Snow White and the Huntsman

First of all, may I just say that the new Brave trailer seemed to designed to make me NOT want to watch the movie, as most of the emphasis was on how Merida is Not Like Other Girls and is Super Special and doesn't get along with her mother because her mother wants her to be an icky proper lady and Doesn't Understand Her and her dad is just so much more awesome and approachable in her eyes? (I mean, I still intend to see it, but the trailers and such keep shoving that part in my face.) Also, apparently the movie got backburned for years because there was a female director who they had to fire because she kept putting in all these scenes between Merida and her mother that the Pixar dudes just didn't understand and were confident that women didn't interact that way but then eventually a dude came along and fixed all those scenes for them.

Anyway, I had not intended to watch Snow White and the Huntsman opening day, being rather allergic to crowded dark rooms full of people I don't know, but I may be doing a lot of overtime at work in the next couple weeks, making today possibly my last chance to catch a matinee showing for a while, and I didn't want to have to hide from chunks of the internet to avoid being spoiled.

In short, it lived up to my expectations and I loved it. It did several things I wanted it to do but thought it wouldn't, and fulfilled my quota for female centric heroic narratives, evil queens, costume and scenery pr0n, and "'grumpy loner x wee cute scrappy thing' MOST CONTEXTS ACCEPTABLE." The trailers and clips I watched made it pretty clear that they were going for a more mythic (as in "heroic epic") approach than a lot of fantasy movies seem to, and it really does, particularly when it comes to animal guides. I suspect some of it may be a bit too random/convenient for some (not helped much by the inclusion of a few brief bits that seem to be there mostly because they thought it'd be cool for the trailers), but it worked for me. The movie is also amusingly in love with its own epicness.

Actingwise, Charlize Theron unsurprisingly puts in the best performance. I haven't seen any other of Kristen Stewart's movies, but I thought she was pretty decent here. Not the best actress ever, but not bad either, and in terms of screen presence and appearance, I think she was an excellent choice for the role. (Let's give "No one would ever think Kristen is hotter than Charlize" a rest already. Yes, Charlize is a more conventionally attractive hot blonde. Get over it.) Thor did a pretty good job given that his character was drunk in over half his scenes. And may I just comment on his hilariously bad Scottish accent? Pretty much everyone else had a British accent, but for some reason, his was Scottish and not really good, as was immediately made obvious as he spent the first few minutes delivering a rather clunky narration. (Which would have worked better with Ravenna doing it than the huntsman, really.)

BTW, I know the huntsmans name is Eric, but I'm not sure if it's ever actually said in the movie. Also, there are fairies that somehow manage to be weird/creepy and absolutely adorable at the same time

A couple brief comments about 2 things that might be triggery.

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Spoilery comments:

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