Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

This adaption of the classic Snow White tale goes back to its Grimm beginnings, pitting the Evil Queen Ravenna against Snow White in a battle for the kingdoms. Ravenna tricked her way into power, taking advantage of the King's loneliness, then killed him and took over his kingdom. She locks his daughter, Snow White, in the tallest tower for many years. Her "mirror on the wall" tells her that since Snow White has come of age, she is now fairer than the Queen (haha, yeah right), and so the Queen decides to have her killed and consume her heart, giving her immortality. So, Snow White escapes into the dark forest (on a white horse that appears out of nowhere). She is then hunted by, you guessed it, the Huntsman, who then joins her on her quest. They then met the dwarves, providing some much needed comic relief. Snow White meets her long lost prince, gets poisoned by the apple, goes to sleep, then gets awakened. She returns to the kingdom, fighting ensues, Ravenna dies, and Snow White becomes Queen. However, it is frustratingly left absent to whether she gets with the Huntsman or the Prince. It's the same Snow White story, just not the Disney version.

The best thing about this film are the performances. The dwarves were technically pulled off very well, putting actors heads onto dwarf bodies, instead of just using dwarves. Chris Hemsworth does well as the Huntsman. Kristen Stewart is not terrible in her role as Snow White, she just has the same look on her face throughout the whole movie, literally, and she shows no emotion, even while Hemsworth reveals his love or when she becomes Queen. The best performance, however, comes with Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen, Ravenna. She truly embodies the nature of evil, and even when she ages greatly, is still the most beautiful thing on screen. She's just fantastic. Aside from the performances, the plot and pacing of the film suffer. Around the middle hour, the film lags greatly, and provides no action or comedic relief to keep viewers entertained. Kristen Stewarts performance brings the intensity of the film to a screeching halt, due to her lack of feeling. The look and sound of the film are great. The costume designers did a fantastic job at dressing the Evil Queen. Special effects and set design look beautiful as well. And the soundtrack is done very well (and sounds very similar to the Mermaids track on the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film). Overall, it's a great looking film with some good performances (mainly from Charlize Theron), but due to a very slow middle part and Kristen Stewarts emotionless performance, the film doesn't obtain it's full potential. Plus, I don't understand how the Mirror believes Kristen Stewart can surpass Charlize Theron. It's not possible.

Rating: B-

Movie Review: The Avengers

After years of hidden after-credit scenes, several movies that all connected with each other for this one, and what felt like a millennium of waiting, the Avengers have finally assembled. Picking right up with where it left off at the end of Captain America, The Avengers moves at a very fast pace, picking up a new superhero at every turn. Loki, Thor's younger brother, has decided that Earth cannot handle itself as a free world, and believes that everyone should be ruled unitedly by a tyrant (himself). Thus begins the war between Loki and his alien "army" and the Avengers and their Hulk. I'm sure you can figure out who wins. The ending comes with a hint at who will be the next target of the Avengers for the next Avengers movie. Along with being extremely well paced and very entertaining, the Avengers also features some incredible performance, both individual and the group as a whole. Samuel Jackson does what he usually does as the man who assembles the Avengers, Nick Fury. The "big 3" superheroes, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor do very well in their respective roles. The newcomers to the Avengers, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow, do extremely well in their supporting roles. But the main breakout star in this film is Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. I couldn't count the times that The Hulk got cheers and claps from the audiences of the showings I went too. Mark Ruffalo has finally gotten The Hulk right, both emotionally and physically, something that it's prior incarnates, Eric Bana and Edward Norton have failed to do. And The Hulk also has been executed perfectly in the visual and design category for the first time, with an actual plausible look instead of choppy CGI that looks like green play-doh. Tom Hiddleston also does well as the main villain, Loki. As an ensemble, it's possibly one of, if not the best, ensemble acting in recent memory, in comparison to the lovely ladies of The Help. A huge amount of credit also goes to director Joss Whedon, who quelled the fears of fanboys world wide that an Avengers movie, especially one of this size and quality, would ever happen. He has created a masterpiece, and has completely shattered box office records, squashing the opening weekend record previously held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, grossing an unprecedented 207.4 million dollars. The Avengers is an amazing movie of the highest quality. Whedon has created an ensemble cast, that, although had the potential to be too cluttered, works perfectly. The best movie of the year so far.

Rating: A+

Loki: "I have an army."
Iron Man: "We have a Hulk."

Movie Review: The Cabin in the Woods

Finally, through the very creative mind of Joss Whedon, they have made a smart, scary, and funny scary movie. This film proves that all horror movies don't have to be gore and guts to be entertaining, or frightening. The story follows the usual horror movie crew: the dumb blonde, the jock, the stoner, the token black guy, and the girl who is too smart for her own good. They travel to, you guessed it, a cabin in the woods. There, they are tricked and controlled by unknown operators in a building, who monitor and regulate everything (and I mean everything) that goes on in the house. Unfortunately, I cannot give away too much more information, as the ending is very well made and provides for a twist that M. Night Shaymalan would blush over. There were some fantastic performances by everyone involved, the standouts (in my opinion) being Richard Jenkins as one of the operators, Chris Hemsworth as the jock, and a (very) surprising cameo by Sigourney Weaver as "the Director". Also, near the end, there is an 8 minute gore fest in which everything from your worst nightmares is released, and they decimate everything in their path. This movie was very smartly made, and provides a very fun and scary movie-going experience. An underrated movie that deserves a lot more praise and attention than it has received.

Rating: A-