About The Movie:
Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is the daughter of King Magnus (Noah Huntley) and Queen Eleanor (Liberty Ross). After his wife's death, King Magnus falls in love with the beautiful Ravenna (Charlize Theron) after rescuing her from the Dark Army, a fleet of invincible glass soldiers who have enslaved several of the neighboring kingdoms. The two are married but Ravenna - who is in fact a powerful sorceress and the Dark Army's master - kills Magnus on their wedding night after claiming that men like the King exploit the beauty of women and discard them. As Ravenna seizes control of the kingdom, Magnus' most trusted knight Duke Hammond (Vincent Regan) attempts to help Snow White escape the Castle but fails when she is captured by Ravenna's brother and enforcer Finn (Sam Spruell). Snow White is then locked away in the dungeons while Ravenna uses her Magic Mirror (Christopher Obi Ogugua), who promises to help her become "the fairest of them all". Over the next several years, Ravenna captures all the women whose beauty might surpass her own and drains their youth. The kingdom meanwhile is left in ruins under her rule and Ravenna's abuse of magic results in her stolen beauty fading.
Fifteen years later, Ravenna learns from the Mirror that a now-grown up Snow White is destined to surpass her and that she must consume the young girl's heart in order to become immortal. She orders Finn to bring her Snow White but the princess escapes. She is chased into the Dark Forest, where the Knights ultimately lose her trail. Powerless in the Dark Forest, Ravenna locates Eric the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), a drunken widower who survived a hunting expedition to the Dark Forest sometime before, and orders him to lead Finn and his men in pursuit of Snow White. In exchange she promises to revive his deceased wife Sarah but warns him that he will be executed should he refuse. Duke Hammond learns that Snow White is alive and has fled into the Dark Forest while his son William (Sam Claflin) - who was her childhood friend and love - disguises himself in order to infiltrate Finn's small band as an archer to find her.
Eric soon locates Snow White only to be startled by her claim that Ravenna will betray him. He interrogates Finn and soon learns that it is impossible to resurrect the dead - which infuriates him. The Huntsman helps Snow White escape, promising to escort her to Duke Hammond's Castle in exchange for a small reward of gold. The two pass through a village where all the women have disfigured themselves in order to escape Ravenna. Eric learns about Snow White's true identity as they continue on-wards. They are then found and tied up by a band of dwarves with an old grudge against the Huntsman - consisting of Muir (Bob Hoskins), Beith (Ian McShane), Gorth (Ray Winstone), Coll (Toby Jones), Duir (Eddie Marsan), Quert (Johnny Harris), Nion (Nick Frost) and Gus (Brian Gleeson). The others are about to kill the captured travelers when Muir uses his powers of premonition to discover that Snow White's identity as the only person who can defeat Ravenna and end her reign of terror. They agree to help her.
The group is attacked once more by Finn's men, resulting in Gus's death. The Huntsman kills Finn after learning he is the one responsible for Sarah's death. William then reveals himself and helps defeat the soldiers before joining the others in their journey to Hammond's castle.
Ravenna learns of Finn's death and decides to take matters into her own hands. She disguises herself as William and tempts Snow White into eating a poisoned apple, but is forced to flee when the Huntsman and William attack her. William attempts to revive the now comatose Snow White with his kiss but fails and takes her corpse to Hammond's Castle, not seeing that a single tear has fallen. The Duke and his allies mourn while the Huntsman professes his love for the princess and tells her that she reminds him of his wife and kisses her, breaking the spell as she awakens after a second tear falls. Snow White then takes command of the Duke's army and promises to defeat Ravenna by leading them into war.
The Dwarves infiltrate Ravenna's Castle through the sewers and allow the Duke's army to invade the Castle after opening the gates. Snow White feebly attempts to confront Ravenna and engages in a one-on-one duel with her stepmother. By a stroke of luck, Snow White stabs Ravenna in the heart, causing the Queen to die after she withers into a decrepit hag - her true form. The Dark Army crumbles into dust and Hammond's army is victorious. Snow White is crowned Queen as the kingdom is restored to its former glory, even showing Greta young again, who had been previously drained by the queen in the beginning of the film, and both William and the Huntsman vow to stay by her side and protect the kingdom.
What Is Good About The Movie:
The best thing in the movie by far is Charlize Theron's performance as the scheming, snarling Queen Ravenna, who is under an empowering spell that allows her to murder at will, heal her own wounds, and remain eternally youthful in face and body — that is, as long as there is no ''fairer blood'' around, in which case the spell will be broken.
Theron, knowingly over-the-top, acts in a viciously charged and entertaining style. Wearing a spiky iron crown, along with a black scalloped dress that makes her look like a six-foot-tall human bird as if designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, she plays Ravenna as mad for power, yet there's a timely element of resentment to her viciousness. Ravenna hates living in a world where men can feed on women's beauty and then toss them away. She's a fascist of feminism, and Theron's acting has the blood of operatic anger coursing through it. She updates the mythic ripeness of the material. That's true, in a far more tremulous way, of Kristen Stewart as well, who is just wary and delicate enough of a presence to play ''purity'' without becoming a pain.
What Is Bad About The Movie:
It doesn't help that Snow White's romantic inclinations remain oddly vague throughout. Does she want to take a bite out of the Huntsman? Or does she still have a nostalgic crush on William (Sam Claflin), her childhood friend? This amorous tug-of-war is, I guess, supposed to remind us of the Twilight movies (talk about letting a franchise tail wag the fairy-tale dog!), but in this case the choice comes to very little. And that's a real miscalculation, since Stewart is so much more convincing as a victim-hearththrob than she is when she's required to put on armor and lead a revolution.
Overall Grade:
A-
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