Geez, no need to scold us. We had buffer seats on either side of us and have long ago perfected the art of the near-silent whisper. Nobody paid any attention to us (and it’s not like we did it through the whole movie. Just when something particularly silly or inexplicable happened). The people crinkling popcorn bags and candy wrappers behind us were making far more noise than we were.
I loved it. I was a bit frustrated by the thin plot, but I had low expectations for all of that. I was really coming to see Theron dig her teeth in and she did not disappoint.
I love an actress who, after proving full well with other projects that she can give different levels of some serious thespianism, goes ahead and has some fun with her extraordinary talent. She went all in on the wicked witchiness, and she didn’t try to wink at the audience with that shit either. No, she commited to that performance with no apologies for any hamminess that she had to apply at some points. I ate her up with a spoon.
I love that she didn’t even try to go for 'tragic villain, complex and layered". Oh no. She went for, “Yes, I am damaged, in the truest sense of the word, and I will do *whatever it takes *to never hurt like that again.” Aww, man, it was terrific.
I also enjoyed her brother’s character. “I’VE GIVEN EVERYTHING TO YOUUUU!!!”
My favorite part of the movie was that raven outfit she was wearing at the end, with the pointy iron industrial crown. She looked great!
I kept getting distracted by that freaky pageboy haircut. 
I thought it was pretty good. Stewart can’t act, she just can’t, but she didn’t wreck the film for me (and I hate Twatlight with the hot fury of a supernova, so I was a little worried she might). Helmsworth was suitably engaging. Theron is worth the ticket price, and I loved her creepy relationship with her brother.
Visually, the movie was stunning, but did anyone else notice how much it lifted its visuals from other movies? Lord of the Rings is a given for any fantasy movie post 2001, so I’ll let that one go, but the deer with the massive rack of antlers? The fairies? Did anyone else see that and instantly think Miyazaki? The horse drowning in the mud from the Never Ending Story? Maybe I’m being nitpicky, but I found it a little distracting.
I thought it was the definition of an average movie. Kristen Stewart isn’t a bad actress, I’ve seen far worse certainly, and when she’s forced to do something other than whisper in monotone and stare with her mouth open she can do it. She just can’t do it better than pretty much anyone else – she’s purely average in talent and ability.
I thought Hemsworth was the best actor in the movie, I liked Theron, but she chewed the scenery way too much for me. Yes, that was rather the point but it went a bit too far.
The story only made sense as long as you shut up and remembered it was a fairy tale. It wasn’t meant to be solid, it presents “this is what happens, yes there are other ways it could have happened that make more sense. Shut up we don’t care.” Which keeps it average, it has good scenery, a plot that works if you don’t think about it too much, and actors that are at best average except maybe one or two stand-outs. It’s a solid average movie.
Did anybody else get a Cersei:Jaime vibe from Charlize and her brother?
I liked it. -shrug-
The plot is definitely thin. But it’s a fairy tale, so I wasn’t expecting too much…
Kristen Stewart is not a great actress, but I don’t think she ruins the movie-- she’s kind of just “there.”
On the other hand, Charlize Theron is gorgeous and insane and the effects / cinematography are generally awesome, so overall I enjoyed myself way more than the reviews would indicate. Would definitely watch again when it’s released on blu-ray.
It was ok. It would have been vastly better with a more compelling actress in the Snow White role.
I think Jennifer Lawrence would have been vastly better suited for the role than Kristin Stewart.
Yes, but at least one can understand why Cersei would be attracted to Jaime. If Ravenna loved her brother she never would have allowed him to get that haircut.
I was mightily disappointed. I thought the main problems were at a writing level. A lot of scenes didn’t even make sense to me. When the Huntsman said “You have a deal!” it sounded like the end to a conversation other than the one they were having.
It looked great, but come on, why set up a love triangle with no sexual tension? Chris Hemsworth was the best part. I think it would’ve worked much better if the Huntsman had been a loyal minion of the Queen, rather in-love-with-her-at-a-distance only to have his loyalties transfered and his eyes opened by a much more compelling actress (I say that and I actually like Kristen Stewart). I think Saoirse Ronan could’ve done it but she’s a shade too young.
Are you me? With the exception of one or two things here, this is almost word-for-word my thoughts and feelings on the movie.
I thought it looked visually interesting, which it mostly was, and I thought Charlize Theron looked beautifully menacing in the trailer, which, oh my god, she was. Easily the best thing about the movie. The chewing of scenery that can sometimes be so annoying (Al Pacino in *The Devil’s Advocate *being my favorite example of such) was really well done here, I thought, although the fact that she’s one of the most beautiful women in movies these days makes almost anything she does a little easier to accept.
I don’t know much about Kristen Stewart, except for everyone else’s opinions of her abilities as an actress, but I didn’t think she was THAT bad here. More a victim of bad writing than bad acting, IMO. I’ve seen her in *Panic Room *and Adventureland, but I’m pretty sure that’s all, and I thought she was reasonably capable in the latter and rather captivating in the former.
I saw the movie at a drive-in theater, which may have had something to do with this next point, but I didn’t recognize any of the actors playing the dwarves until their third or subsequent appearances… I thought the makeup crew deserves kudos for uglying up those men enough that they were difficult to recognize. I never realized Toby Jones was one of them at all until reading this thread, and had to check IMDB later to confirm that Nick Frost was another. Another possible by-product of the drive-in screen was that Hemsworth wasn’t nearly as pretty as I remembered him from Thor. I know that was kind of the point, because he was covered in mud most of the time, but I was hoping for something more shamelessly pandering in the beefcake department. 
Overall, not a bad movie, just utterly forgettable.
ETA: In looking at Stewart’s IMDB profile, I’ve also seen *Jumper *but have NO idea what part she might have played, and I saw *Into The Wild *but don’t remember her having a single line.
It met my expectations; I assumed the plot would be a threadbare clothesline for a series of effects-laden tapestries, and was not disappointed.
I tend to agree with most here about Ms. Stewart. About a third of the way in I started noticing her two big teeth always front-and-center in whatever expression she had, and after a while I could see nothing else of her performance. That’s kind of the definition of lackluster acting.
Yes, and the term “bunny teeth” in this thread was perfect. I, too, found the bunny teeth distracting.
I am so glad that I’m not the only one who’s driven nearly distracted by those teeth.
It would help if she had a few facial expressions to deflect attention.
Could the teeth be why Stewart smiles so rarely in photos?
I think we three are on the same page. The scenes n the enchanted forest and dark forest were fantastic. Ian was great as “grumpy” but not enough screen time.
Kristen had a few problems:
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She just isn’t even close to the same league as Theron. Not in looks, not in acting capability.
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This made the film a bit off- That is supposed to be giving Charlize a run for the money as “fairest”? In what universe? And, that’s the point of Twilight, that a average but rather socialy inept girl will attract TWO super-powered hunks.
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Yes, her “bunny sneer”. It’s not only bunny teeth, it’s a sneer. Now, she did show she could do better, her “St Crispins day” speech was fairly good. Which meant that the director let her use the bunny sneer.
Charlize was fantastic.
I personally think Stewart is one of the more beautiful actresses in Hollywood. And I definitely get a high anxiety vibe out of her rather than a hateful or entitled vibe.
Doesn’t mean I’ll see the movie, though.
I REALLY wanted to like this film, but I couldn’t. I was hoping it would give more depth to otherwise two-dimensional characters, but Snow White was just as flat in the movie as she is in the fairytale, and the queen wasn’t much better. They made a halfhearted attempt to justify her insanity but didn’t really do anything with that storyline. And what the hell was up with the mirror? No one else can see the mirror dude - is that supposed to be significant? I was half expecting that the mirror was the secret of her power but she ended up dying in a rather mundane fashion.
Just saw it tonight. As expected, didn’t really like SW much due to the bunny teeth and just simple casting mismatch. They gave a half-hearted try to counter that with the whole “beauty = innocence and purity of heart” mentions, but really, for me - Theron wipes the floor with Stewart, there’s just no two ways around that.
I thought the two gentlemen did pretty darn good with their respective “cute yet badass dude” roles, and brother was decent as a nasty little creeper.
Individual scenes were all lovely enough, but the whole thing just felt disjointed and emotionally flat. There was so much in there that was just brought up and then ignored as the plot moved on - why leave it IN if you’re not going to use it later? Either get rid of it altogether to tighten up the running time, or drop in a line or scene later to resolve or use it as a significant incident.
Some really irritating bits left to drop:
Why didn’t Evil Queen kill SW in the first place? That was just left totally hanging out there.
What’s the significance of that scene where EQ is talking to the mirror man, and brother is hanging out in the doorway eavesdropping and not seeing him? Likewise, did anyone else see that tiny trickle of mirror winding towards her at the end of the “bird splat scene”?
WTF was up with that whole Sanctuary scene? It was all (trying to be) emotional and lovely and heartwarming and hopeful and SW is the heart of the kingdom, and then, poof - no more little elves and bunnies! Hell, if she can wake up all the magic juju, then why not swing by the forest on the way over to the evil queen’s castle and pick up a troll or two to help out with the battle?
Likewise the scene with the scarred women village. In addition to being a little peeved that they were as mild with the scars as they were (I was hoping for some badass serious tribal scarification going on), there wasn’t really any follow-up to that. Would have liked to see at least a few of those women showing up at the Duke’s castle and joining in with the battle - nothing to lose, so everyone fights. But no, other than a token visual at the end, they’re dropped.
There were more, but those were the biggies. It felt like it was suffering from too many ideas - they wanted to put all this cool stuff in, but didn’t really have enough time for it. Instead of being committed enough to just pick one or two and really play them to the hilt, they wimped out and used all of them, and that kept ANY of them from being as powerful or interesting as they could be.
I feel like they maybe should have gone the miniseries route if they were going to throw everything at the plotline the way they did. This way, it just felt both tedious AND rushed, which is a pretty interesting accomplishment, but not exactly a ringing endorsement.
It’s absolutely terrible but, trust me, it’s going to be a classic.
As soon as the RiffTrax comes out.
Something about the ending kind of screamed “we’re saving some for the sequel!!” although I have no idea where they could go with that plot for a sequel, and I don’t think the movie’s been successful enough to justify it anyway.
Chalk me up as another one that enjoyed the movie, more or less, though there were certainly some things that irked me.
The magic “sanctuary” area that the bad guys so easily tracked them to, and the utter lack of plot follow-up. If the sanctuary and it’s inhabitants are so fantastic, why does nothing come of it?
The romance storyline - didn’t Snow White wind up with Prince Charming in the story? And isn’t it a little odd that while the Huntsman guy was the one who woke her up with a kiss, she never realizes that it was him? Or what, if anything, woke her up at all?
The duke’s son William - I pegged those two as brother and sister or maybe cousins, early in the film, and it was just a tad creepy that they apparently were attracted to one another later in the story. Was there some sort of implied betrothal between the two that I missed, early in the film? Why was she kissing (someone she thought was) William one second, and waking up from a coma later on, suddenly with the hots for the other guy?
Why was it automatically assumed, and celebrated, early in the film, that the baby princess would become Queen someday? Most ancient chivalrous-type societies did the male-primogeniture thing, and female monarchs were quite rare, to be avoided if possible.
Was it really no big deal for the King to marry someone he’d met one day before? And how’d they throw such a big wedding with no notice? And when the King died on his wedding night, didn’t anyone think it was tad suspicious?
Why did the formerly young and beautiful Greta show up at the end of the movie, restored to youth, when it was not at all clear that she’d even survived her attack in the first place? Did Ravenna’s other recent victims suddenly start feeling a lot better also?
Kristin Stewart’s accent - throughout the movie - sometimes it’s British, sometimes American, sometimes kind of Scandinavian sounding, sometimes a blurred up mixture between the three…
Charlize Theron NOT prettier than Kristin Stewart? WTF?! What kind of alternate universe is this? Although they did play up the “she’s beautiful INSIDE, that’s what counts!” meme, but it was still quite ridiculous. Shoulda picked a prettier Snow or an uglier Queen, casting guys!
Why did the other characters (the Duke, William, etc.) call Snow “Princess” as they are planning their attack on the castle? Shouldn’t they have been calling her “Queen”?
All that is going to make it sound like I HATED the film and I really didn’t. I thought it was passably good. Charlize Theron was radiant and superb in her role. And man, did she look great. I have never met any women in her 40s that looked THAT good. And she doesn’t have the “plastic surgery” look about her, either.