'The Huntsman: Winter's War' - Frozen Waste

While visually stunning in many ways, 'The Huntsman: Winter's War' has very little else going for it. It's a prequel/sequel that for the life of me I still can't figure out the purpose. 'The Huntsman' is filled with a stellar cast that includes Emily Blunt as the icy Queen Freya, Charlize Theron as the evil Queen Ravenna, Jessica Chastain as Sara and Chris Hemsworth as Thor, no, wait a minute, Chris Hemsworth as Eric, the Huntsman. All are game to be ion the fill, but not even their considerable talents are enough to bring the mess resound anything but cool looking.

I have to admit, I was a fan of 2102's 'Snow White & the Huntsman' despite the fact it featured Kristen Stewart. That being said, this prequel/sequel doesn't even have Kristen Stewart to blame this time.  I am still trying to figure out why in the world they made a hybrid of sorts. The first 1/4 of the film is a prequel, before the appearance of Snow White, showing us the development of The Huntsmen characters, soldiers raised from childhood by Queen Freya. This, despite the fact that in 'Snow White' Helmsworth's Huntsman was constantly overshadowed by the maniacal performance of Theron as the evil queen.  The producers & writes would have fared much better had they focused on Theron's character as the feature of the film.

The last half, an excruciate long last half, focuses on the rise of the icy Queen Freya (Blunt), sister to Theron's Queen Ravenna, AFTER Snow White had killed Queen Ravenna in the first film (what's a little thing like a gruesome death between sisters?).  Following me so far? If you are, you're doing better than I in the theater while it was happening.  

Queen Freya, because of a lost love, deems that none of her soldiers shall love or risk being sentenced to death. Of course, Huntsmen Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Chastain) fall in love and pledge themselves to each other. For another reason that I find baffling, Freya tricks each of the star crossed lovers into thinking the other has left them, keeoping Sara with her and dumping Eric outside of the kingdom.

My head hurts.

The film is convoluted and confusing, the direction by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan is his first and probably his last film. The dialogue is not as snappy as it should be and the best parts are when Blunt & Theron are chewing up their scenes and lines as the evil Queens. Unfortunately, this only happens for about 10 minutes of the painfully long 120 minutes of mess.  By the time we get to the final battle, as predictable as that was, we no longer care and are only hopeful the end credits are going to start rolling soon.

The ONLY reason I give this a C-, Blunt & Theron, combined with their stunning visuals, make the movie better than a D. Sadly though, they are not chewing up as nearly as much scenery as they should. The ending does leave it open for another sequel (ugh), so at the very least, here's hoping it is a sequel focused on Theron's Queen Ravenna and nothing else! Trust me, wait for Netflix or the Redbox rental.