I am a fan of Chris Hemsworth, there hasn’t been anything I have seen him in that I don’t like. It’s also predictable; all of the film’s big twists and reveals are telegraphed well before they arrive.
Advertisement
Each of the characters, especially Hemsworth and Theron in her menacing reprisal of Queen Ravenna, has a story to tell thanks to the flair of the actors in their shoes. I guess Winter’s War will probably hit best with the 18-25 demographic, but I wouldn’t urge anyone to rush out to the theater to see it, and in reality it’s probably a prequel that shouldn’t have been made in the first place. I wish I hadn’t and here are some reasons why. At least the first movie had a devious mirror; here we get a Liam Neeson VO monotonously explaining everything. Just ask Freya’s ace huntsman, Eric (Chris Hemsworth), and fellow warrior, Sara (Jessica Chastain), both of whom were raised by Freya, and in defiance dare to fall in love.
The movie eventually finds its gear, sort of, when Eric, Sara, and the dwarfs embark on a quest for Ravenna’s magic mirror, but by then your brain will have checked out.
The look and feel of the film are some of the best parts of this movie.
About Charlize Theron and her portrayal of the “Most Evil” Queen, on a morning show Emily Blunt said, “I do not know many people who would want to go up against Charlize”. It’s not a bad spin on combining these stories in a slightly different way, but it’s just another in the recent trend of fairy tale – fantasy world popularity.
“The Huntsman: Winter’s War” is still far from a classic and while it does have a lot more going for it than its lumbering predecessor, that’s still a pretty low bar to clear. The only problem is, it has no idea.
The story begins in the middle, with Charlize Theron’s wicked Queen Ravenna killing her husband and setting up the Snow White scenario. When Ravenna plays a dirty trick on Freya, her younger sibling effing freaks out. There were also some dwarves that helped the Huntsman out but they were also not needed much and were only there to provide comic relief that fell flat nine times out of ten. Now that is a movie I would love to watch. But what about prequel-sequels? How about “Frozen?” The insanely popular Disney film drew its inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen“, and so too does “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”.
Advertisement
“Huntsman: Winter’s War” grossed $20 million this opening weekend, earning less than half of what the first film of the franchise earned, according to Internet Movie Data Base. But what makes this film work for the most part is the interlacement of its characters, who are all passable enough that you might consider this worth picking up at a Redbox on a cold or rainy day.
