Mirror Mirror & Snow White and the Huntsman

We all are familiar with the famous story of “Snow White.” Princess whose evil stepmother wants to steal her beauty to become the fairest in the land, she runs away, encounters seven dwarves, become their mother, eats a poisoned apple given to her by the queen, falls into a deep sleep before her Prince Charming comes and kisses her, which wakes her up and they live happily ever after. That’s the basic formula that we’ve known since we saw the Walt Disney movie, which was the first movie they ever made. However, we’re not here to talk about that, but can you believe that there were two film adaptations made on the tale back in 2012? First off, let’s start with the atrocious adaptation, “Mirror Mirror.”

“Mirror Mirror” retells the story of Snow White (Lily Collins), although The Queen (Eric Roberts' sister, the very pretty Julia Roberts) insists that the movie belongs to her. Snow’s father, The King, played by the great Sean Bean, disappeared many years ago and is assumed dead, which leaves her in the care of her cruel stepmother.

Snow’s beauty and youth seem to be a threat to The Queen, and she keeps the girl trapped to the palace grounds. Nearing her eighteenth birthday, Snow sneaks out and runs into the Prince Alcott, played by Armie Hammer, who has been robbed and jumped by small bandits. After freeing them, she goes into a nearby town and finds out that the Queen has made the lives of simple village people quite miserable.

The Prince’s arrival offers the vision of economic recovery through marriage for the financially broke Queen, but first she needs to remove Snow White from her life. She arranges Snow White to be killed, but her servant Brighton, played by gay comedian Nathan Lane, can’t follow through, and does not even tell the Queen. Snow is taken in by the happy group of thieves (Danny Woodburn, Martin Klebba, Sebastian Saraceno, Jordan Prentice, Mark Povinelli, Joe Gnoffo, and Ronald Lee Clark) and plans to kill the Queen.

Mark Pfeiffer, who blogged on this movie, said, “The ill fit between MIRROR MIRROR’s screenplay and its director's sensibilities dooms the comedic fairy tale from the outset.  Tarsem Singh excels at staging visual extravaganzas, and in that respect he often delivers what one desires from a fantastical story like this. Costume designer Eiko Ishioka’s work on MIRROR MIRROR, her final film, features strange and imaginative outfits.  Ishioka’s arty creations in her other collaborations with Singh have ranked among the most memorable aspects of those films.  In this instance the clothes steal the show from their wearers, making this umpteenth rendition of SNOW WHITE nearly worth seeing for the peculiar attire alone.”

The sets, which look like they were built on the studio back in the 1950s or 60s, make an effect similar to that you can see in pop-up storybooks. While it’s an inspired increase, sometimes the surroundings appear poorly put together and washed out. Pfeiffer said in his blog, “Singh presents a visually distinctive world for the familiar tale, but in paling in comparison to the lavish lands of THE FALL and IMMORTALS, it seems like a halfhearted or budget-restricted attempt.”

Singh’s treating of the scripts does not come close to his ability for imagery. This weakness is very clear than ever in “Mirror Mirror.” The silly jokes and unusual tone collapse under Singh’s heavy hand and lack of timing. Roberts’ catty take on the evil Queen and Hammer’s unreserved goofiness hint at the potential for a winking tribute to fond stabbing of fairy tales a la “The Princess Bride,” but “Mirror Mirror” is more difficult than playful.

Pfeiffer concluded his review by saying, “To its credit, MIRROR MIRROR makes more interesting characters out of the dwarves than they’re usually granted.  Still, the snarky humor comes off as tired and obvious, and weird accents, like the queen’s disgusting beauty routine and a wildly out-of-place rape joke, seem better suited for a film that isn’t otherwise tame kiddie fare.”

Take my advice and avoid this movie at all cost, it will pain you from first minute to last, although Roberts does a decent portrayal of the evil Queen. I made the mistake of watching this on NetFlix, which I regret ever doing. I will never get that time back ever, which I hate, but now I have to live with the regret of watching this garbage.

But what can be said about “Snow White and the Huntsman,” which was released later that year? Let’s find out:

“Snow White and the Huntsman” reinvents the legendary story in a film of amazing beauty and imagination. It’s the last thing you would expect from a movie with this title. It hesitates in its storytelling, because Snow White must be entirely good, the Queen must be entirely bad, and there’s no room for fine distinction. The ending is therefore fixed. But it’s really enjoyable.

This is an older Snow White than we usually think of. Played for most of the film by the star of “Twilight,” Kristen Stewart, capable and brave, she has spent long years locked in a room of her late father’s (Noah Huntley and Liberty Ross plays the first wife) castle, imprisoned by his evil mistress (the hot Charlize Theron). When she escapes and decides to right the wrongs, she is a mature young woman, of interest to the two young men who join in her mission. Roger Ebert said in his review, “But the movie sidesteps scenes of romance, and in a way, I suppose that's wise.”

The Huntsman, played by Chris Hemsworth, is a heroic, mead-devouring hunter assigned by the Queen to hunt down Snow White and bring her back to the castle. After running into her, however, he is so impressed he changes sides. There is also Prince William, played by Sam Claflin, obsessed since childhood, and the two men join in an understood union.

The Queen lives in fear of losing her beauty of her youth and constantly steals the beauty from the blood of virgins to restore it. She tests her success with the recognizable mirror on the wall, voiced by Christopher Obi, which melts into molten metal and turns into a phantom form, which Ebert describes, “not unlike Death in "The Seventh Seal," although its metallic transformation process reminds us of "The Terminator."”

Ebert also described the castle as, “The castle, which sits in eerie splendor on an island joined to the mainland only at low tide, is a gothic fantasy that reminds me of the Ghormenghast series.” The Queen is joined there by her brother, played by Sam Spruell, somewhat reduced by his blonde page-boy haircut, who does her bidding but seems rather out to lunch. Extras appear when needed, and then disappear. The Queen controls extraordinary supernatural powers, including the ability to materialize countless black birds that can transform into fighting demons or shards of cutting metal.

All of this is provided appropriately by the special effects, but the treasure of the film is in two of its locations: a harsh, forbidding Dark Forest, and an enchanted fairyland. Both of these realms are located near the castle, and the Huntsman is ordered in the first place because he knows the Dark Forest, where Snow White has run off to.

In this frightening realm, nothing lives, and it is thick with blackened bones of dead trees, as if a forest fire had burned only the greenery. There is no happiness here and a monstrous troll runs into Snow White in a dramatic stare-down. After the Huntsman gets her out of the Dark Forest, they are happy to find, or be found by, the Eight Dwarves.

Yes, eight, although one doesn’t survive, taking the number down to the usual seven. These characters look familiar, and no wonder: The wonders of CGI have given the faces of familiar British actors such as Ian McShane, the late Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsen, Toby Jones, Johnny Harris, and Brian Gleeson. While this technique is effective, it nevertheless robs eight working (real) dwarves with jobs, which isn’t really fair.

Ebert stated in his review, “The dwarves lead them to my favorite realm in the film, an enchanting fairyland, which is a triumph of art direction and CGI. Mushrooms open their eyes and regard the visitors. Cute forest animals scamper and gambol in tribute to a forest scene in Disney's 1937 animated film. The fairies themselves are naked, pale-skinned sprites with old, wise faces. The spirit of this forest is embodied by a great white stag with expressive eyes and horns that spread in awesome complexity.” This is a wonderful scene. The director, Rupert Sanders, who began by making TV commercials, is evidently familiar with making memorable places.

Ebert goes on to say, “As for the rest, there is a sufficiency of medieval battle scenes, too many for my taste, and a fairly exciting siege of the castle, aided by the intervention of the dwarves, and featuring catapults that hurl globes of burning tar — always enjoyable.”

There is a great film in here somewhere, maybe one that allowed greater difficulty for the characters. Ebert does admit though, “But considering that I walked in expecting no complexity at all, let alone the visual wonderments, "Snow White and the Huntsman" is a considerable experience.”

In my opinion, I think you should definitely check this one out, you’ll love it. It’s “way” better than “Mirror Mirror,” but that’s probably because they made this darker and more like the original Grimm Brothers tale. Although I will admit I don’t like Kristen Stewart, she actually did a good job here despite the fact that she still has that wondering look that she had in “Twilight,” and the best characters are Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman and Charlize Theron’s evil Queen.

Check in tomorrow for the next entry in “Halloween Month.”