Universal Pictures
Saw “Snow White & the Huntsman” in theaters Friday night when it was released and I have to say I walked away happy that I went and excited by Kristen Stewart’s surprisingly good performance.
I went in knowing Stewart was the star and knowing that she annoyed me in the Twilight movies so much that I didn’t exactly watch them in full. However, Friday afternoon I read from the Chicago Tribune that Stewart proved she can act with a good performance as Snow White.
This is fact. Nothing that bothered me about Stewart in the Twilight series got my attention in Snow White. She played a totally different character (Snow White is not a vampire, nor dating one) and you could say she had a big role trying to play a classic character from an old kids movie. Bravo, Kristen.
The movie is an adaptation from the original classic. Many of the same characters and scenarios are included. I won’t share those to spare this article from spoiling the flick, but if you’ve seen the original “Snow White & the 7 Dwarves” you know what scenarios come up – what you don’t know is how they came up in this adaptation.
This script is based on this plot line: king and queen have a daughter (Snow White) who’s thought to be the purest and “fairest” of them all, queen dies from sickness, king goes to war to fight off an army, finds a prisoner (Ravenna, played by Charlize Theron), she’s beautiful, he marries her, she becomes queen, she murders him, holds Snow White captive in the tallest tower (Shrek style, baby).
That’s all I’ll tell you about that.
Otherwise, Theron and Chris Hemsworth play solid roles. Theron does a good job playing an evil stepmom/queen/etc. by performing well in a lot of non-verbal scenes. Hemsworth plays the Huntsman and is quite the warrior. However, I don’t believe we ever learn the Huntsman’s name. Sam Spruell (plays “Finn”) delivers a really good performance (second to Stewart) as a slave brother of Theron’s. Spruell, especially, has many spine tingling moments in the film.
Sure there are scenes that are a little slow, scenes where you’re sitting there wondering “Come on, get on with it,” because we all know what’s coming next, but for the most part the movie moves along easily for a 2-hour flick.
I should warn you, don’t get too comfortable sitting back in your seat because there’s a lot of action and a lot of unexpected moments.
This is definitely a go-see-it-in-theaters movies because of all the action. I enjoyed it for a Friday night. I don’t know that it’s a movie I’ll rent/buy and watch over and over again, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again when it’s on DVD.
If I had a 6-year-old I wouldn’t take him/her to see it just because it’s Snow White.
A good flick that garners a lot of well-earned respect for Stewart as an actress, and there’s something about her as Snow White that left me fascinated by her character. Frankly, it left me wanting more Kristen Stewart.
★★1/2
Was this that bad for being one of my first reviews?
