THE HUNTSMAN: Winter's War – Enjoyable action adventure
Film: The Huntsman: Winter's War
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain, Sam Claflin, Colin Morgan
Director: Cedric Nicholas Troyan
This fantasy adventure actioner revolves around the titular hero who saved Snow White from the clutches of her wicked stepmother, Queen (Theron) Ravenna in 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman.
In this prequel cum sequel, viewers are apprised with the back-story of the huntsman (Hemsworth) who once again plays a pivotal role in thwarting the undead Ravenna's evil designs. This time around, latterday Hans Christian Andersen wannabees, Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin expand the fairy tale's universe by re-imagining Ravenna with a younger sister named Freya (in a suspicious resemblance to Frozen’s Snow Princess) as played by Blunt, Freya falls in love with a handsome nobleman the Duke of Blackwood (Colin Morgan) and bears a child who will inherit the throne.
Sibling rivalry mutates conniving control freak Ravenna (Theron) into a monster ADD while a broken heart reels Freya into the glacial regions of unfeeling despair where the ice walls she conjures to keep apart hostiles are metaphors for her own hardened heart and lovelessness.
"Love is a sin" she tells the abducted youngsters who are trained to form her army. But love will not, cannot be denied and two of the best cohorts Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Chastain) experience that many splendoured thing.
That last adjective could also be applied to the sets (lavish) the costume design (ornate), the special effects (splendid) and the star cast (talented) which does its best to enhance a derivative story whose narrator mentions Snow White in passing. A quartet of dwarves provide comic relief, but what dazzles in that landscape of betrayal and deception even more than Blunt's beautiful blue eyes is the love between Eric and Sara. It is a love that bears all, endures all and ultimately saves all, except of course the ones that don't deserve or even desire salvation.