Skip to content

Reel Reviews: Huntsman cuts out the heart, again

The Huntsman: Winter’s War, starring Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron, divides reviewers.
21170vernonTheHuntmanweb
Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain prove that being beautiful isn’t enough in The Huntsman: Winter’s War.

Dysfunctional sisters Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and Freya (Emily Blunt) have a falling out when Freya discovers her power to freeze things while simultaneously having her heart broken.

After kidnapping an army of children, Freya, the Ice Queen, trains them up to be her personal army. She also bans love.

Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain) grow up to be a handsome couple of fierce huntsmen, or perhaps huntspeople. After it is discovered they love each other, Freya separates them. Only united will they be able to overcome Ravenna’s evil.

We say, “One of us has to be wrong.”

HOWE: Hemsworth has revised one of his franchise roles yet again, this time as the huntsman, Eric. I was a lot more impressed this time out. So too was I with Chastain, rather than the moody and can’t act Kristen Stewart, as Snow White, who stunk up the first film.

The action is well placed throughout the movie and I thank the film company for not making it 3D, which never really works, but it’s a great cash grab. I like the twist they did with the goblins, not making them small and green like some fantasy movies do.

TAYLOR: OK, so I can tell by your comments that we saw the same movie, but I disliked this film from beginning to end. To start, everything is too melodramatic. I understand it is due to being a fairytale and from wanting to be taken seriously, but standing perfectly straight in expensive makeup and costume doesn’t necessarily have to lead to the delivering of hokey dialogue in over-enunciated tones. Yet The Huntsman: Winter’s War does this and more.

HOWE: The dialogue is witty. There are English terms throughout, and when said they don’t sound forced. Maybe that’s down to the whole host of British comics: Nick Frost, Sheridan Smith and Rob Brydon. The only real downside I found was with Hemsworth’s accent. Sometimes it was Scottish, then slipped back into his Aussie twang, then into English. Queen Freya must have been travelling all over the globe when she kidnapped him when he was a little boy.

TAYLOR: Everything seemed forced. I really feel like the actors in this film knew on-screen that they were in a turkey.

My biggest problem with the film is that it doesn’t make any sense. There are strange, unexplained and sometimes contradictory reasons for these characters to undertake the actions they do. From the inciting incident, which I didn’t understand, to the Ice Queen’s decrees, to the purpose of the Winter’s War, to the bitter end, there’s almost no story. We’re not allowed to love, we love anyway, here’s some battle scenes and a very boring romance. Someone will mention Snow White. You’ll see the magic mirror for a few seconds. There will be some terrible jokes. Some of it is quite pretty. Other than that, this film renders valueless the talent wasted within.

– Taylor gives The Huntsman: Winter’s War a big fat 0 out of 5.

– Howe gives it 3 golden moats out of 5.

– Brian and Taylor Howe are film critics based in Vernon, B.C.