The Huntsman: Winter’s War a disappointment to fairytale landscape

Once upon a time in a conference room at Universal Studios, a group of executives decided to take a relatively decent movie, get rid of one of the main characters, add four dwarves, an ice queen and a magic mirror to create The Huntsman: Winter’s War  — a  film that represents yet another dim result of studios digging into their movie vaults and churning out unoriginal movies in an effort to attract audiences to theaters or, in other words, print money.

Seemingly confused by the difference between a sequel and a prequel, The Huntsman: Winter’s War provides audiences with the backstory of queen sisters, Freya and Ravenna, portrayed by Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron, respectively. The film also delves into the stories of lovers Eric the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain), as they try to stop Freya and Ravenna’s plans to conquer all the land in the kingdom from a noticeably absent Snow White.

With Snow White and the Huntsman four years in the past and Hemsworth’s international star power growing exponentially, it is not the least surprising that Universal would take advantage of the opportunity to create another film in the Snow White universe. The film’s possibilities of success were also in Universal’s favor, with the returning on-screen prowess of Theron as the evil queen Ravenna, and the addition of two strong female leads in Blunt as the icy anti-love queen Freya, and Jessica Chastain as the Irish-accented badass huntress to Hemsworth’s huntsman.

On paper, the dynamic acting foursome has every box checked for a successful movie, not to mention a franchise blockbuster film, but on film (or computer screen, considering the amount of visual effects used to bring this film to life), the result is not the fairest of them all. One would not blame this on the acting abilities of Hemsworth, Theron, Blunt or Chastain, for their impressive acting chops are on display in countless award-winning films, the fault lies in the script and its overwhelming inability to avoid the common cliches of the genre it tries to emulate. From the overused “Did Chris Hemsworth’s character die a third into the movie?” to the not-so-surprising twist ending, Universal’s effort to make a unique fairytale is, in fact, fantasy.

Luckily, the film, in an effort to attract a more diverse audience, has adopted a lighter tone, as it frequently relies on comedy. However, the humor provides some relief from the conventional action sequences audiences have grown to expect, but at the expense of Hemsworth’s superhero persona.

Another highlight of the film is the astounding special effects that fill at least 90 percent of every shot. The contribution of masterfully crafted special effects is unsurprising when considering that the director, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, was the visual effects supervisor of the original 2012 film, a major step forward for the first-time director. Along with the stunning visual effects, the costume design by three-time Academy-Award winner Colleen Atwood were also scene-stealing, especially in the cases of Theron’s Ravenna and Blunt’s Freya.

The disappointing contribution to the fairytale movie landscape is especially apparent due to the abundance of classic film revivals over the past few years and many more to come. With successful films, critically and commercially, such as Maleficent and Alice in Wonderland (for which a sequel is being released on May 27), and failures, such as another Snow White saga Mirror Mirror, a strange twist on a classic story Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and a CGI mess Jack The Giant Slayer that are examples of failure in the genre.  While studios do not grasp the concept of overload, as evidenced by the weekly superhero explosion-fest, the importance of originality over quick theater delivery is key in the continued success of these movies.

In other words, these films should not focus solely on having a fast turn around from development to the  movie theater and should offer more creative approach to the adaptations. Fans can look forward to the remakes of an Emma Watson-led Beauty and the Beast and a Tim Burton-directed Dumbo  in the near cinematic future.

Overall, The Huntsman: Winter’s War is a mixed bag of somewhat witty humor, powerful leading ladies, stunning visual effects and masterful costume design. However, the weak plot outweighs the potentially redeeming qualities of the film. In the weeks leading up to the official start of the summer movie season, with plenty of potential critical and commercial cinematic stories to come, saving money on this film will be a good financial decision.