The beautiful Queen Eleanor of the Kingdom of Tabor, pricks her finger on a rose and three drops of ruby, red blood falls to the snow. Inspired, she makes a wish to have a beautiful daughter. Her wish comes true and she gives birth to Snow White the fairest, most beautiful pre-queen in all the land. Sadly, Queen Eleanor dies. Paralyzed with grief, King Magnus is forced into war with the Dark Army. Unbeknownst to him, he had been set up to rescue the beautiful Ravenna (Charlize Theron). Of course, Ravenna proves to be pure evil. On their wedding night, she kills the king and brings in her own army. She banishes Snow White, to live the rest of her life held captive in the tower. Cursed during her childhood by her own mother, Ravenna holds the young town girls captive so that she can suck the youth out of their bodies to keep her own youthful beauty. During Queen Ravenna’s reign, the land becomes barren and dies.

One day, the evil queen summons her mirror, this time a golden man more so than a mirror, and discovers that in order to keep her beauty and release the curse, she must steal Snow White’s heart. She sends her brother on a mission to bring the grown up Snow White (Kristen Stewart) to her. As Ravenna’s brother Finn (Sam Spurell),appears to begin molesting Snow White, she manages to escape into the Dark Forest. Meanwhile back at the castle after another failed attempted to bring Snow White back, the brother hires Eric, the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), to help track her down. The Huntsman is a drunk and widower, so in payment for his services, Ravenna promises to use her sorceress powers to bring his wife back to life. Unfortunately after he helps find Snow White, the Huntsman discovers despite her many powers, Ravenna cannot bring people back from the dead.

The rest of the movie meanders through fairyland, dwarfs and unicorns as Snow White and the huntsman travel on their way back the castle of Duke Hammond so they can regroup and take down the evil Queen Ravenna.

If there is one tip I can offer about Snow White and the Huntsman, it's that this is definitely not your childhood fairytale.

Great movie moments:

Charlize Theron brings a solid performance as Ravenna the evil queen, though her “accent” seems to switch up quite often.

The fight scenes are pretty cool. The Dark Army soldiers are made out of glass and their bodies literally shatter when killed.

Fairytale lovers will love the dwarfs and the unicorn.

Not-so-great movie moments:

If you didn’t think Kristen Stewart delivered a strong performance in the Twilight series, you will feel the same with this performance. Her lack of emotional range is painfully obvious.

The ending is a huge disappointment because of the many dangling loose ends and poor acting.

You also may be a little disappointed in the ending because despite the fact that the storyline gives you the impression that it may be sucked into a love story, it’s really not.

If you go into the movie with the expectation that it’s a fairy tale, you exit unscathed. Try not to expect anything logical, otherwise you may be severely disappointed.

Overall, I give this movie a 2 out of 5 stars.

Details:

Director: Rupert Sanders (Ghost in the Shell)

Rating: PG-13. A warning that this is not the childhood fairytale/fantasy from your youth. There is a compromising scene between the King and Ravenna and an almost molestation scene between the brother Finn and Snow White. Also, quite a bit of violence with swords, including setting a village of women and children on fire and a unicorn being killed.

Run time: 2 hours 7 minutes

Interested? Check out Snow White & The Huntsman on Amazon.com.

Did you like Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman? Check out the sequel The Huntsman: Winter's War

I rented this movie with my own funds and have not been compensated for this review.