Snow White and the Huntsman

A spectacular thing and surprisingly quite entertaining. Visually it is very attractive and captivating. Kristen Stewart has finally escaped her role in Twilight and showcases a confident performance. The plot is solidly tangled, the pacing is just right, and you don’t have much room to get bored. It may not become a classic, nor is it a timeless thing, but a sequel would certainly not be a bad idea, and I was surprised by the precision with which they tackled it from a formal perspective. Visually more daring than, for example, the latest Jackson's Hobbit. (23/05/2013)

At the beginning I was surprised at how much I was enjoying it (I wasn’t expecting anything from it), but as the minutes went by, the enthusiasm waned and I ended at around 4/10. Nice visuals and a demonic Charlize aren’t enough to carry 127 minutes with a stupid script, a wooden Snow White and an unremarkable prince. (05/09/2012)

A mirror with no taste (Kristen more beautiful than Charlize; how could the screenwriters think that somebody would believe such nonsense?), visually well done, solid tempo, a lot of action, wasted dwarfs (such a cast and then they just get one proper scene), a couple of necrophilic kisses, one lesbian kiss and no kiss out of true love… And that is maybe the biggest (and not by far the only) mistake; you can feel the lack of feeling here and that was, is and always will be an crucial problem in a fairytale. Despite all its likability, it’s simply cold and that’s a shame, because otherwise for this Snow White – a successor of the fantasy genre so popular and wide-spread mainly in the 80’s, I would have had only words of praise. (04/06/2012)

The awesomely beautiful Charlize and her initial intro get you almost immediately. And they don’t leave you for the entire movie. Sanders has a firm director’s hand, superb visuals (beautiful when required, dirty if needed) and everything ticks over nicely. The production design looks appropriately high-flown and has the requisite Lord of the Rings gilding. Kristen is great, but it seemed to me that he spoke too little for the main protagonist and draws very little attention to himself. Chris Hemsworth rocks again in the role of an inebriated hunter with a troubled past, and the meticulously cast dwarves were welcome and added a pile of laughs. Howard’s music is a pleasure to listen to. This is more or less what I had imagined it was going to be. Hail the Queen! (14/06/2012)

Three and a half stars. The following things in particular are unfortunate: That Kristen Stewart is not even prettier, let alone more beautiful than Charlize Theron (but that's my subjective feeling, I know), that she has one expression throughout the film, and that the speech before the battle, already a ridiculous enough moment, is even more ridiculous given her performance. That the absolutely brilliantly cast dwarves (Ian McShane in particular!) only actually flicker through the film. That the writers screwed the prince into the plot so violently, when they could have left him out. That the "rip-offs" of The Lord of the Rings are so obvious. That some things are not understandable (or more understandable) - for example, waking up with a kiss (really, it's weird). And that's about all I could fault Snow White and the Huntsman for. Otherwise, it's a typical fantasy with impeccably atmospheric scenes in the dark and fairy forest, an excellent queen, an overly sympathetic Chris Hemsworth and a great Newton-Howard soundtrack. (20/06/2012)