Snow White is a classic fairy-tale that has been told over and over
again, so much to the point that it gets boring and needs a new take to be
interesting. So this film was made and is easily one of the best adaptations of
the story. The best way to describe this version in short is Snow White meets
Lord of the Rings meets Pan’s Labyrinth.
People complain about Kristen Stewart being cast as Snow White, they
just can’t separate Miss Stewart from the awful Bella Swan character. However,
she did a better job than she’s getting credit for, not only is her version of
the character more well written than Bella Swan but also previous versions of
Snow White. Look at Disney’s Snow White for example, apart from being cute, she
wasn’t very memorable; in fact she was boring, could not sing and did nothing
except look after the dwarfs. This Snow White is definitely has more to do,
she’s more proactive, she puts up fights, she rescues herself and she actually
faces the evil Queen. Then there are people saying she’s not prettier than
Charlize Theron, well that’s up to anyone’s opinion but to say she’s ugly it’s
worrying what kind of standards they have.
There is no denying that Charlize Theron is the best part of the film,
she plays the Queen as pure evil, probably evil itself but does make her
3-dimensional by giving her some humanity. Adding more layers to the beauty
motivation, she has magic powers and her beauty makes her more powerful. I love
the slight visual irony between The Queen and Snow White, The Queen has light
blond hair and quite an innocent looking face while Snow White has black hair
and has a slight evil look to her face, don’t be fooled by appearances.
Chris Hemsworth is well cast as the Huntsman. The dwarfs in the film are
much less developed in this film; do they even have names here? What makes up
for it is the actors, all famous (Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Bob Hoskins, Ian
McShane, Eddie Marsan) and each have their own personalities, the effects to
make them smaller is flawless, you really do believe they are dwarves and they
are in the same room as the regular-sized characters.
The romance is only loosely touched upon, there is a love triangle
involving The Huntsman and The Prince. However, it is not shoved in the
audiences faces, her true love is revealed by the one who’s kiss saves her from
the poison apple and is not explored since. It’s actually refreshing to see a
fairy-tale fade away from a romance and leaves more room to advance the story
and emphasised Snow White’s journey.
The visuals are amazing, first time director Rupert Saunders does a very
good job making this film feel rich. One of the most parts of the Disney film
was the dark forest, and this film takes advantage of it and adds great
contrast when Snow White’s innocence turns the forest “light”. The Lord of the
Rings and Pan’s Labyrinth comparison is most evident in the forest scenes,
which is where the creative special effects are most taken advantage of. The
sets and costumes are very well designed, it really does look like medieval
times and they have so much attention, even when it’s gritty.
If you’re not a fan of the original story you may enjoy this a little
better, just don’t expect it to be totally different.
