Snow White and the Huntsman

Rated: PG-13

Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes

Starring: Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth

This is not your parent’s fairy tale! When I first heard of this movie, I had my doubts. It was another movie about a fairy tale; maybe the pre-teen kids would like it. Then I saw some previews and thought maybe it wouldn’t be a total waste of time after all. Noelle wanted to go see it and it’s not often she tells me she wants to go see a movie. Usually, I drag her to a movie and she’s a good sport about it. You see, she doesn’t share my love of movies and it’s probably a good thing or my movie collection might exceed 2,000. So we went to see this movie at the Saturday early matinee and it was pretty full, which tells me we aren’t the only people wanting to see it. Looking around the theater, I don’t notice any children at all, not even teenagers. Could I have been completely wrong about this movie? You bet your poison apple I was.

Someone was able to take a formulaic fairy tale and actually make a pretty darn good adventure movie. Yes, it does follow the story everyone knows to a degree. There’s the evil queen, played very well by Charlize Theron; of course Snow White is in the movie too (I was actually surprised by how well Kristen Stewart did in this role). The Huntsman is played by Thor, uh I mean Chris Hemsworth and I guess all that hammer swinging paid off because in this movie he swings a pretty mean axe.  I did recognize Ian McShane and Bob Hoskins in, wait for it – wait for it, a couple of small roles (they played dwarves through the magic of cgi).

There’s not a whole lot I can tell you about the story you don’t already know. The evil queen wants to kill her step daughter, Snow White, and she escapes running into the Dark Forest. The queen has no power in the forest so she sends the huntsman to find Snow and deliver her back so the queen may cut out her heart. This is so she can secure her place as the fairest of them all. Obviously, the huntsman (we never learn his real name) can’t go through with it and instead helps her escape the queen’s clutches again. To me this is when the movie really starts to pick up speed. Our intrepid duo goes through a series of adventures (of which I will not spoil for you, dear reader) on their way to assembling an army to fight for the kingdom.

Yes, the movie is 2 hours long but it doesn’t feel like it. There are a couple of scenes that drag a little but they are quickly picked up by some action sequences. I’m not going to compare this movie to Lord of the Rings, but if you like adventure epics, in that mold, then go see Snow White and the Huntsman. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.