The Huntsman: Winter’s War

By: John Delia

While the special effects are very good in The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the story, direction and the acting leave a lot to be desired. CGI plays a big part in the film and for the most part it carries its own weight, so much so that it gets wasted. The romantic plot gets a lot of the screen time and tends to make the film drag with its repetitive drivel. And most of the film can be described as The Hobbit meets Frozen. That said, let’s take one objection at a time.

But first, just enough of the story as presented. It is many ears before Snow White took over the kingdom and we find Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and her sister Freya (Emily Blunt) chatting together in the Queen’s palace. It seems that Ravenna has been concerned that her sister does not have any powers or it may be that she welcomes this. Ravenna’s powers to see inside of Freya show that she’s with child, a female. It is not just anyone’s child, but the Duke of Blackwood (Colin Morgan) who’s already betrothed to someone else. “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” lets Ravenna know that her niece will be the fairest of them all.

The plot thickens when Freya finds her newborn baby has been burned to death in a grisly scene where it is made to look like the Duke killed her because of his out of control misgivings. Freya screams, causing the man to freeze into ice. Demanding her own kingdom, Freya leaves Ravenna. Fast forward to where Snow White’s now head of Ravenna’s Kingdom and Freya’s army of Huntsmen are gearing up for war against her. Whew! That all happens in the first ten to twelve minutes. The rest of the hour and a half or so of “war and treachery and romance” are yours to enjoy or not.

The cinematography is exceptionally good if you figure in the CGI and green screen effects. The film actually wastes their productive talents on a fantasy scene featuring elves, a snake with moss growing on it, fairies flitting along the water and a whole forest of flowering trees and ground cover. Used for a matter of about two minutes, the vision passes too quickly for the beauty and functionality of it all. What does survive are the graphics that include melting robes, freezing ice walls, a fierce looking beast for Freya to ride and tons of ice walls. All of which I applaud.

The characters provided by the actors are not new nor any better than the original Snow White and the Huntsman. With the addition of Jessica Chastain as Sara, the fierce warrior that fills the screen with her beauty and agility, there’s nothing in the other performances to congratulate. Emily Blunt does add a spark with Freya’s nasty personality, but it quickly fades when she shows up in the forest riding a white wolf that looks comical at best. Charlize Theron is expectedly wicked as Ravenna and Chris Hemsworth as our hero shows us his brawn while he’s fawning over Sara.

The film slows to a crawl midway into the story with the romance between Sara and Eric repeatedly being rekindled while they figure a way to defeat Queen Freya. Add to this the blooming of relationships between the little people Neon (Nick Frost) and Doreena (Alexandra Roach) and Gryff (Rob Brydon) and Mrs. Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith). While they provide much of the comedy, they add too much side flirty story not needed for the already long action adventure.

The Huntsman: Winter’s War has been rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence and some sensuality. Add to this some gruesome scenes, some sexual action that’s a bit more than sensuality and several people that get frozen to death to the rating if you are considering to bring youngsters to the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Not as good as the first one and that wasn’t so good. (C-)