Free | 23/6
Posted: 6/1/2012
Earlier this year, the film Mirror Mirror took a stab at retelling the Snow White fairy tale. Directed by Tarsem Singh, the result was a largely tongue-in-cheek version that occasionally poked fun at fairy tale conventions, featured Julia Roberts chewing scenery as the evil Queen with an intermittent British accent, had sets that looked to be made of candy and pastry, and largely disappointed at the box office.
The newest version, Snow White and the Huntsman, takes a radically different and, in my opinion, much braver approach, hearkening back to the darker, more menacing roots of traditional fairy tales, which were largely created to scare children into obeying rules, not delighting and entertaining them to play dress-up. The result is a film that seems to meld elements of Game of Thrones (royal intrigue); the Lord of the Rings trilogy (epic battles); the Harry Potter films (magic, monsters, messiah); and with Kristen Stewart playing Snow White with a pretty boy and a hunk longing for her, a good helping of Twilight. Despite the runaway successes of these franchises, Snow White and the Huntsman ends up being a decent but not great film that, despite some considerable strengths, may struggle to find its audience. Watch the trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman below.
The good news starts with the film's truly Oscar-worthy technical feats. Greig Fraser's cinematography is magnificent, whether it's capturing interiors that only seem lit by torches or gray sunlight, a kingdom and countryside drained by an oppressive and ruinous evil, or battle scenes that capture the chaos of medieval warfare with camerawork that's shaky but not too shaky. The costumes are terrific, particularly those worn by Charlize Theron as evil queen Ravenna, which always look glamorous whether she's wearing shimmering gold that could appear on today's red carpet, a black feathered number when she's communing with a murder of crow emissaries, or a scaly re