The Huntsman: Winter's War Official Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAvCgVR0gIM
Why was this made?
Why...was this...made?
My train of thought repeated this question over and over in my head when I watched this movie. I didn't want to see the first film, Snow White and the Huntsman, because the story of Snow White was not a big favorite of mine. However, I understood how people would like to see another twisted and dark alternative to the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tale; or if you only know of the disney adapted version better, then this series gives you an even greater new perspective on Snow White's tale.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Snow White and the Huntsman earned itself a 48% out off 100 due to its, "...uneven acting, problematic pacing, and a confused script" Not everyone seemed to like the first film, so how would the second film be able to conquer its predecessor's flop?
According to The Huntsman: Winter's War, the way to solve this problem is to give a backstory on the Evil Queen Ravenna (Chalize Theron) and the feud between her and her younger sister, Freya (Emily Blunt) and give a side story to Eric the Hunstman (Chris Hemsworth) and his wife, Sara (Jessica Chastain) on their struggle to be together.
I felt betrayed by all the trailers I had to see on those insufferable Youtube ads. While many of them focus on the fight between Ravenna and Freya, the movie actually shows more of Eric and Sara's story and the sisters felt pushed aside.
Their story alone was simple enough. Freya is betrayed by her sister, she raises an army of huntsman that include our main huntsman Eric and warrior Sara. Although, the character motivation behind this plan felt off-putting and even dumb-in simpler terms. They try to make Freya come off as a scorned woman who is a helpless victim to her pain, but I'm not sure if they expected a viewer like me to end up hating her.
I was on Freya's side before watching the movie, because the way they showed the series of events, it looked like Ravenna made the ultimate betrayal that no one should be forgiven for. Yet somehow, the writers managed to make Freya just as evil as Ravenna.
I don't care what anyone says, Freya was an evil character and I don't want to accept that just because she was betrayed that her actions were justified.
Aside from that and the fact that the plot sounds like an older version of disney's Frozen (if Anna was evil and encouraged Elsa to continue being isolated from the world), the story between Eric and Sara made more sense.
The two grow to love each other but Freya forces them apart and they must find a way to rekindle their relationship while venturing in the forests and interacting with a few dwarves for sidekicks. As much as I wanted to be invested in their storyline, I just couldn't and I discovered why.
Two reasons: Too many cliches and little development.
First, there are obvious tropes within this movie that we've seen in other films over the years. That doesn't necessarily mean they are bad tropes, but they're not new or tweaked in a way that we can say, "That's different!"
Eric and Sara meet and bond because they're the best huntsmen in their league. Like how two valedictorians become a couple, it could happen, but it feels too perfect and unrealistic and again, it's been seen before. Then when they have moments of quarreling, it's reason behind it has also be done so much it would be burning and charred black in the oven.
Their friends, the dwarves, are also tropes: they are comic reliefs and when they are involved in romantic relationships, it feels forced and incredibly expected.
Secondly, there was a lack of character development in Eric and Sara. I feel like I didn't know much about this couple except that they were great fighters and they loved each other. If you ask anyone who watched the film what their personalities were like, I guarantee they may hesitant for a bit before saying, "Well...Eric was a great fighter and he cared a lot for Sara. And Sara never misses."
The animation of the movie was just as good as the first film, which is a strong point that this series has going for them. It's a creative environment and the fight scenes were pretty intense. If I could, I would love to make a movie one day with the help of the designers because it clearly shows how well they stylized the powers of Ravenna and Freya and so on.
Overall, if you found yourself liking the first movie then you may get a kick out of this one. But if you weren't even interested in seeing the first, then this will not be for you. Besides, I personally believe that this story of the evil queen and the huntsman didn't need to happen at all. Not even Chris Hemsworth's beautiful face could help me enjoy this stereotypical story of the battle of the sisters and the power of love conquering all.
!WARNING!
SPOILERS ARE BELOW THIS WARNING, AND I WILL TALK ABOUT CERTAIN SCENES IN THE MOVIE THAT I ENJOYED OR HATED. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW SPECIFICS ABOUT WHAT GOES ON IN THE MOVIE, I SUGGEST YOU CLICK OUT OF THIS RIGHT NOW!
THANK YOU.
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This movie feels more like a story about love conquering all, when I think that shouldn't have been the case. Yes, it involves the battle of the sisters, but there should have been more of that shown on screen. I believe the most screen time we get out of these sisters interacting is in the beginning and the end of the film. That's what the audience was expecting in the trailers, so it feels like a huge curveball thrown our way. I think by directing the story more towards, "opening your heart to love" it follows more of the disney themed Snow White than the Grimm version that the previous film was similar to.
Also, I mentioned how I hated Freya, here's why. So Freya is betrayed by Ravenna, her older sister, because she helped in the killing of her baby daughter. So how does Freya console herself over this tragedy? She moves to a different part of the country and rules as Queen there, while building an army of huntsmen, but not with grown men. She orders her followers to kidnap as many children as possible, kill their parents, and take the children to her so they can be raised into fighters.
This is what bothers me...I know people can do some crazy things when they're sad or angry, but why out of all things would Freya use CHILDREN to create an army? Why kill not only their parents, but their childhood and their innocence when her own daughter was killed? Wouldn't she be more sympathetic to the young ones and attack adults instead? As cliche as it may be, I would've enjoyed her character more if she tried to attack and murder innocent men, I mean her ex-husband did kill their child (we learn later on that he was under a spell, but still, she didn't know that at the time)
Let's put it this way: God forbid if you're a parent and your child was murdered by your spouse, who would you take your anger out on? The spouse or your child? I hope this comes as an obvious answer to you.
While Freya doesn't hurt the children physically, she does leave a permanent scar in them mentally by taking away everything a child should have in their lives and forcing them not to ever love anyone.
While Freya doesn't hurt the children physically, she does leave a permanent scar in them mentally by taking away everything a child should have in their lives and forcing them not to ever love anyone.
That's another thing, she makes it a point to tell her child army to NEVER LOVE, at all. That has got to be the stupidest thing to say to someone. Even if the children grew into complete savages, I'm sure some of them would still have the desire to love. They are surrounded by other children who experienced the same trauma as them, of course they would feel comforted by those they train with for years. So Eric and Sara growing up into fighting and eventually falling for one another shouldn't be a shock to Freya, but it is, and it is then that she splits them apart by creating the frozen wall that switches their perceptions and fools them into believing that the other was either murdered or ran away cowardly.
I do admit, the twist was pretty clever. I wouldn't have expected it and I'm glad it happened, or else I would've raged on how early they killed Sara. Speaking of Sara, shouldn't she have died anyway? If not by being stabbed by huntsman Tom then when? This is something I consider a nitpick because while Eric in the first movie explains that Snow White reminds him of his deceased wife, Sara, she could have died after the second movie was completed through more natural causes: disease, poisoned, etc.
Lastly, if Eric knows of the Evil Queen and how she manipulated Freya into being a cruel leader, then why does he follow her orders in the first movie? And how does she come back to life after her mirror is shattered? This is a complaint I like to call non-justifiable, because since I didn't watch the first film, I have no detail on the events that took place. I only know the gist of it and therefore, these questions could be easily answered if I just watch the first film. But I won't, because I don't want to.
UPDATE! (Even more thoughts)
1- Freya's powers & the Sisters' Bond
Where did Freya's powers come from? This was something else that bothered me. We first see her use her powers when she is angry over the loss of her newborn daughter and she uses her ice powers to kill her ex-husband. Later in the movie, Ravenna apologies for killing her daughter and letting out these powers within Freya. All I'm thinking is, how did Ravenna release it now? Why was it never brought up in the past? I would think by the time she was an adult, Freya would've discovered these powers a multiple occasions, that's why many stories have a superhero discover their true nature at a young age. Since children can be irrational and impulsive, Freya not getting her favorite toy could've set off even a few icicles.
Also, it said in one of the trailers (not the one I sent) something along the lines of, "This is the story between the loving bond between two sisters..." I know that I can't expect a trailer to reveal everything about the movie, but there must be some sort of truth into what they say. It may just be me, but from what they showed in the movie, there was no loving bond at all between Ravenna and Freya. I don't think they even smiled at each other once before things went downhill.
Show don't tell
At least spare five minutes of screen time, or a flashback on how strong their relationship was before Ravenna betrayed Freya. Because without it, I only saw them as already estranged sisters who were never on the best of terms and eventually Ravenna using Freya as a puppet to feed her anger towards the loss of her baby, which leads me to another thing...
2- What battle?
Yes, I know there was an army prepared to attack Ravenna, but they never do until the very end! The movie is mostly focused on Sara and Eric's relationship and how a misunderstanding tore them apart for 7 years. In fact, near the end, Freya is following Ravenna's orders, being persuaded to kill Eric and Sara for 'being in love' which is still such a lame excuse. If they're your best fighters, why kill them off? In fact...it may be better if they're in love! They're both strong and intelligent, so working together could be the next best thing!
3- Queen Ravenna's Screen time
I feel like Ravenna didn't get as much screen time as the other main characters. The movie is titled after the huntsman, but those who enjoyed the first movie were more likely to want to know more about Ravenna as a person and her relationship with her sister. How come they couldn't fit that in? And how come we couldn't get a look in Freya's mindset? Her actions feel so irrational to me, I want to see how she decided to make children her pawns-I'm still not over this.
4-My dislike for Sara
If my husband seemed to abandon me when I was being attacked and 7 years later I find him again and he is convinced that what I saw was wrong, I'd probably be irate like Sara was. And yet...why don't I like her? This is more of a complaint at myself, because I feel like I really shouldn't dislike this character, but I do. I think the problem is that her anger towards Eric leads to the obvious tropes I mentioned earlier: the misunderstanding and the bickering and the obvious tension they have and it's all been done to death! I'm tried of seeing this pop up, and being that Sara technically started this, my likability for her decreased.
5- What a twist!
To be fair, the scene where the frozen wall changed Eric and Sara's perspectives was very cool and I was surprised by that twist. So I guess what I said earlier about this being a cliche misunderstanding could be false, because I've never seen that before. Now how exactly did Freya manage to create a wall that changes people's perspectives is best not to be thought about in depth.
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Rotten Tomatoes' Huntsman Review
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