Axing the dour-stricken and bored-to-the-brim Kristen
Stewart (the titular female character from 2012’s Snow White and The Huntsman)
was a brilliant move and all this follow-up film really needed to do to raise
the enjoyment factor… That alone would have sufficed for most – but in lieu of
her royal grumpiness, the line-up (which already included Hemsworth, Theron and
Frost) grows to talented new heights with the addition of Blunt and a
bad-to-the-bone Chastain. The Huntsman:
Winters War is probably best described – albeit very clunkily – as Game of
Thrones meets Frozen meets Lord of the Rings meets Brave meets Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom with a dash of Terminator 2. This description is a mouthful, the busy film
itself is an eyeful and the experience, well, the experience, unfortunately,
never quite fills the brain. As a whole,
it’s a fantasy-based, warring queen cavalcade of seen-it-before visuals,
uninspiring action sequences and a ping pong-like narrative that never really
allows the film to completely gel. The
life preserver, however, in this vast sea of cinematic mediocrity is the A-list
cast who are all clearly having a blast while they share top billing in a film
that – upon first blush – is seemingly beneath them. With their heavy and hearty thespianic
lifting, the film sporadically comes alive with a nice dose of humor, a tad of
heart and a robust energy that will almost certainly and harmlessly engage (to
some extent) most audiences. A better
film would have been welcomed, but a little harmlessly surprising fun never
hurt a soul.
Starring: Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt and Nick Frost
Directed by: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 2hr. 3min.
Story:
Long before the evil Queen Ravenna was thought vanquished by Snow White’s
blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya, suffered a heartbreaking
betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the
young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of
deadly huntsmen—including Eric and warrior Sara —only to find that her prized
two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love. When Freya
learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the
Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power. But
once she discovers Ravenna can be resurrected from its golden depths, the
wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever
seen. Now, their amassing army shall prove undefeatable…unless the banished
huntsmen who broke their queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one
another. [Universal Pictures]
Website: www.facebook.com/thehuntsmanmovie
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