The Huntsman: winter’s war — not a patch on original

Cast : Chris Hemsworth, Conrad Khan, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Niamh Walter

Rated: 4.5/10

After Snowhite and the Huntsman, here comes a tale that happened before, the tale of two witch sisters who fought, killed, froze, burnt and raised armies to vanquish humanity.

Incidentally, and quite surprisingly, their unexplained warfare had nothing to do with Snowhite, despite there being that dreaded evil mirror dominating the proceedings. In fact, there is only a hazy glimpse of Snowhite herself, something you would miss if you happened to be blinking for that fraction of a second.

So, here you have a story around Snowhite without Snowhite, much like a clothes store without garments. Unimaginable but true as the tale pegs on a broken hearted younger witch sister whose child is burnt by her lover, under the evil spell of her elder sister. She goes away, builds an ice empire, kills parents to take away their children and then trains them to become huntsmen for her. Not much reason for her to do so but she does.

Elder sister (Charlize Theron) dies but not really. She lives between two worlds, only to aid a climax to a nowhere-going, bumbling tale san event or sequence. There’s a bit of romance, though entirely un-fleshed; there’s a bit of war, again entirely needless; there’s a lot of sisterly bickering, God only knows why.

Amid all these un-happening happenings, there’s this film that pleads for a reason. The good things about it are the fantasia, the make-believe forest, the localing, the colour and the costume. But all these are props, where’s the real thing? The tale? 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 24 April, 2016