DVD Review Snow White and The Huntsman

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Cast: Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claffin and Sam Spruell
Director: Rupert Sanders
Producer: Sam Mercer, Palak Patel, Joe Roth

THE FILM

Snow White & The Huntsman is a dark twist to the classic fairytale loved by one and all. While the film retains the core premise of the fairy tale, it does add new characters, twists and makes it more darker than before. However yet the end product gives a feeling of something amiss.

The film begins long time ago when King Magnus and his Queen have a beautiful daughter and they name her Snow White (Kristen Stewart) appalled by her beauty. But soon the Queen passes away and the King has to fight a battle with a dark army. King Magnus wins the war and rescues a beautiful prisoner Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and decides to marry her instantly. However Ravenna turns out to be an 'Evil Sorceress' and murders King Magnus on their wedding night and destroys the King's army with the help of her brother Finn (Sam Spruell). Jealous of her beauty and knowing that she is the source of her immortality, Ravenna then imprisons Snow White in the Castle but her childhood sweetheart William (Sam Claffin), his father- the Duke and their Army escape the castle in time. Ravenna- the evil Queen- thus gains power and destroys the kingdom completely of its beauty by draining the youth of young ladies, by over taxing the commoners transforming it into a barren ice land through her evil powers.

Snow White somehow managed to escape from the castle and takes shelter in the Dark Forest. The Queen then orders a Huntsman to go and fetch Snow White from the forest but as luck would have it, he in turn falls for her charm and ends up saving her instead. In their pursuit to survive against the Evil Queen's army, Snow White and the Huntsman fight various creatures and are even held captive for a while by a motley crew of Dwarves. What follows thereafter is how the duo along with William manages to wriggle out of this very situation and wage a battle against the Evil Queen Ravenna.

Director Rupert Sanders' take on the classic fairy-tale works in parts mainly due to the larger than life production values and set design. The story is predictable and is stretched unnecessarily. However the action sequences do pack a punch. As far as performances go, it's Charlize Theron who steals the show completely with her evil, menacing act as Queen Ravenna. Kristen Stewart does look pretty as Snow White but her acting leaves a lot to be desired. Chris Hemsworth is decent. The Gang of Dwarves provide for a few funny moments.

DURATION

The film's duration is 120 minutes

SPECIAL FEATURES

Creating the Dwarves- A rather interesting and short feature that gives us a sneak peek at how the team decided on the casting, look and get-up of the motley crew of dwarves. While popular English character actors like Ian Mcshane, Bob Hoskins and Ray Winstone etc were cast as dwarves, what's interesting to note is that each of the actor playing a dwarf had a body double of his own which in this case was a real dwarf. The actors playing dwarves then had to go through intense prosthetic make-up which took over 3 hours daily and a lot of detailing has indeed gone to make them look as authentic as possible. Special attention has also been given to intricate details like their weapons, their costumes and even their walk and body language for which they hired a special movement coach.

Commentary by director Rupert Sanders along with the editor Neil Smith and VFX supervisor Cedric Nicolas

TECHNICAL DETAILS

– Languages- English 5.1, Hindi 5.1
– Subtitles- English, Hindi
– Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation 2.35:1

PRICE

Rs. 599/=

CONCLUSION

Snow White & The Huntsman is a decent DVD watch mainly for the amazing production values and Charlize Theron's menacingly evil performance. However it could have been so much better, tighter and crisper.

Rating: * * 1/2

Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more