The Huntsman: Winter’s War is a film full of big name cast members such as Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt. It’s set up in the universe of Snow White and The Huntsman (2012). But oddly, it is not a Snow White story and is kind of a prequel for the first few acts, but then leaps years forward making it really a sequel. Was I expecting anything great out of this looking back at the first in the series? No I wasn’t. But did we get a better film than what we got to start with? I think we did.
I’m not sure if they left out Kristen Stwart’s Snow White due to the controversy that surrounded her and the director during the release of the first film, or if the character was just unpopular, or if this storyline was what was originally intended. Either way I don’t really care because this story is about the rise of Queen Freya (Emily Blunt) and her kingdom’s dominance over the realm. It’s also a story of The Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and how he grew up in Freya’s kingdom and eventually left due to some drama with his “true love”.
This movie is really a lot better than the first and it’s at its best when Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron are on screen together. Charlize really nails it here as the films big villain and even though all the way through Emily Blunt is a fairly good villain, Charlize really brings it up a notch. If you’re going in there to see theses two witches fight each other and do all sorts of bad things, you won’t be disappointed at all.
Chris Hemsworth delivers well for his role in this film and really the Hunstman should be the lead character of this series and not Snow White. It’s far more interesting to watch this guy travel around the world and everybody seems to love Chris Hemsworth at the moment, it’s like he can’t do anything wrong lately. If a third film was to come for this series, it really should have him as the main heroic lead.
Special effects are decent. The best effects seem to be used during the magic scenes, particularly for Freya’s icy spells and also for Ravenna’s powers as well. Costumes are well done, with both Freya and Ravenna getting the most attention, while mythical characters all looked unique and interesting in their own way.
This is a film that I found to be a lot of fun and also one that I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s got great villains and an interesting hero and a great cast to back everything up. It’s not at all boring and was a substantial improvement compared to the first in the series. I’d recommend going in to see this one, especially if you love the world of the fairy tales, magic or the Snow White universe.
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