running time (she dominates the beginning & end) takes away its most engaging element -- a treacherous villain. Blunt is a great actress, but her glacial Freya, while fascinating & well-executed, is not as interesting as her older sister ... mostly because we've seen her likeness before as Elsa in Frozen. The romantic subplot btwn. Eric & Sara is sweet, but predictable and, it doesn't help that we don't get to see their interactions through the years as they grow up & stick by each other as child prisoners. We just have to take, at face value, their love loyalty to each other. Individually, Hemsworth is fine, doing his hero thing; looks the part, acts the part, executes some semi-humorous one-liners, and moves on. Chastain is fine, too, but this is far from best role or performance. By the time Theron finally re-enters the plot, it's a sort of 'too little, too late' situation. Her scheming, slithering, hissy fit queen is the best aspect of the movie. Even some funny cameos (mostly, the dwarves) can't redeem the flawed, sometimes confounding script.
When Snow White & the Huntsman was released, it transformed one of cinema's beloved faerie tales into a fantasy adventure. Though that film had assets, the problem with it was that it contained too messy of a script. The main problem with 'Winter's War' is that the script here is messier yet, and the length of the film (104 minutes) is too short (needs miniseries treatment) to properly tell a story of this sort. Wild character arcs, twists, turns, & other assorted kooky fantasy/magical plot points needed to unfold with proper cohesion & time instead of in a rushed fashion. But again, it's hard for me to hate on this film because I DID like several things. Charlize is a hoot. Emily Blunt's quasi-tragic character intrigues. I liked the girl power component (our 3 female leads). Elements of an effective fantasy adventure are still in place: the wondrous faerie tale setting, enchanted forests, the immaculate castles, Colleen Atwood's astounding costumes, some great effects {the shape-shifting liquid gold mirror, those goblins!}, James Newton Howard's propulsive musical score, and a rousing climax. 'The Huntsman: Winter's War' has strong suits & doesn't lack for ideas, but its inability to fuse them into a consistently compelling story that doesn't shamefully incorporate tropes (Frozen) is what holds back this fantasy epic from being more satisfactory.