Snow White and the Huntsman

I think there's a decent 105 minute cut of this film in what was shown in the 127 minute theatrical cut, but the pacing is not good, and consequentially the script needed to be tightened up as well.  There are elements of the film harkening back to Ridley Scott's treatment of Robin Hood, keeping it very "real" and earthy for its time period, but there are also the fantastical elements that feel awkwardly shoehorned into the film, and not properly explained.   But in saying that, I did find some of the fantastical elements in the middle section of the film to be well-lit and nice to look at from a film-making perspective.

Charlize Theron as the evil queen becomes quite shrill and one-note as the firm wore on in her quest to hold on to her immortality.  Kristen Stewart was an odd choice for Snow White visually, but it's not like she can't act, it's that she might have been poorly cast for this particular role.   I will note that for a girl who'd been confined for most of her childhood and teen years, Snow White was in remarkable shape, cardiovascular-wise.  Heh.  That's just poor attention to detail in the script department.  Chris Hemsworth is okay as the Huntsman, though his backstory doesn't garner as much emotional heft as his motivation would need to engage in the hunt for Snow White on behalf of the evil queen.  Since I had no idea who was cast as the dwarves, I was pleasantly surprised, though they were also short-changed in the characterization department.  So, if you squander so much running time without any meaningful characterization on the screen, they should have shortened up the film.   I think the director, Rupert Sanders, didn't quite have enough of a handle on the inter-personal material to craft an engrossing, grimmer, and grittier re-telling of the Snow White story. 

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of  B-. (perhaps because I give it props for not looking like it was shot on a sound stage like "Mirror, Mirror" did.)