Snow White and the Hunstman

It's definitely worth mentioning that it was an arduous journey to see this movie on a dreary, rainy Saturday in Boston, MA. Firstly, the Chestnut Hill theater where my friend and I originally set out to watch this movie looked like it was in full summer blockbuster mode with a line out the door, with undoubtedly the majority of patrons their to see Snow White & the Huntsman. A line for a movie opening in the suburbs is pretty rare in my opinion, unless Harry Potter or Bella Swan are involved. But, that's just the thing, Ms. Swan was involved, Kristen Stewart was of course playing the venerable Snow White. So, my underestimation of the breadth of interest in this movie was costly, as this overcrowding spurred us to push our viewing showtime back an hour and head into the city, to watch it at the Boston Common theater.

Well, things didn't get any better for us, as the 5:45 showtime was sold out here (Yes, I'm familiar with Fandango and purchasing tickets beforehand, just didn't think it was necessary). So, after some discussion we decided to push through, find something to kill some time, and see it at 6:45PM, this time buying tickets with an hour and some time to spare.

The consensus of reviews for SWATH were generally lukewarm, most said that it earns a lot of points for its visual achievements, but that it lacks in the areas of storytelling, plot/character development, and rhythm/pacing. I have to agree with the critics on this movie, and I look to the choice of the films director for the reason behind some of its pitfalls. Rupert Sanders', an essentially unknown, making his major motion picture directorial debut didn't seem to put much of a memorable touch on the film. The movie seems to want you to feel a connection to a specific character, such as Snow White or her father the King, but there aren't enough developmental scenes that set those emotions up. So, about halfway through the movie you're kind of like, "Where's Charlize and when are we getting to her showdown with KStew".

Some people who deserve some credit for this film's success, are cinematographer Greig Fraser, supervising art director, David Warren, and Lucy Bevan, who was responsible for the movies casting. Obviously, very solid performances from Stewart, Theron, and Hemsworth, who doesn't go very far from his acting comfort zone in this one, but will absolutely bolster his movie star status coming off the heels of, the Avengers.

A few takeaways for SWATH, are that Kristen Stewart has proven that outside of the Twilight series she has the cache to draw in a huge audience. Charlize Theron is still a great actress and the future looks very bright for her. A lot of people will be scratching their heads about why a bigger, more mainstream director wasn't tapped to helm this movie and Snow White's dwarfs definitely provide some much needed comic relief, but I would've liked a bit more.