Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders)

[Adam]

imdb

[Adam]

Not awful, but 100% humorless and familiar. Chaz Theron and Chris Hemsworth were both enjoyable and it's actually put together with more than a base level of competence; which made me remember something Theo Panayides wrote once to the effect of "A lot of the editors and DPs and directors who work on bad films are still lovers of film."

But what the duck, Hollywood? Hire real dwarfs!

[Mal]

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I'm not going to complain about a movie that has Ian McShane as a dwarf.

]

That was one of many great surprises for me. It's a bit so-so because it is obvious that this is the director's first dance, but what this film gets so right is atmosphere, visuals, and riding the dark fairy-tale-horse all the way to the end. K. Stew is oddly enough a great Snow White- didn't care for Charlize, but I liked Hemsworth probably more than anything else he's done prior. Had this been made by a more seasoned director with this same cast and budget, it probably could have been a wonderful epic, but as is, its just good.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Probably seeing this tonight. For some reason my dad called and asked if I wanted to go. Didn't peg this as his kind of movie, but at least it isn't Battleship.

[[ETM]]

I had no intention of seeing this, but the trailer was delicious, so I'm taking my girlfriend and a friend to see it tomorrow night.

[Watashi]

The only way I would see this is for the dwarves.

[eternity]

Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.

The script is nonsense. It shamelessly takes key events from Snow White and strips out everything that makes any of it make even a lick of sense, and replaces it with a bunch of random, insignificant scenes. KStew, Charlize, and even Hemsworth give the worst performances I've seen from them, but I can't really blame them; there's no way to come out of a movie like this unscathed.

[Mal]

Ets, I have to give you credit for not injecting a single pop culture reference into your paragraph.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Holy hell this was stupid. The only thing this had going for it was the gothic atmosphere and the settings, but that was squandered by forcing the Evil level up to a billion (that's Evil with a capital E). The story was poorly conceived, inconsistent, and all around pathetic. The performances weren't much better, with Theron taking the cake (All the Heston with zero the fun!!!). KStew has one face: constipated. She is atrocious. The movie feels an hour longer than it actually was thanks to terrible pacing and a dull, flimsy connection between Snow White and Mother Nature. Seriously, this is a train wreck.

I think I would have been better off seeing Battleship.

[Watashi]

Since when do we call her KStew now?

[Sxottlan]

Some visually striking and inspired moments, even if one borrows shamelessly from Miyazaki. The hallucinations in the forest were pretty good. Funny how their attempt to return the story to its darker roots only comes off smelling of desperation.

Acting all around was pretty bad. Theron was especially bad. Having not seen any of the Twilight movies, this is probably the first Kristen Stewart film I've seen since Panic Room. I dunno. She was alright I guess. I did have to stifle a laugh when one of the dwarfs declared her "the One!" I couldn't help but feel that the producers may have put the love triangle that goes nowhere into the movie simply because they're used to seeing Stewart threatened at all times of being in a man sandwich.

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And if she's life incarnate or some such thing, why couldn't she bring that one dwarf back from the dead?

And if the damn queen can simply change shape and just find Snow White in an instant, why didn't she do that right away and save us an hour?

Seriously. I think I had more fun envisioning the eventual porn parody.

]

Damn. With exception of The Avengers, this summer movie season has been pretty terrible so far. Here's what I've seen:

The Avengers: ****
Dark Shadows: **
Battleship: *1/2
Men in Black 3: **1/2
Snow White & the Huntsman: **

[Pop Trash]

Since when do we call her KStew now?

Yeah, that's some seriously annoying London tabloid bullshit. Anyway I liked "KStew" in Adventureland fwiw. Her weird awkward fidgety thing in that worked for me.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Since when do we call her KStew now?

Since she sucks and deserves a shitty nickname.

[Raiders]

This was so awful. Theron's Queen has to be one of the most horribly inspired and performed characters in a long, long time.

[Kurosawa Fan]

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And if the damn queen can simply change shape and just find Snow White in an instant, why didn't she do that right away and save us an hour?

Seriously. I think I had more fun envisioning the eventual porn parody.

]

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See, I thought this in the theater, and then when the queen returned all wasted and crawling in the black muck, reaching for the mirror, I assumed she could have done it, but that it would have wasted all of her power, since it was explained that her power was waning since Snow White came of age, and so she only did it once every other resource has been expended, purely out of desperation. Cool, well explained. Then she miraculously recovers from her oil slick state by sucking face with countless village girls, and seems more powerful than ever for the final showdown. This begs the question: why wasn't she just doing that all along? Why didn't she just have a steady stream of village girls coming and going for face-sucking purposes (it's implied, but we only see one, and then she ages and weakens and never goes back to that life-restoring well until she's near death)? Why didn't she keep her brother in the castle, round up a bunch of village girls, turn into her storm of crows, hunt down Snow White and take her heart, and if unsuccessful, come back, suck face, give it another go, etc? Repeat ad nauseum until Snow White is dead. They killed their own explanation.

Seriously, this movie was sooooooo stupid.

]

[Spinal]

I was on the fence about seeing this one. Looks like I can safely miss it.

[MadMan]

I thought it looked like a really shitty movie from the get go. Too bad considering I like Theron as an actress and the movie's banners/posters were really cool. Maybe that's another sign that a movie might suck: the advertising campaign is operating on full speed ahead.

[Wryan]

I thought it was okay. There are a lot of elements that they could have gone cliche on but didn't. There are some great visuals and use of special effects. Someone mentioned the dwarves, but I kind of loved how successfully they dwarfized Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Toby Jones (half), Eddie Marsan, Nick Frost and Bob Hoskins. They collectively probably had the best acting. Theron is turned up to 11 but probably could have benefitted from fewer lines because she glowers well. Yes on the shameless cribbing of Princess Mononoke. What's up the the shoehorning of Judeo-Christian elements into a Grimm tale? I don't recall that ever being a consideration. Stewart looks pained all the time. I liked Hemsworth.

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Hilariously awful pep talk by Stewart before the final battle. However, I liked that they ended without making her choose between the two men. I liked that they didn't make it an easy action for her to jump back into a relationship she remembered from childhood. And I LOVED that the queen's brother spies on her talking to thin air, setting up the obvious implication. A throwaway moment, sure, but I found that an interesting tweak on the familiar story. Not sure what to do with the queen's brother character. Nice to see he wasn't inept though.

]

[Skitch]

Why do I want this to fail so bad? Oh right, Kristen Stewart.

[Sxottlan]

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And I LOVED that the queen's brother spies on her talking to thin air, setting up the obvious implication.

]

I guess I'm not getting what was the implication. That the man in the mirror was actually just a representation of her insecurities?

[Wryan]

I guess I'm not getting what was the implication. That the man in the mirror was actually just a representation of her insecurities?

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Yes more or less. That the mirror does nothing (like when she appears later, weakened, coming back from the William disguise and reaches out to the mirror and it does nothing to help her). That she is, well, obviously a bit touched anyway, but I thought it added a nice suggestion.

]

[EyesWideOpen]

I thought this was really good. I was dreading a Hollywood action movie and this had a lot of quiet understated moments and some really nice forest scenes.

And if you guys were actually paying attention pretty much every "story" complaint in this thread was quite easily explained in the film. I mean c'mon this isn't Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy where you had to pay that close attention.

[eternity]

I thought this was really good. I was dreading a Hollywood action movie and this had a lot of quiet understated moments and some really nice forest scenes.

And if you guys were actually paying attention pretty much every "story" complaint in this thread was quite easily explained in the film. I mean c'mon this isn't Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy where you had to pay that close attention.

There isn't a story. There are a couple plot threads pulled from the Snow White story thrown in to remind us that it's a Snow White movie, but otherwise they just hang there. The more you pay attention, the more obvious it is just how badly written this, ahem, "story" is.

[EyesWideOpen]

There isn't a story. There are a couple plot threads pulled from the Snow White story thrown in to remind us that it's a Snow White movie, but otherwise they just hang there. The more you pay attention, the more obvious it is just how badly written this, ahem, "story" is.

If you didn't think there "was a story" that's on you but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people complaning about "inconsistencies" that were explained in the film if you were paying attention.

[Kurosawa Fan]

If you didn't think there "was a story" that's on you but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people complaning about "inconsistencies" that were explained in the film if you were paying attention.

Use moments from the film to explain the queen turning into a flock of crows and locating Snow White at that point in the narrative, and not using it right from the jump. Explain the queen not just walking up to the tower and taking Snow White's heart as soon as the mirror reveals that it will give her eternal life. Or the threat of the queen getting close to death, with her power weakening, only to restore herself for the final battle by sucking face with girls, as though she couldn't have been doing that all along. These are all stupid contrivances that were given either flimsy explanations, or no explanation at all.