The screen still fresh in my mind, the images burned there. The sound track fresh in my ears, oh, ha, wait, I am listening to it. Was the movie everything I expected and more? I sat as the credits rolled and searched for some inkling of dissatisfaction. There was more action in the trailer. The trailer seemed foretelling of something more, something emergent.
The dissatisfaction wasn’t there. From the opening scene Chris Hemsworth’s voice reverberating the story of Snow White’s beginning, her Mother’s death, and Father’s down fall was told. I sat riveted to the screen. What is it about being told a story?
You are hearing this from a hopeless romantic’s point of view. Can you tell?
If you are looking for a traditional telling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves you can stop now. If you are looking for something more, you have come to the right place.
The story unfolded as if turning pages. Each the soft parchment of old, burned at the edges because the truth may rest somewhere within and Evil hates when the truth is known.
As the movie progressed the story was told, relationships built, new parts envisioned.
The Huntsman is the Prince? In the Disney version an unknown huntsman is told to take Snow White into the woods and cut out her heart to bring back to the evil queen. In this movie, the Huntsman is widowed; his love for his dead wife and her resurrection dangled in front of him for his service, to bring the Evil Queen the heart of Snow White who has disappeared into the Dark Wood. A rather interesting addition: at one point when the Queen is decaying to an old woman her thoughts flash back on her childhood. The Queen as a little girl is seen in a series of flashes where her village is being attacked and her mother is performing a spell so the little girl will not be harmed. The Queen is cursed and thus having to take innocent young women’s youth to stay young and alive. In the incantation is says that only can the most innocent beauty break the spell. Thus, the mirror, oh yes the Mirror on the wall, tells the Queen that she must consume Snow White’s heart to be immortal. Another addition I found interesting was the Queen’s evil brother. Why did they add her brother? Couldn’t it just have been a warrior under her spell? Just a small perplexing side note.
What I would have liked more of is where in the heck did that Mirror come from? How did it come to exist? Did she buy it at the evil village market or something? Was it the mirror which led her to become evil? She did have choice to not kill those innocent and young.
At one point during the movie the Queen’s brother is watching from a hall as the Queen talks to the entity which slips from the mirror to stand in front of her. From her point of view the entity is there, from his she is talking to dead air. Which leads the psychological problems of tyrants, but that is another blog on a whole other site.
I find that the story was a little underdeveloped, but it was good non-the-less. It was more than the Fairytale. It told the stories of the people involved and why. It gave more depth to the story and alternative explanations for the stories different aspects, making them more believable, it gave depth to the characters. Evil Queens with magic, Fairies, Dwarves, all in enchanted lands. There was even a bridge Troll that Snow White subdued with a stare. I hope you don’t go looking for any historical significance in the surroundings, fighting, or people, you will be disappointed.
But from this hopeless romantic I give the movie four out of five hearts.
Shall we visit another Evil Queen?
Look for Maleficent coming in 2013.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/get-an-eyeful-of-angelina-jolie-as-maleficent/
