The Huntsman: Winter's War - directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron, Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, Sophie Cookson, Alexandra Roach, Sam Claflin
Screenplay: Evan Spiliotopoulos, Craig Mazin
Music Score by: James Newton Howard
Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael
Edited by: Conrad Buff IV
Running Time: 114 minutes
Rated: M - Fantasy Violence - little bit of blood
2012's "Snow White and the Huntsman" was a bit of a surprise.
On a $170,000,000 budget it reeled in only slightly less than $400,000,000 internationally.
The reviews and ratings scored it as about average but I liked it a lot (review).
It had incredible visuals and production design, loads of humour (courtesy of those dwarves) and some amazingly imaginative creatures, environments and effects.
A sequel was quickly ordered amidst a controversy that saw director Rupert Sanders and star Kristen Stewart conducting an affair that ultimately ended his marriage and her relationship with Robert Pattinson.
But here we are three years later with a sequel and both Sanders and Stewart nowhere to be seen.
And that means that the focus shifts from Snow White to the Huntsman.
You'll note that I wrote 'sequel' whereas the marketing lists this movie as a prequel - it is not.
Part of the movie- less than a quarter- is set before the events of the first film but the bulk puts the action right after so- sequel.
The prequel part shows us the evil Ravenna (Theron) seducing and murdering yet another King and introduces her sister the beautiful and considerably less evil Freya (Blunt).
Falling in love and getting pregnant Freya later tries to elope but instead finds her husband to be has burned their newborn baby daughter to death.
The power that has been stagnant all her life bursts forth amidst the anguish and she turns the hapless chap into an ice statue that then shatters into many, many tiny fragments.
For some reason this then compels her to conquer town after town turning the land into an icy hell.
In addition she enslaves children to use as her Huntsmen - sort of elite soldiers- and bans love because as it hadn't worked for her no one shall have it.
We see two young Huntsmen develop into the cream of the crop - Eric and Sara.
Flouting Freya's silly law they fall in love and as time passes they become grown ups in the form of Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain.
Their attempt to pull the same eloping stunt that Freya did years earlier ends in similarly tragic circumstances.
I should note that they are in fact already married by virtue of the fact that Sara placed a necklace around Eric's neck and told him that by doing so she was marrying him.
Queue the unsuccessful escape courtesy of the ice cold Freya (literally)
And so we move to a time shortly after Snow White became Queen as depicted inthe 2012 film and Eric is on his own mourning a dead wife.
With Sanders removed from this project French effects man Cedric Nicolas-Troyan gets his big shot at a feature.
Having worked on the first films effects along with a couple of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies his sense of visuals should be in no doubt.
And sure enough this is quite a looker.
It isn't up to the level of the first film but there is a rather good spy owl made of ice and some of the morph effects that see Charlize Theron's Ravenna form out of a pool of liquid gold are nicely realised.
Ravenna's return from the dead is explained away courtesy of the infamous mirror, mirror on the wall in which she has placed her dead-but-not-really self.
Theron isn't in this a lot - this is Blunt, Chastain and of course Hemsworth's gig.
Cutbacks also affect the dwarf contingent which drops from seven to four for this film.
Nick Frost is back this time with Rob Brydon in tow as his Brother.
A couple of female dwarves also join in - Sheridan Smith and Alexandra Roach.
All four are very good but they can't compete with the truly excellent cast that played the dwarves first time round.
The script also doesn't deliver the same level of humour or action.
Everything about this sequel is just a little less effective than it was last time.
Nicolas-Troyan does a perfectly good job with the action and the effects but the script doesn't give him too much to work with in terms of scale, spectacle and characterisation.
The plot is where most of the strain shows and there is a constant feeling that the writers struggled to find a compelling way to stage a follow on.
It's not bad by any stretch but it had its work cut out for it given that the first movie wrapped everything up well with a victorious heroine, a well dead villain and the proverbial happy ever after.
Bringing back the long thought dead wife is fine but as each new aspect is introduced they start to feel like just one more step too far.
I do like the central theme of eternal love and the parallels between Blunts chilly bitch and Chastain's firey redhead.
And on that note - the casting is terrific.
Hemwsorth is good enough that we can forgive yet another dodgy accent attempt and of course we know how well he can handle an action scene after years of Thor under his belt.
Chastain is quite the ass-kicker too and has several impressively athletic sequences.
The chemistry between the pair is also very, very strong.
Sophie Cookson - Roxy from "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is yet again criminally underused however.
It's a minor niggle but I do wish someone would allow her enough screen time to properly show us what she can do.
My only real complaint about this movie is that it isn't as good as the first one but that is fine.
It is good enough.
There is enough action and humour here and the 114 minutes fly by.
The effects are very good and even if the level of imagination isn't on par with the first film we still get Blunt riding a sort of polar bear-cat hybrid beast, a bunch of gold tipped monkey-demon things and loads of scenes of evil queens doing awful things to people with ice, fire and gold.
There is enough going on that some of the weaknesses in the story aren't as immediately jarring as they might be and I found myself quite well swept up in the happenings on screen.
I did miss Toby Jones, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Bob Hoskins and co as the dwarves but Brydon and Frost are still very, very good.
There is frequent narration by what sounds like either Liam Neeson or someone doing a pretty job of impersonating him.
Admittedly I am predisposed to liking this film being a fan of the first and a huge fan of Chastain and Blunt but it is a very solid flick in its own right.
I can't see myself re-visiting it in the way that I find myself doing with "Snow White and the Huntsman" but I was thoroughly entertained regardless.
RATING: 73 / 100
CONCLUSION: Not a patch on the first one and lacking most of that films imagination but this is still fun, pretty to look at, loaded with great actors and a very pleasing couple of hours at the cinema.
Screenplay: Evan Spiliotopoulos, Craig Mazin
Music Score by: James Newton Howard
Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael
Edited by: Conrad Buff IV
Running Time: 114 minutes
Rated: M - Fantasy Violence - little bit of blood
2012's "Snow White and the Huntsman" was a bit of a surprise.
On a $170,000,000 budget it reeled in only slightly less than $400,000,000 internationally.
The reviews and ratings scored it as about average but I liked it a lot (review).
It had incredible visuals and production design, loads of humour (courtesy of those dwarves) and some amazingly imaginative creatures, environments and effects.
A sequel was quickly ordered amidst a controversy that saw director Rupert Sanders and star Kristen Stewart conducting an affair that ultimately ended his marriage and her relationship with Robert Pattinson.
But here we are three years later with a sequel and both Sanders and Stewart nowhere to be seen.
And that means that the focus shifts from Snow White to the Huntsman.
You'll note that I wrote 'sequel' whereas the marketing lists this movie as a prequel - it is not.
Part of the movie- less than a quarter- is set before the events of the first film but the bulk puts the action right after so- sequel.
 |
| Chris Hemsworth returns as The Huntsman.... aka 'Eric' |
Falling in love and getting pregnant Freya later tries to elope but instead finds her husband to be has burned their newborn baby daughter to death.
The power that has been stagnant all her life bursts forth amidst the anguish and she turns the hapless chap into an ice statue that then shatters into many, many tiny fragments.
For some reason this then compels her to conquer town after town turning the land into an icy hell.
In addition she enslaves children to use as her Huntsmen - sort of elite soldiers- and bans love because as it hadn't worked for her no one shall have it.
We see two young Huntsmen develop into the cream of the crop - Eric and Sara.
Flouting Freya's silly law they fall in love and as time passes they become grown ups in the form of Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain.
Their attempt to pull the same eloping stunt that Freya did years earlier ends in similarly tragic circumstances.
I should note that they are in fact already married by virtue of the fact that Sara placed a necklace around Eric's neck and told him that by doing so she was marrying him.
Queue the unsuccessful escape courtesy of the ice cold Freya (literally)
And so we move to a time shortly after Snow White became Queen as depicted inthe 2012 film and Eric is on his own mourning a dead wife.
 |
| Jessica Chastain easily holds her own in the action stakes |
Having worked on the first films effects along with a couple of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies his sense of visuals should be in no doubt.
And sure enough this is quite a looker.
It isn't up to the level of the first film but there is a rather good spy owl made of ice and some of the morph effects that see Charlize Theron's Ravenna form out of a pool of liquid gold are nicely realised.
Ravenna's return from the dead is explained away courtesy of the infamous mirror, mirror on the wall in which she has placed her dead-but-not-really self.
Theron isn't in this a lot - this is Blunt, Chastain and of course Hemsworth's gig.
Cutbacks also affect the dwarf contingent which drops from seven to four for this film.
Nick Frost is back this time with Rob Brydon in tow as his Brother.A couple of female dwarves also join in - Sheridan Smith and Alexandra Roach.
All four are very good but they can't compete with the truly excellent cast that played the dwarves first time round.
The script also doesn't deliver the same level of humour or action.
Everything about this sequel is just a little less effective than it was last time.
Nicolas-Troyan does a perfectly good job with the action and the effects but the script doesn't give him too much to work with in terms of scale, spectacle and characterisation.
The plot is where most of the strain shows and there is a constant feeling that the writers struggled to find a compelling way to stage a follow on.
It's not bad by any stretch but it had its work cut out for it given that the first movie wrapped everything up well with a victorious heroine, a well dead villain and the proverbial happy ever after.
Bringing back the long thought dead wife is fine but as each new aspect is introduced they start to feel like just one more step too far.
I do like the central theme of eternal love and the parallels between Blunts chilly bitch and Chastain's firey redhead.
And on that note - the casting is terrific.
Hemwsorth is good enough that we can forgive yet another dodgy accent attempt and of course we know how well he can handle an action scene after years of Thor under his belt.
Chastain is quite the ass-kicker too and has several impressively athletic sequences.
The chemistry between the pair is also very, very strong.
Sophie Cookson - Roxy from "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is yet again criminally underused however.
It's a minor niggle but I do wish someone would allow her enough screen time to properly show us what she can do.
 |
| The stunningly beautiful duo of Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron |
It is good enough.
There is enough action and humour here and the 114 minutes fly by.
The effects are very good and even if the level of imagination isn't on par with the first film we still get Blunt riding a sort of polar bear-cat hybrid beast, a bunch of gold tipped monkey-demon things and loads of scenes of evil queens doing awful things to people with ice, fire and gold.
There is enough going on that some of the weaknesses in the story aren't as immediately jarring as they might be and I found myself quite well swept up in the happenings on screen.
I did miss Toby Jones, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Bob Hoskins and co as the dwarves but Brydon and Frost are still very, very good.
There is frequent narration by what sounds like either Liam Neeson or someone doing a pretty job of impersonating him.
Admittedly I am predisposed to liking this film being a fan of the first and a huge fan of Chastain and Blunt but it is a very solid flick in its own right.
I can't see myself re-visiting it in the way that I find myself doing with "Snow White and the Huntsman" but I was thoroughly entertained regardless.
No comments:
Post a Comment