04 July 2012

Snow White and the Huntsman / 142 (B+)

I'm starting to like Kristin Stewart a bit, but I'm confused if she was cast right for this movie.  I guess I'm not sure of a younger star who could pull off this role though, where grit and athleticism is a must.  So, perhaps they did a good job putting her in there - it's just still a bit hard for me to believe that she would be able to throw on some chain mail and lead a giant army into battle.  Perhaps if they let her stay in the back, on the top of a hill, just watching the battle instead of being on the front line - then I might have liked her role and that scene better.

Anyway, Charlize Theron was good in her role.  This marks the second time in a few weeks I've gone to the theatre and seen her play a villain of sorts on the big screen.  And the Huntsman was good too, but I found myself asking why didn't they cast a bigger actor for his role?  That is until my buddies told me he was Thor, so I guess then they did a good job putting him in there, for as you see, fantasy stories are actually better to me when I don't recognize the people (yet for some reason I wondered why he wasn't a huge star??  I guess I'm mixing up my thoughts here.....Big star, or unknown?  But really, Viggo or Orlando would have been awesome).  In the end it was like he was an unknown, but still a big star.  So looking back it will be grand, like when Russell Crowe started his career off.  Now looking back at his first few movies it's kind of cool to see him in there.  For the reverse thought, where famous people ruin a movie - that would be like when Sigourney Weaver was cast in Avatar, and you see a blue skinny Sigourney avatar likeness-creation, yeah....like that.  Would have been better if she wasn't in that movie to me.  Not sure what I'm talking about anymore so I'll move on.

So without ruining the plot, I have to mention a part of the movie that had me scratching my head.  In the beginning of the movie Kristin Stewart (Snow White) was a small child.  The kingdom is overtaken by a horde of bad guys lead by Charlize, and Kristin was thrust into the far away castle wing not to be seen by her old groupies for years.  When she was young, she had a best friend, a small boy of the same age who loved her and also looked after her, well as good as a 10 year old can.  There is a really important scene when the castle is being taken over, and the boy is on the outside of the castle riding away on horseback with the remaining clansmen, while Snow White is being taken back inside the castle by the evil doers.  The boy looks back, yells her name.....tells his Dad he's going to bravely go back for her, but cannot for as you see, he's just 10.  Flash forward like 7 or 9 years, and guess what, she's still alive!  When the boy, now a man, finds out....he shits bricks and becomes a warrior on a mission to find her.  He looks high and low, and under rocks, to find his lost princess.  But when he gets there....Thor is already there.  He reconnects with her at night, in the crazy mysterious forest.  His words when he finds her are, "It's me....Ben" or whatever his name is, I cannot remember.  That night, they camp with the dwarves and Thor.  The next morning, still no dialog other than, "It's me....Ben" said the night before.  So I'm thinking to myself...did he reconnect with her yet?  Are they going to skip this part of the plot????  Now it's the next afternoon and they are hiking and marching through rivers and forests as they proceed on their mission.  I'd say, probably about 14 hours had elapsed since they reunited.  And finally, he says to her, "blah blah I thought you were dead, had I known, blah blah....I love you....whatever".  Why in the hell wouldn't they make them embrace and discuss the past 9 years immediately after getting out of the crazy forest and out of danger?  Like perhaps, at the campfire?  Odd....fail I would say for the guy who wrote this piece.

Lastly, congrats to Nick Frost for volunteering to play a role of one of the dwarves.  I'm not quite sure how they did that, but it was cool.  I wish he played a bigger role honestly.  He was always one of the ones in the background, with very little presence.  Yet, it was cool to see him and hear his quick jokes throughout, here and there.

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