Film Review - SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMAN ★★★☆☆

I admit to immediately falling under the gloomy spell cast by Snow White & The Huntsman. There is no denying there are many pages borrowed from other sources (so let's just acknowledge and move past the easy Lord of the Rings and Game Of Thrones comparisons), but this dark, gritty fairy tale laced with evil powerful women possessing magical powers, flawed heroes and heroines, knights in not-so-shining armor, mythical creatures, and lavish tangible settings took me right back to 1981's Excalibur. Allow me to get Medieval for a moment to say I am a big fan of the sword and sorcery genre and that pre-CGI era John Boorman epic remains the gold standard that King Arthur interpretations should be held to.

But back to Snow White, this version is hands down more Game of  Thrones than Mirror Mirror or ABC's Once Upon A Time, but that should surprise nobody since the trailers make no bones about that. If colorful family friendly fairy tales are your thing, you best stick to the more traditional takes. But fret not, there are plenty of familiar Snow White plot points present: the poison apple, seven dwarfs, a prince charming figure, and an evil Queen talking to her mirror mirror on the wall.

The film moves quickly along from the get-go with an intro to the updated familiar Snow White legend. Here we find our heroine an imprisoned Princess after her widowed father King Magnus is seduced by the mysterious scheming stranger Ravenna (Charlize Theron), and is promptly murdered on their wedding night. The new Queen assumes absolute rule over the land, and the eternal youth obsessed sorceress sees to the withering of the kingdom as it sinks into a dark age. Ravenna can only maintain her beauty by feeding on the life force of young girls, and must ultimately consume Snow's heart for true immortality. Not really Disney kids fare here.

Years later, Snow has grown up into Kristen Stewart and escapes the tower and into the treacherous Dark Forest. Ravenna enlists Chris Hemsworth's Huntsman to fetch her back before the Princess sees fit to end her reign and reclaim the fallen kingdom.

Hemsworth effortlessly wins you over as the true flawed hero of the film. He is a depressed widowed warrior who drowns his sorrows with drink and reluctantly agrees to find Snow White through the false promise that he will be reunited with her by Ravenna's dark powers. Don’t get me wrong, the role is a stone’s throw from his breakout turn as Thor, but Hemsworth brings charm and charisma to this shattered tough guy role who eventually trains Snow for her showdown with the Queen.

What may be the first stand out issue is the whole 'fairest of them all" business. Snow White or Queen Ravenna? It's a daunting task for any actress in Hollywood to go head to head with Theron in the raw beauty department. However, Stewart is not groomed at any point to appear physically more beautiful than this Queen. Her Snow White is a down trodden warrior Princess who has been hardened by years of unjust imprisonment. She only wishes to flee from the Queen until her ultimate destiny to reclaim her kingdom becomes clear.

Stewart plays it straight and cold, as she should. As written, she has little reason to have bluebirds perched upon her finger or break into song while sweeping the dirt floors of the house. This film will allow moviegoers to see her in a major non Bella Swan turn, and since I counted a whole two and a half smiles from her in the entire movie, Stewart still holds the crown for wearing the pained scowl of pain and agony like no other working actress in Hollywood. You could argue for a more expression in a lead, but where exactly would your happy face be after years locked in a tower prison? This is a Snow for suited for Stewart.

By the time the Seven Dwarfs show up (sans those Disney nicknames), you feel a welcome lighthearted rescue from it all. The Dwarfs are played as tough witty warriors, and thankfully not silly sidekicks with cringe worthy comic relief banter. You may recognize Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Bob Hoskins, and Toby Jones among the pint size group who add a breather from overall the tense trek. And when the journey leads to Sanctuary, a forest inhabited by colorful animals and wingless fairies who must travel in the belly pockets of birds, you have forgotten that you are entitled to some enchanted wonderment, even in a non-Narnia sort of way. 

Charlize as Ravenna steals the show with a terrifying performance as a psychologically damaged creature. She has been raised to use her youth and beauty as her sole ultimate weapon of seduction, and can snap into over the top insanity when pushed. When a character is out to literally consume the heart from Snow White, such terrifying outbursts are in line with the character.

The look of the film is extraordinary. The treats here lie in director Rupert Sander's penchant for dazzling design in every shot of the film. In making the film a showcase for Ravenna, he projects her insanity from grand set pieces in her castle, as she bathes in milk-like life pools, emerges from a vat of black ooze after transforming into a flock of ravens, or conversing with the man in the mirror about the fairest in the land. Additional visual treats are her minions made of glass that shatter into countless black shards and the flawless shrinking of the cast members into the Seven Dwarfs. Sanders sees fit to provide a constant visual assault of Gothic FX eye candy.

Overall Snow White & The Huntsman is best described a dark cold fairy tale looking to find its lost soul. Its not a tour de force revelation in re-defining the classic story or without bumps in its journey, but the stunning medieval Gothic visuals and art direction, a solid cast led by a show stopping chilling performance by Charlize Theron, and throwback homages to some of my favorite films like Excalibur, Legend, and even Time Bandits, make it for me a summer spectacle worthy of recommending.

Snow White & The Huntsman opens Friday, June 1st.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★☆☆
Directed By: Rupert Sanders

Starring: Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Ian MacShane, Sam Clafin

Studio: Universal Pictures

Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 127 minutes

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Film Review - BATTLESHIP ★★½☆☆☆

Going into 2012, I had two big budget targets on my radar that I expected to go 'all film school' on: John Carter and Battleship. Unfortunately for Taylor Kitsch, he happened to star in both of them. John Carter was out of theaters before I was able to see it (my bad), and as for Battleship (yes, based on the classic Hasbro naval combat board game), well I'll be damned if I didn't have a great time throughout the ridiculous bombastic spectacle that it was.

To be fair, I am a firm believer that you can't appreciate good movies without sitting through bad movies. And by no means is Battleship a terribly bad movie, but to say it doesn't ride the B-Movie wave big time would be misleading (albeit a B-Movie with a budget of possibly $200 million or so). Every single production penny spent is up there on the big screen, Battleship easily excels as a film that looks and sounds expensive (and you will not experience a louder film this year, of that I can assure you).

Director Peter Berg (Hancock, The Rundown) really steps up several notches by borrowing heavily from the Michael Bay playbook of how to assault the senses of your paying audience. The film certainly has the hi-tech look and feel of a Transformers off-shoot, but Berg thankfully left out much of the roll your eyes humor that somehow always makes it to the final cut of a Bay film.

So let's get to the plot, which is safe to say is fairly straightforward. Throwing caution to the wind, some optimistic astronomers in Hawaii beam a blind 'hello' beacon to a distant Earth-like planet in hopes of high fiving any existing extraterrestrial neighbors. Lets just say when the eventual response years later is not a reciprocal greeting, but a preliminary alien invasion force, its up to the guys and gals of the U.S. Navy to let them know exactly where the buck stops.

Alex and Stone Hopper (Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgård) are our lead hero Naval officer brothers, with Alex being the unpredictable Maverick to Stone's straight and narrow Goose. Academy Award Winner Liam Neeson plays Admiral Shane, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, and adds the necessary weight to the role of the big man in charge. Sports Illustrated supermodel Brooklyn Decker plays Admiral Shane's supermodel physical therapist daughter, and to complicate matters, fiancée to Kitsch's screw-up sailor. And then we have Rhianna as Petty Officer Second Class Cora Raikes, who also serves as a weapons specialist (and also for my taste has far too much screen time as the tough-as-nails-who-always-has-a-one-liner military chick).

While the plot is thin, (do we get or even deserve a reason for the alien's invasion?), a big summer actioner like this should not (and does not) require its audience to think too hard. Are there scenes where combat takes place that are literally inspired by the board game based on nautical coordinates? Of course. They have you mid-scene before you realize it. And does anyone get to deliver THE big Battleship tag line? Wait for it...

When the aliens do arrive after we spend a little too long with character developing introductions, Battleship kicks in on full throttle. The intense battle scenes are well staged and the accompanying special effects are convincing. The powerful alien submersible ships are both impressive and oppressive, as are the razor laced roller balls of destruction. Another piece of eye candy are the humanoid aliens who travel about in nifty Mass Effect inspired exo-suits.

Battleship definitely settles into its A-game comfort zone with some quick cutting Top Gun-esque excitement on the high seas. Since ship to ship combat on the big screen has been monopolized by the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it's great to see the bad ass arsenals of sea faring vessels that are not waving a jolly roger flag atop their masts.

By the time the plan in store for third act big finish reveals itself, you will either be cheering or throwing your concessions at the screen. But again, that is part of the inherent fun of the popcorn formula it adheres to. There are some cringe worthy lines of dialogue that read better off the script page than in front of a camera, but frankly moments like that only make you appreciate more how Bill Pullman managed to pull off the pep rally Presidential speech in Independence Day.

Battleship doesn't pretend to be anything but what it is. Its all there right in your face and you know already if this is your idea of a good time at the movies. If so, add an additional half star rating. So go with it, enjoy the intended high octane fun, watch big things go bang and boom, and most of all, don't over think it. That's what I did.

Battleship opens in theaters today.

REVIEW RATING: ★★½☆☆☆
Directed By: Peter Berg

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, and Liam Neeson

Studio: Universal Pictures

Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 131 minutes 

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