Finally got around to seeing it with my wife. I wanted to like it - it was a dark fairy tale/fantasy story, on screen, that wasn't LotR. It was another property that had the chance to expand the fantasy genre on the big screen with a large budget and...and... yeah, I'm a genre fan, and I thought this might just be another chance to expand the genre's acceptance.
It's a crying shame Kristen Stewart was involved. Like mentioned above, there's no way, in any sane world, that Stewart is more "fair" than Charlize Theron. Additionally, as the "star" of the film, Stewart is just a weak, weak actress. She'd have trouble holding her own in a community theater troupe. It's obvious to me that she's only a star because of Twilight (shudder), and that outside the scope of a massively popular licensed property, she's nothing. There were times that my wife (a somewhat-Twilight fan) and I looked at each other and just quietly laughed together as Stewart looked wistfully at the camera and "emoted" by letting her slack-jaw gape open.
The dark forest was good-to-great. Ravenna was convincing evil and villainous, the Huntsman was...well...axe-bearing? I guess? The dwarves were fun and cool. The fairies and White Stag were interesting but ultimately underused.
I got that Snow White was special - nature, and the earth itself favored her: the birds led her to nail, to the cistern, and to the horse, who then took her to the dark forest, where she could escape the Queen's forces. The White Stag bowed to her, signifying that she was the Chosen One to restore nature's bounty to the realm. I get it. But all of that was completely under-utilized. When Snow White and the Duke's forces rode on the castle, she should have had the forces of the fey assisting them - trolls, pixies, hell, even the trees themselves assaulting the castle walls.
I went in wanting to like it. I left ultimately displeased. 3/10. Maybe 5/10 if I can pretend that someone other than Kristen Stewart was playing Snow White.
