Film Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman. Rated M (fantasy themes and violence). 127 minutes. Directed by Rupert Sanders. Screenplay by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini.

Verdict: The long and winding road that leads to a palace.

While it is certainly a stunning film to look at, Snow White and the Huntsman takes too many detours and far too much time to wend its way through what is a very familiar story of a princess feted to rise up against a murderous Queen and regain the throne she was ruthlessly denied.

Similarly to Tarsem Singh’s gorgeous looking Snow White-lite take earlier this year (Mirror, Mirror) Sanders’ equally-sumptuous affair boasts Dominic Watkins’ (The Bourne Supremacy, United 93) extravagant production design and Colleen Atwood’s (Alice in Wonderland, Memoirs of a Geisha) picture-perfect costumes. Melbourne-born Greig Fraser (Caterpillar Wish, Bright Star, Let Me In) cements his international reputation with outstanding cinematography that captures every essence of the film’s many challenging and constantly changing moods and locations.

The writers and Sanders, making his feature film debut, make what turns out to be a near-fatal error by mistaking ‘long’ for ‘epic’. What they risk in the process is undermining the film’s many great qualities, which other than in the design departments and some inventive sequences (especially the scenes set at the lakeside commune where the once-beautiful women have fled from the evil queen’s life-draining hunger for their beauty), are the spirited performances and a flawless visual tapestry of creative splendour.

Chris Hemsworth (Thor) does his best work to date as the grieving Huntsman, while Charlize Theron (Prometheus, Monster) goes for broke from start to finish and never misses a trick. Kristen Stewart (Twilight’s Bella) flexes her acting muscles in ways that have not been required of her in the Twilight franchise, and the fact that we never really care about her fate is the fault of the wandering and didactic screenplay – not her spirited charge through the leading role.

The actors who play the dwarfs (including Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone and Nick Frost) have been digitally manipulated to the size of a dwarf which works for a moment – before you begin to realise that the film is almost beginning to sink with too much trickery at the expense of being something we might have actually been a good deal more engaged by. Apparently, and there’s no prizes, there’s going to be a sequel. Please let it be over in half the time. If that.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1. Rated M (supernatural themes and medical procedures). 117 minutes. Directed by Bill Condon. Screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg. Based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer.

There’s no denying it. The intrigue of the Twilight Saga movie franchise has given rise to a veritable slam-dunk of opinion, debate, reverence and ridicule since they arrived on the big screen in the form of Twilight (2008). Fans (commonly referred to as Twihards) – of which there are many – have steadfastly refused to tolerate anything even remotely critical of their beloved Bella, Edward and Jacob. For everyone else, it would seem that nothing spikes the hate-o-metre faster than a Twilight Saga movie viewing.

In case you’ve just returned from five years residing on a distant planet, the final novel in the series – Breaking Dawn – has been divided into two movies, with Part 2 due for release this time next year. In Part 1, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart, pictured) finally weds her vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) honourably turns up to give his somewhat reluctant approval. A honeymoon on a remote island off the coast of Brazil ensues, and before you can say “O-negative”, Bella is pregnant with what appears to be the spawn of Satan. Protected by the Cullens from the marauding werewolf pack who want to destroy the unborn undead, Bella (to Ms Stewart’s unending credit) spends much of the movie looking absolutely shocking while awaiting the birth of her ‘child’. The big question is who will die defending the life of Edward and Bella’s unborn child?

Mr Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls) stamps an undeniable authority all over the proceedings, while Ms Rosenberg’s (who has penned the scripts for each of the movies) screenplay suffers, mostly, from having to say in 117 minutes what might have been said in 17. Guillermo Navarro’s (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, I Am Number Four) cinematography is entirely serviceable – with the interiors of the Cullen mansion, in particular, striking in their cold, clinical indifference. Virginia Katz’s (Dreamgirls, Burlesque) editing manages to inject some much needed pace into the first two-thirds of the film, while cutting loose in spectacular fashion in the race home.

Originally classified MA15+ in Australia (the gruelling birth sequence was the likely culprit), the revised M rating more than adequately covers much of the film’s tone. And while Mr Lautner fans should not be late under any circumstances, fans of the franchise more generally should remain in their seats for a sneaky mid-credits preview of Part 2.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.