Snow White and the Huntsman is a new version of the classical fairy tale by the Brother's Grimm. It is the second movie this summer based on the titular character, and it can be classified as a medieval dark fantasy. Kristen Stewart plays Snow White presenting a character very empty in a world around her that is pushing, and saving her at every time. If we take into account that she has been imprisoned for a decade then we can understand why she doesn't seem to have any real personality. Something clear is that she just have the knowledge that she is the only one that can take back her kingdom from the bad queen, but she doesn't know how or why would she have such a knowledge?. In this regard the flatness in Stewart's performance is just what is needed. Completely opposite to Snow White is Charlize Theron's interpretation of the witch queen, Ravenna, and Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman, they are the real stars of the movie, and are the ones driving around Snow White's actions putting the plot in motion. I have to admit that Stewart's acting in this movie reminded me a lot of the performance of Keanu Reeves in the first Matrix movie. He was just a puppet between the bad and the good and was just reacting to the strange things happening around him.
As I mentioned earlier, the characters played by Theron and Hemsworth have more depth than the world around them even though we do not get much details in their past we do feel the weight they carry with them.
The movie is beautifully shot and the world has a lot of detail in the setting, everything looks like belongs in the dark ages , people are dirty, without obvious makeup, there are no glass bottles for example, and the main characters do get more filthy after the time they spent roaming the country side, lord of the rings style, even the nails have dirt under them and when people camp outside, they will wake up with dirt on they're faces and their hair messy. The only exception to this rule is the queen that is supposed to look so different, with such much beauty and well kept, compared to to the rest of the world around her do to her magic abilities.
In the end the movie is a good experience, it definitely could be shorter and it does feel like it takes too much elements from other movies like Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Princess Mononoke and Twilight, among others. I recommend it and is much better than other efforts at retelling classic fairy tales like Mirror Mirror this summer and Alice in Wonderland of last year.
Other Snow White that is popular right know is the retelling of the character and other fairy tales characters in the television series "Once Upon a Time", the series has a very mediocre execution in an interesting premise and compelling story. Some characters are well developed and have lots of background story, but some can be so flat that drag the story and make some episodes very boring: for example Snow White of the fairy tales land is interesting and has an appealing arch, while the modern counterpart just seems flat in comparison. I guess its part of the supposed curse over the land that has trapped everyone, but while other characters seem to evolve and change she is always the same flat person. Much like the interpretation of Stewart in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman.
