The
film, loosely based on the Snow White fairy tale, is a prequel/sequel to the
2012 Snow White and the Huntsman. It opens with a brief flashback showing
Ravenna (Theron) killing her husband, the king (Robert Portal), who is also
Snow White’s father. And it
gives a picture of the relationship between the two sisters Ravenna, older and
dominant, and Freya (Blunt) submissive and emotionally positive. After Ravenna destroys Freya’s chance
for happiness, Freya, feeling betrayed and cynical, takes off to the north to
set up her own kingdom. Her new
ability to magically create ice gives her the reputation of the “Ice Queen” and
serves as a special power (Yup; think Frozen,
2013). Her castle containing an
enormous ice tower juts up into the high mountains covered with ice and snow.
To
build her army, Freya kidnaps hundreds of children and brings them to her
castle to be trained for warfare by her huntsmen. Two children are standouts for their superior combat
skills: Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara
(Chastain). Unfortunately, these
two eventually fall in love, which is against Freya’s law prohibiting it. Love is a sin, the Ice Queen has
decided. What happens to them is
the major action of the ensuing story.
With
such a talented cast, excellent cinematography (Phedon Papamichael), production
design (Dominic Watkins), and costumes (Colleen Atwood), it’s a shame that the
story lacks substance. It’s as if
the writers (Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin) put the few elements of the
Grimm brothers’ Snow White into a bottle with whatever came to mind, shook it
up and threw the contents out on the table, putting them back together in such
a way the plot comes out rather jumbled and marked by unfortunate stereotypes
of women. Give them power and they
become controlling and mean (Ravenna).
If they start out being loving, they become controlling and icy and/or
they get duped (Freya). They’re
unmerciful if they’ve felt betrayed or were misled into believing it to be so
(Sara). Out of all this mishmash,
the gist of the tale is “Love conquers all”, which is stated sarcastically in
the beginning, but expressed genuinely by the end, as if that is the conclusion
the audience is supposed to draw.
However, what transpires in between is not convincing.
Light
moments in the film that are intended as jokes seem out of place and out of
context. When one character gets
proof that her betrayer actually loves her—a tender moment she shows with tears
in her eyes—the mood is broken by the question, “Are you crying?” And we’re supposed to chuckle at this
misplaced joke. There are numerous
jolts like this which are intended to be funny, but that take the focus away
from a fairy tale atmosphere to present day culture.
A story more a jumble than a fairy tale.
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