Sometimes a fairy tale is well told
and sometimes it is only fairly well told.
My initial impressions of Snow White and the Huntsman is that it is a fairy tale well told.
There is a lot to be told that is well done about this movie.
The most powerful piece of story telling in the movie is the visual symbolism that is throughout the movie. The rule of three persists with pleasing regularity. Three drops of blood.
The Queen (Charlize Theron) is very convincing as a sympathetic villain who is human in her desires, loyalties and fears.Charlize plays her role from beginning to end as a truly bipolar person trapped by circumstance who does awful things for seemingly good reasons or at least justifiable reasons. She is a character study in how much a person can lie to herself and in turn be lied to. When compared to her counterpart Julia Roberts (in Mirror, Mirror) one can see the parallels of interpretive translation. Julia's queen is ironic in her fight to stay young and beautiful whereas Charlize's Queen holds no illusions to the eternal cost that comes with her beauty.
I found the dichotomy between the two queens and their mirrors fascinating. In Mirror Mirror, Julia's Queen has trapped her alter ego in her mirror world (the side that is sardonic and pragmatic- almost good part of her soul lives their in the glass). In SW and the H, Charlize's Mirror is more traditional as a fairly reflective bowl like object that's presence is more like a split personality of the Queen than a servant to anyone except that which you find in unbalanced persons mind. I like that the director does not give you any clear idea of whether the servant of the mirror is real or imaginary.
Snow White remains pleasingly consistent throughout the movie all the way up until she realizes that she cannot cheat fate and must kill the queen thereby committing the one act that will change her. Ironically making become like her nemesis. She must kill the queen instead of pitying her. Kristen Stewart is a good upcoming talent who (despite of how I feel about Twilight) delivers as convincing a performance of the angst ridden innocent who must look into the face of cruelty and desire is full of compassion and awareness of the world around her. She does a good job of being good. The movie is too short for the performance to be wholly convincing.
The supporting cast (which is too big- like another film -Willow) does a fine job in the film and the script- which is too ambitious for the 2 hours that it has to tell this tale leaves little time to convince you of much.
The film would be good if they had just sacrificed a few characters or spent more time.
William has a largely undeveloped character who barely gets a chance to convince you that he is real or substantial and by the end you have no idea there will ever be any chance of him having any role in the story from that point. He suffers from this lack of screen time defining his role which is superfluous since his character is a repeat of the Huntsman and the Dwarves . The actor Sam Claflin does a convincing job as a bad ass archer who is interested in protecting his childhood friend- but he is not given anytime to convince us if he is in love with her or just wanting to fulfill a promise given in desperation. (I hope there is a scene or two that will make the director's cut where this can happen since it begs for viewing) I felt cheated by his presence because he is a good character that ends up being wasted as a plot device rather than an asset to the story.
The Huntsman also is cheated. Chris Hemsworth is fine actor who is showing some awesome range in his art. After this performance I want to see what else he has done. But here again this movie should have either been long enough to include his story more or he could have been combined into that of William's or one of the Dwarves. His story is only revealed in rushed sentence revealed in bits of pain and regret. We know he loved his wife and suffers her loss daily but it is unclear what happened to her and virtually unknown as to why. The queen's brother let's him know that he killed her but again the movie doesn't tell us how or why this should be except in death-throes of the same. The Huntsman cries for more development and the movie should have ended with more than a glance between him and SW.
Finally Finn played by the a disturbing Sam Spruell is also a character that lacks enough to be developed. He is a mufti-leveled tragic figure who is overshadowed by his sister and given better story construction could really help both SW's and the Huntsman's on stories along.
What is good is that the movie holds together though like other good/great movies I felt like someone (the director) was grinning on the sidelines with the rest of the movie being held behind his back.
The movie was too short. Recent history has proven that audiences can sit through 3 plus hours to get to the bottom of a story if the studio and filmmakers will entrust it to us. This movie was good and well shot but too short. Just too short.
Again, my favorite parts of the movie are like others (Gladiator, Matrix, 300) it is the moments where little happens but seconds of concentrated movement. In SWand H- it is the horse on the beach, the starling (?) in flight, the charging horses, the drops of blood, the moments in-between actions (Ang Lee/John Woo). For me moments of pure film poetry and artistry.
I will see this one again, definitely on Blu-ray and hopefully director's cut/extended.
And that is how I saw it.
and sometimes it is only fairly well told.
My initial impressions of Snow White and the Huntsman is that it is a fairy tale well told.
There is a lot to be told that is well done about this movie.
The most powerful piece of story telling in the movie is the visual symbolism that is throughout the movie. The rule of three persists with pleasing regularity. Three drops of blood.
The Queen (Charlize Theron) is very convincing as a sympathetic villain who is human in her desires, loyalties and fears.Charlize plays her role from beginning to end as a truly bipolar person trapped by circumstance who does awful things for seemingly good reasons or at least justifiable reasons. She is a character study in how much a person can lie to herself and in turn be lied to. When compared to her counterpart Julia Roberts (in Mirror, Mirror) one can see the parallels of interpretive translation. Julia's queen is ironic in her fight to stay young and beautiful whereas Charlize's Queen holds no illusions to the eternal cost that comes with her beauty.
I found the dichotomy between the two queens and their mirrors fascinating. In Mirror Mirror, Julia's Queen has trapped her alter ego in her mirror world (the side that is sardonic and pragmatic- almost good part of her soul lives their in the glass). In SW and the H, Charlize's Mirror is more traditional as a fairly reflective bowl like object that's presence is more like a split personality of the Queen than a servant to anyone except that which you find in unbalanced persons mind. I like that the director does not give you any clear idea of whether the servant of the mirror is real or imaginary.
Snow White remains pleasingly consistent throughout the movie all the way up until she realizes that she cannot cheat fate and must kill the queen thereby committing the one act that will change her. Ironically making become like her nemesis. She must kill the queen instead of pitying her. Kristen Stewart is a good upcoming talent who (despite of how I feel about Twilight) delivers as convincing a performance of the angst ridden innocent who must look into the face of cruelty and desire is full of compassion and awareness of the world around her. She does a good job of being good. The movie is too short for the performance to be wholly convincing.
The supporting cast (which is too big- like another film -Willow) does a fine job in the film and the script- which is too ambitious for the 2 hours that it has to tell this tale leaves little time to convince you of much.
The film would be good if they had just sacrificed a few characters or spent more time.
William has a largely undeveloped character who barely gets a chance to convince you that he is real or substantial and by the end you have no idea there will ever be any chance of him having any role in the story from that point. He suffers from this lack of screen time defining his role which is superfluous since his character is a repeat of the Huntsman and the Dwarves . The actor Sam Claflin does a convincing job as a bad ass archer who is interested in protecting his childhood friend- but he is not given anytime to convince us if he is in love with her or just wanting to fulfill a promise given in desperation. (I hope there is a scene or two that will make the director's cut where this can happen since it begs for viewing) I felt cheated by his presence because he is a good character that ends up being wasted as a plot device rather than an asset to the story.
The Huntsman also is cheated. Chris Hemsworth is fine actor who is showing some awesome range in his art. After this performance I want to see what else he has done. But here again this movie should have either been long enough to include his story more or he could have been combined into that of William's or one of the Dwarves. His story is only revealed in rushed sentence revealed in bits of pain and regret. We know he loved his wife and suffers her loss daily but it is unclear what happened to her and virtually unknown as to why. The queen's brother let's him know that he killed her but again the movie doesn't tell us how or why this should be except in death-throes of the same. The Huntsman cries for more development and the movie should have ended with more than a glance between him and SW.
Finally Finn played by the a disturbing Sam Spruell is also a character that lacks enough to be developed. He is a mufti-leveled tragic figure who is overshadowed by his sister and given better story construction could really help both SW's and the Huntsman's on stories along.
What is good is that the movie holds together though like other good/great movies I felt like someone (the director) was grinning on the sidelines with the rest of the movie being held behind his back.
The movie was too short. Recent history has proven that audiences can sit through 3 plus hours to get to the bottom of a story if the studio and filmmakers will entrust it to us. This movie was good and well shot but too short. Just too short.
Again, my favorite parts of the movie are like others (Gladiator, Matrix, 300) it is the moments where little happens but seconds of concentrated movement. In SWand H- it is the horse on the beach, the starling (?) in flight, the charging horses, the drops of blood, the moments in-between actions (Ang Lee/John Woo). For me moments of pure film poetry and artistry.
I will see this one again, definitely on Blu-ray and hopefully director's cut/extended.
And that is how I saw it.
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