Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, and Jessica Chastain
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 114 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2016
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This British-American action-adventure-fantasy drama is the second film in the Huntsman series and follows “Snow White and the Huntsman” (2012), which was based on the fairy tale, “Snow White”, by the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”.
The Director of the film (Cedric Nicolas-Troyan) was in charge of visual effects on the first movie. The film is a prequel to the first film, but there are elements of it which suggest it is something of a sequel as well. It is a story about what “comes before” and “happily ever after”.
The film focuses on the rise and fall of the Evil Queen, Ravenna (Charlize Theron), before she died at the hands of Snow White. It tells the tale of the interactions Ravenna had with The Huntsman before he saved Snow White from her influence.
Ravenna is glamorously evil. She has a younger sister, Freya (Emily Blunt), who after the loss of her child, develops the power to freeze people in ice. Freya gave birth to a baby girl who threatened Ravenna by her beauty, and Ravenna arranged for the child to be killed. Freya, distraught at the loss of her daughter, and feeling her lover has betrayed her, builds an icy kingdom that is protected by her chosen army of Warriors. Freya’s coldly-delivered power, earns her the name of “Ice Queen”. She insists on the rule that all her warriors have to harden their hearts to the warmth of any feelings of love: “Do not love”, Freya warns. “It is a sin”.
Two warriors disobey the Ice Queen’s ruling – The Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), who was destined in the future to protect Snow White from Ravenna, and Sara (Jessica Chastain),The Warrior, who is one of the very best of the Warriors in Freya’s army. The Huntsman and Sara fall deeply in love. They break Freya’s cardinal rule, and Freya banishes them from her sight.
Ravenna is trapped in a Magic Mirror that is stolen by goblins, and Freya wants the mirror back. Freya’s army brings it back, and Ravenna emerges from its depths. Only when Freya brings her sister back to life, does she understand the full nature of Ravenna’s betrayal.
In and out of the Magic Mirror, a “half-dead and half-living” Ravenna exercises her power with special malice, and she is virtually invincible. The Huntsman and Sara finally join forces to combat Ravenna’s power, with Freya’s dying help.
The film is a fantasy-adventure tale that is dark in tone, that is offset by splashes of humour. The dourness of the original film has been replaced by touches of comical lightness, and the second movie captures a sense of fun that was not in the original. Muscled up to provide some solid romancing, Chris Hemsworth as The Huntsman tries to bring romantic light to some of the darkness through the warmth of his love for Sara, but it is the special effects that set the film apart. The effects are imaginative and impressive, and mostly integrated into the story-line.
Despite the imaginative talents of the film’s new Director, who guides his visual-effects team very well, it is hard to see a third film appearing in “The Huntsman” series. When The Huntsman and Sara try to retrieve the Magic Mirror, and visual-effects begin to flood the screen, the adventure-fantasy scenarios start to run well away from any plot-line remotely related to Snow White. As a result, the central theme of the series starts to fade.
This film maintains the entertainment and enjoyment value of its predecessor, and effectively uses many of the same cast to do so. However, it is a prequel/sequel that has probably run its course.
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