This week’s film review: Snow White and the Huntsman

FILM

Snow White and the Huntsman

Cert. 12A

3/5 stars

IN the second Snow White adaptation of 2012 - behind Julia Roberts’ Mirror Mirror - Snow White and the Huntsman stars Twlight’s Kristen Stewart as the lady herself, pitted against Oscar winner Charlize Theron’s evil queen, Ravenna.

As is to be expected from a Universal Pictures project, filmed at Pinewood studios, the whole thing is, visually, very impressive and it’s surprising to learn that this is the first feature-length outing for director Rupert Sanders.

However, they didn’t take the story anywhere particularly new as promised.

Perhaps the trio of writers didn’t want to blaspheme the Brothers Grimm and they have made some little changes, in the role of the huntsman and Snow’s mode of revenge, but nothing too ground-breaking or shocking.

With this adaptation they’ve gone overboard with the darkness, and have relied on said darkness to convey the material, but Theron is not intimidating enough and Stewart not revolutionary/Joan of Arc enough.

They tried to DRESS her as Joan of Arc, which is a brilliant twist on the traditional, damsel in a flowing gown visual, but this only further serves to highlight her fragile persona, when I think they were aiming for a renegade girl power type.

Having previously suggested this adaptation was likely to exceed what Mirror Mirror achieved, I would go back and say Tarsem Singh’s bright, camp treatment offered a much more radical retelling of the classic story.