Review: The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)
Apr. 24th, 2016 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitter_n_goreJust got back! Trailer!
First things first: This is not a prequel. I thought it was a prequel. It starts prior to Snow White and the Huntsman, when Chris Hemsworth's character (who now has a name--it's Eric!) first gets taken by Queen Freya (Emily Blunt's Ice Queen is called Freya) to train in her army. But then it skips forward like 7 years and it's after Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron's Evil Queen from the first movie) has been defeated by Snow White (Kristen Stewart was not invited back), and supposedly everything is okay now. Until it isn't.
Really it's an expansion of the first movie, an opportunity to explore Eric's relationship with his first love, Sara (Jessica Chastain's definitely-not-inspired-by-Katniss ace archer), and how that all went down before Ravenna's minions picked him up in a tavern all depressed and mopey. It brings in new characters like Freya and Sara who are both a joy to watch, and whose characters arcs are more similar than they realize. The story is a basic quest adventure, with the quest object (the mirror) being the Sealed Evil In a Can variety, and I did enjoy seeing it come into play in the end. But I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. I have two main talking points here. Just two.
Spoilers from here on out. SO MANY SPOILERS. You've been warned. I liked many things about this movie, but several things about it bothered me, and they're all spoiler-related. Don't look further unless you're cool to be spoiled.
Still there? Okay, let's do this:
1) Holy Retconning, Batman. Did the writers not watch the first movie? I watched this with a coworker who somehow didn't see the first movie, or didn't remember much of it, so maybe this will only be an issue if you watched it four times like I did. While many elements here were pretty cool, they also don't work if this takes place in the same universe as the last movie.
For example, Freya's whole character arc is based on this betrayal/deception that Ravenna lays on her when they were younger. Ravenna is convinced that love makes people weaker and plays this dirty, evil trick on Freya to break her heart, and also to wake up the Ice Witch inside her. Which says some interesting things about both of them, such as how close they were as children, and how protective Ravenna is of her little sister, to a fault really. Except . . . didn't Ravenna have a twin brother? Where was he during all this? Did we forget about him, or are we pretending he doesn't exist, or what is even the hell?
Another example--and this one really bothered me--is Eric. In both movies, we know he loved and lost a woman whose death still haunts him. By the end of Snow White, he has moved on from the pain somewhat, and is back to being a hero. In the beginning of Winter's War, he's exiled himself because he doesn't know what to do now that there's no war to fight, or something. I don't know. It's not really explained why he's no longer at the castle with Snow White. It does make it clear that Snow White has chosen the childhood friend who served as a secondary love interest in the first movie. So apparently we're also forgetting this happened:
That "True Love's Kiss" awakening scene. IT'S KIND OF A MAJOR PLOT POINT.*
Shoehorning in a way to get the Huntsman and Snow White apart so we can bring in Jessica Chastain for the sequel makes sense on some level. See there's also this subplot about Freya deceiving both Eric and Sara to break them apart because she has a grudge against love (which I will come back to in a minute), making him think she was dead, and making her think he gave up on her and walked away. IF the movie had been playing the, "I thought you were dead!" angle and left it there, I would've been fine with it. But then they give Eric this whole speech about how he always stayed true to her and never let anyone else in his heart, but--GAH! NO. THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED. The previous movie gave him a whole speech about how he was dead inside until he met Snow White! It's the speech in the "True Love's First Kiss" scene! That's not even touching the way Sara "dies" being completely rewritten from the ground up.
2) Freya has built herself a kingdom of isolation, and it looks like she's the Queen. You know how the first movie was Snow White, but with a lot of extra gritty stuff thrown in, but not too much because we still want a PG-13 rating to draw the widest audience possible? This is The Snow Queen, with a more sympathetic villain/protagonist (Is Freya the protagonist, or Eric? I honestly couldn't tell.), and more action. Basically it's Frozen if Anna was evil. And slightly closer to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. (Slightly.) The original story features a mirror that can turn you evil and distort your perception; the titular Snow Queen who finds a young boy and a young girl and tries to keep them apart by making them forget each other; and it ends when they find each other anyway and use the Power of Love to break the curse and escape.
I'm actually totally okay with this. I love Frozen. I love Emily Blunt, who shines in this role with more subtlety and grace than the movie probably deserves. I love seeing this story told with a touch more accuracy, but from the "villain's" point of view (sort of) while portraying her more sympathetically and giving her tons of gorgeous costumes. Most of the screen time is spent with Eric and Sara, but make no mistake--this is Freya's story. She has the most important job to do. She's the one who grows and changes. She's the one who has to confront not only Ravenna but the power inside herself and figure out how to use it responsibly.
There are even a couple shots that I swear were lifted directly from the Disney movie. Just the way Elsa and Freya's power works is eerily similar. So if you thought you were getting a completely original story instead of a live-action retelling of a Disney Princess movie this time around--sorry, nope. Unlike Elsa, Freya doesn't get a happy ending, which rankles me a little. I kind of get the impression she's being punished for not finding romance, since all the characters who live (the ones we care about anyway) all wind up happily paired off. Which is ironic, considering one of the most brilliantly subversive things about Frozen was the fact that Elsa doesn't get, or need, a love interest to be totally badass and awesome.
Elsa. The cold doesn't bother her. Because she's awesome.*
If it worked for a family movie, why not for an adult one? I want more complicated female characters like this. Tough, resourceful, flawed, even a little mean, so long as that's earned. Freya's ending doesn't feel earned. Let her become open to the possibility of love to the point where she's not resenting other people's happiness anymore, okay, but the way her story ended was not fair and not necessary. You were so close on this one, Winter's War. SO close.
At the end of the day, is it any good?
Sure. It's very pretty. The costumes and sets are gorgeous. It's worth seeing on the big screen for the sheer scope and cinematography. I liked the dwarves way more than I expected to. (This movie has dwarves, and they're terrific.) But the plotting is lazy, the characters' choices make no sense if you know what they were like in the first movie, the pace is off-kilter and frustrating, and it needs more Charlize Theron. Also, I didn't really mention this, but Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain don't have the chemistry to pull off their supposedly death-defying love story. I blame the direction. And the writing.
It's fun, but flawed, much like its predecessor. And also like its predecessor, it should have recognized its best character (the Queen, obviously) and focused more on her instead of the weaker, less interesting every-person types it put in the front seat.
I think I'll watch Frozen again.
*All GIFs via Giphy.
First things first: This is not a prequel. I thought it was a prequel. It starts prior to Snow White and the Huntsman, when Chris Hemsworth's character (who now has a name--it's Eric!) first gets taken by Queen Freya (Emily Blunt's Ice Queen is called Freya) to train in her army. But then it skips forward like 7 years and it's after Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron's Evil Queen from the first movie) has been defeated by Snow White (Kristen Stewart was not invited back), and supposedly everything is okay now. Until it isn't.
Really it's an expansion of the first movie, an opportunity to explore Eric's relationship with his first love, Sara (Jessica Chastain's definitely-not-inspired-by-Katniss ace archer), and how that all went down before Ravenna's minions picked him up in a tavern all depressed and mopey. It brings in new characters like Freya and Sara who are both a joy to watch, and whose characters arcs are more similar than they realize. The story is a basic quest adventure, with the quest object (the mirror) being the Sealed Evil In a Can variety, and I did enjoy seeing it come into play in the end. But I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. I have two main talking points here. Just two.
Spoilers from here on out. SO MANY SPOILERS. You've been warned. I liked many things about this movie, but several things about it bothered me, and they're all spoiler-related. Don't look further unless you're cool to be spoiled.
Still there? Okay, let's do this:
1) Holy Retconning, Batman. Did the writers not watch the first movie? I watched this with a coworker who somehow didn't see the first movie, or didn't remember much of it, so maybe this will only be an issue if you watched it four times like I did. While many elements here were pretty cool, they also don't work if this takes place in the same universe as the last movie.
For example, Freya's whole character arc is based on this betrayal/deception that Ravenna lays on her when they were younger. Ravenna is convinced that love makes people weaker and plays this dirty, evil trick on Freya to break her heart, and also to wake up the Ice Witch inside her. Which says some interesting things about both of them, such as how close they were as children, and how protective Ravenna is of her little sister, to a fault really. Except . . . didn't Ravenna have a twin brother? Where was he during all this? Did we forget about him, or are we pretending he doesn't exist, or what is even the hell?
Another example--and this one really bothered me--is Eric. In both movies, we know he loved and lost a woman whose death still haunts him. By the end of Snow White, he has moved on from the pain somewhat, and is back to being a hero. In the beginning of Winter's War, he's exiled himself because he doesn't know what to do now that there's no war to fight, or something. I don't know. It's not really explained why he's no longer at the castle with Snow White. It does make it clear that Snow White has chosen the childhood friend who served as a secondary love interest in the first movie. So apparently we're also forgetting this happened:
That "True Love's Kiss" awakening scene. IT'S KIND OF A MAJOR PLOT POINT.*
Shoehorning in a way to get the Huntsman and Snow White apart so we can bring in Jessica Chastain for the sequel makes sense on some level. See there's also this subplot about Freya deceiving both Eric and Sara to break them apart because she has a grudge against love (which I will come back to in a minute), making him think she was dead, and making her think he gave up on her and walked away. IF the movie had been playing the, "I thought you were dead!" angle and left it there, I would've been fine with it. But then they give Eric this whole speech about how he always stayed true to her and never let anyone else in his heart, but--GAH! NO. THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED. The previous movie gave him a whole speech about how he was dead inside until he met Snow White! It's the speech in the "True Love's First Kiss" scene! That's not even touching the way Sara "dies" being completely rewritten from the ground up.
2) Freya has built herself a kingdom of isolation, and it looks like she's the Queen. You know how the first movie was Snow White, but with a lot of extra gritty stuff thrown in, but not too much because we still want a PG-13 rating to draw the widest audience possible? This is The Snow Queen, with a more sympathetic villain/protagonist (Is Freya the protagonist, or Eric? I honestly couldn't tell.), and more action. Basically it's Frozen if Anna was evil. And slightly closer to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. (Slightly.) The original story features a mirror that can turn you evil and distort your perception; the titular Snow Queen who finds a young boy and a young girl and tries to keep them apart by making them forget each other; and it ends when they find each other anyway and use the Power of Love to break the curse and escape.
I'm actually totally okay with this. I love Frozen. I love Emily Blunt, who shines in this role with more subtlety and grace than the movie probably deserves. I love seeing this story told with a touch more accuracy, but from the "villain's" point of view (sort of) while portraying her more sympathetically and giving her tons of gorgeous costumes. Most of the screen time is spent with Eric and Sara, but make no mistake--this is Freya's story. She has the most important job to do. She's the one who grows and changes. She's the one who has to confront not only Ravenna but the power inside herself and figure out how to use it responsibly.
There are even a couple shots that I swear were lifted directly from the Disney movie. Just the way Elsa and Freya's power works is eerily similar. So if you thought you were getting a completely original story instead of a live-action retelling of a Disney Princess movie this time around--sorry, nope. Unlike Elsa, Freya doesn't get a happy ending, which rankles me a little. I kind of get the impression she's being punished for not finding romance, since all the characters who live (the ones we care about anyway) all wind up happily paired off. Which is ironic, considering one of the most brilliantly subversive things about Frozen was the fact that Elsa doesn't get, or need, a love interest to be totally badass and awesome.
Elsa. The cold doesn't bother her. Because she's awesome.*
If it worked for a family movie, why not for an adult one? I want more complicated female characters like this. Tough, resourceful, flawed, even a little mean, so long as that's earned. Freya's ending doesn't feel earned. Let her become open to the possibility of love to the point where she's not resenting other people's happiness anymore, okay, but the way her story ended was not fair and not necessary. You were so close on this one, Winter's War. SO close.
At the end of the day, is it any good?
Sure. It's very pretty. The costumes and sets are gorgeous. It's worth seeing on the big screen for the sheer scope and cinematography. I liked the dwarves way more than I expected to. (This movie has dwarves, and they're terrific.) But the plotting is lazy, the characters' choices make no sense if you know what they were like in the first movie, the pace is off-kilter and frustrating, and it needs more Charlize Theron. Also, I didn't really mention this, but Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain don't have the chemistry to pull off their supposedly death-defying love story. I blame the direction. And the writing.
It's fun, but flawed, much like its predecessor. And also like its predecessor, it should have recognized its best character (the Queen, obviously) and focused more on her instead of the weaker, less interesting every-person types it put in the front seat.
I think I'll watch Frozen again.
*All GIFs via Giphy.
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