Honesty being the best policy, I’ll come right out and say that I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece from Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman, just an entertainingly dark fairy tale/fantasy movie. In some ways, Sanders delivers, but in just as many he drops the ball; dull, stilted storytelling, the dreaded “destiny” trope, and a performance from Kristen Stewart that just can’t hope to measure up to the work done by her supporting cast all weigh Snow White and the Huntsman down. At the same time, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron both pull their weight and then some while Sanders’ eye for spectacle leads to some solid battle scenes (though none so good as what we see in episode 9 of Game of Thrones) and births some great creature design. None of the movie’s better merits let it rise above the various troubles holding it back, though, and so Snow White and the Huntsman remains in the realm of the mediocre. Take a trip over to Go, See, Talk! and read my review in full.
I really want to see this movie. It looks beautifully directed! Love your site!
It does look nice, I’ll give it that. But that’s all I can really give it. Thanks for stopping in!
Theron and Hemsworth are quite good. Unfortunately, Stewart isn’t.
Exactly. I do wonder if the film would have been different overall had they chosen someone other than Stewart for the lead.
Saiorse Ronan was originally a lead, but they decided the age difference between her and Hemsworth was too much.
10 years between Saoirse and Chris. I can get that.
Dude’s only a year older than me, though. I didn’t know that.
I agree with your assessment of the movie completely! If a stronger lead had been cast as Snow White it might have taken the whole project up a notch… and it also would have benefited from a shorter run time as well.
I really think this could have been improved significantly just with a different lead actress. The excess material makes each act sag in spots, but I think that could have been more manageable with a stronger principal anchoring the whole picture.