The Huntsman: Winter’s War serves as prequel, sequel, and spin-off
of 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman,
a movie I’ve had no interest of watching.
Fortunately, I’ve been led to the impression that watching it isn’t
essential in watching The Huntsman:
Winter’s War at all. So I went to
watch the movie without watching its predecessor first.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War reveals the origin of Eric (Chris
Hemsworth), the titular Hunstman, and then follows him after the events of Snow White and the Huntsman, as he reunites
with his lost lover, Sara (Jessica Chastain), to end the reign of terror of the
evil ice queen Elsa Freya (Emily Blunt) and her sister, Queen Ravenna
(Charlize Theron), who is brought back to life after her demise at the hands of
Snow White.
I find this movie not making much
sense. Now, to be fair, fairy tales
traditionally don’t make sense. And by
that, I don’t mean that, since they’re works of fantasy, it’s expected for them
to defy reality as we know it. They don’t
make sense because the economics, geography, and politics of their settings; the
reactions and motivations of their characters; and other elements within the boundaries
of the tales’ worlds behave irrationally.
Go read the traditional versions of fairy tales as compiled by Brother
Grimm, Hans Andersen, and Giambattista Basile to see what I mean. Anyway, The
Huntsman: Winter’s War is as mad as you can expect from a fairy tale. For example, the origin and set-up of Freya’s
kingdom is distractingly cartoonish, and I’m baffled by how such kingdom can remain
functioning.
But more than being an insane
fairy tale, The Huntsman: Winter’s War
is also pure madness when evaluated as a film production. The writing is inconsistent and dumb. The tone shifts unevenly; the movie is unsure
if it’s going for the dark and brooding, or light and goofy. And, most notably, the performances from its stellar
cast were sheer camp.
I have a theory that the stars of
this movie – Hemsworth, Chastain, Blunt, and Theron – realized how godawful the
script in their hands is, and instead of being angry and miserable of the fact that
their agents got them to do this movie, they decided to have fun with it
instead. So they went to intentionally give
bad, blown up performances while trying to keep a straight face. It’s as if they were competing who can
deliver the hammiest performance. If
that’s the case, then Chastain takes the cake with her horrible, fake Scottish
accent that erratically changes and disappears and returns – sometimes, even within
the same scene. It’s hilarious, and I
loved it.
It has nice visuals, I give it
that. I particularly love the Enchanted
Forest and its delightfully weird creatures. However, as a whole, it’s an incredibly bad
movie. But, thankfully, it entered “so
bad that it’s good” territory – hugely thanks to the stars’ hammy acting, especially
from Chastain – that I got to be entertained by it nonetheless.
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