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If you liked “ Frozen ” but wish it had been angrier, “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” is for you.

It’s a tale of two royal sisters, one of whom discovers in a fit of rage that she has the ability to shoot ice from her fingertips—so she exiles herself to a faraway land in the mountains, where she creates her own kingdom and builds her own army. She even wears decadent gowns in various shades of pale blue and pulls her hair back in elaborate braids.

Seriously. This is what “Winter’s War” is about.

But before you can say “let it go,” this sorta-prequel, sorta-sequel, sorta-something-in-between to 2012’s “ Snow White and the Huntsman ” trots out several other subplots, all of which combine to make a messy (and less-than-magical) narrative.

The original film worked as a dark take on the familiar “Snow White” fable, with breathtakingly beautiful, brutal imagery and a richly villainous turn from Charlize Theron as the wicked queen. It was thrilling yet empty, but at least it had focus and kept you engaged. This time, first-time feature director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (taking over for Rupert Sanders ) has trouble juggling all the scattered storylines in Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin ’s script.

Is “Winter’s War” about a rivalry between two sisters, the dastardly Ravenna (Theron) and the devastated Freya ( Emily Blunt )? Is it about the forbidden love between Freya’s two top soldiers, huntsman Eric ( Chris Hemsworth ) and hell-raiser Sara ( Jessica Chastain )? Is it about Snow White, who’s mentioned with great reverence but is seen only a couple times in the briefest, vaguest of glimpses? (Unlike Theron and Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart does not return for part two, despite having been the title character in part one. Even my six-year-old kid thought that seemed weird.) Or is it about the squabbling, digitally-rendered dwarfs ( Nick Frost and Rob Brydon ) who serve as comic relief?  

The only cohesive force is a pervasive sense of self-serious dreariness. With the exception of a brief visit to a forest full of fairy sprites and vibrantly-hued creatures, “Winter’s War” is as monotonously somber as the title would suggest.

It begins with infanticide and moves on to the kidnapping and training of child soldiers (they’re not just for young adult adaptations anymore!) to serve as the miserable Freya’s army as she seeks revenge from high atop the snow-covered hills. Freya has made it clear that love is a no-no, but her two fiercest weapons, Eric and Sara, have dared to fall for each other—and so she destroys their chances of happiness, too. Motivations aren’t terribly complicated here, but the omnipresent voiceover from Liam Neeson spells everything out for us nonetheless.

Seven years later (and timeline-wise, after the events of “Snow White and the Huntsman,” for those of you playing at home), Ravenna may or may not be dead. But the mirror that emboldened her has gone missing, and everyone’s looking for it, because it’s powerful. Or something. It is the shiny, golden McGuffin, and it can either bring people together or tear them apart.

As for its effect on Hemsworth and Chastain’s characters, it could go either way—but then again, it’s tough to care. Individually appealing as they are, these two actors have zero chemistry with each other. Their love scenes (including one which just happens to take place in the only hot tub in this entire frozen land) are actively uncomfortable to watch. Their flirty banter isn’t much better, and only in part because they’re speaking in inconsistent Scottish accents. Hemsworth is borderline unintelligible much of the time, and not in an intentionally funny, Brad-Pitt-in-“ Snatch ” kind of way; Chastain’s brogue flits in and out. And luminous and versatile as Chastain is, playing the warrior princess isn’t her strong suit.

The other major stars here—Theron and Blunt—bring a sporadically enjoyable campiness to the proceedings as dueling queens. Blunt can be quite unnerving as the shattered Freya, and she does her best to infuse depth to the character that doesn’t exist on the page. Meanwhile, Theron is vamping it up to such an extent, it’s as if she’s in an entirely different movie—one with some life to it that you’d actually want to see.

Nicolas-Troyan has a visual effects background (including an Oscar nomination for his work on “Snow White and the Huntsman”) so the major set pieces can be striking at times, especially the moments involving the mirror itself in all its hypnotic allure. But much of the action sadly remains dull and emotionally detached—one-note, repetitive brawls with axes/sticks/swords/etc.

The costumes are mind-bogglingly beautiful, though—the work of the great Colleen Atwood , 11-time Oscar nominee and three-time winner (for “ Chicago ,” “ Memoirs of a Geisha ” and “ Alice in Wonderland ”) who also designed the clothes for the original “Huntsman.” The luxuriously appointed gowns range from gold-and-black, bird-fetish chic for the statuesque Theron to crisp and crystalline grays and blues for Blunt—although it’s clear that the cold never bothered her anyway.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)

Rated PG-13

114 minutes

Chris Hemsworth as The Huntsman

Charlize Theron as Ravenna

Jessica Chastain as Sara

Emily Blunt as Queen Freya

Nick Frost as Nion

Rob Brydon as Gryff

Sheridan Smith as Mrs. Bromwyn

Alexandra Roach as Doreena

Sope Dirisu as Tull

Sam Hazeldine as Leifr

Sam Claflin as William

Sophie Cookson as Pippa

Liam Neeson as Narrator

• Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

Writer (characters)

• Evan Daugherty
• Evan Spiliotopoulos
• Craig Mazin

Cinematographer

• Phedon Papamichael
• Conrad Buff IV
• James Newton Howard

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Why The Huntsman: Winter’s War Is Better than You’ve Heard

By Richard Lawson

One of my least favorite sounds, and it’s a rare one in most people’s lives, is the derisive snort of a film-critic type piercing out of the dark at a screening. Laughing at something silly in a movie is natural, of course, a sometimes involuntary response that can, in the right context, add to the fun. So that’s fine! Guffaw away. The sound that irks me, really, is the snicker-as-performance, telegraphing to the rest of the audience that the person doing the laughing has deemed something risible, and felt the burning need to express that out loud, in order to . . . what, assert a betterness over the movie? Prove a discerning smartness that everyone else is supposed to appreciate? The motivation behind this particular kind of noise isn’t always clear, but the effect is plain: it’s obnoxious, haughty, and vaguely shaming.

Which is all to say, I heard a lot of Critic’s Snorts during a screening of The Huntsman: Winter’s War , the new prequel to 2012’s lugubrious fairy-tale retelling, Snow White and the Huntsman . That film, a high-gloss music video blur of ravens and swords and shots of Charlize Theron rising up out of a milk bath, had a stylish panache to it, director Rupert Sanders treating the film’s grim storybook world with a deadly seriousness (except the dwarves) and vivid visual imagination. Now comes the inevitable sequel—though, it begins as a prequel—armed with a reduced budget, the original film’s special-effects guy as director, and some new movie-star blood added to give the thing a little pep. What results is, yes, pretty hokey. So I understand the laughing, I do.

I get it when Jessica Chastain, playing a child soldier turned warrior babe, speaks her first lilting words in what I’m assuming is supposed to be some sort of Yorkshire/Jon Snow-esque accent to match Chris Hemsworth’s almost equally as brambly brogue. (Might be Scottish? Might be Northern Irish? Who the heck knows!) I get it when Theron, once again playing the orgasmically evil queen Ravenna, unhinges her jaw and swallows pieces of the scenery whole. I even get it when Emily Blunt —always dependable, wonderful Emily Blunt—rides a big snow cat kind of a thing as The Huntsman ’s resident Frozen rip-off Ice Queen (named Freya, like from Norse myth), a heartbroken princess-witch who turns to wicked world-conquering after she decides that love is a dangerous illusion. Indeed, it is all silly stuff.

But, come on, guysssss. In the hands of first-time feature director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, who works with a slapped-together but serviceable screenplay by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin, all that silly stuff is plenty entertaining and, in fits and starts, even charming; where the first film was often dour, Winter’s War has a faint twinkle in its eye. It has moxy, a little scrappiness. The film looks less expensive than the original (because it was), and its story is a perfunctory little diddle at best. But it’s also cozily predictable, sort of like fairy tales are supposed to be, and Nicolas-Troyan has a wealth of talented, appealing actors at his disposal. What’s so wrong with that? What did we really expect from a fairy-tale action-movie sequel beyond what it is exactly, which is perfectly passable fun?

Despite the accents, Hemsworth and Chastain make for a comely pair, fighting and, y’know, other-stuffing with the right calibration of cute winks and flinty glares. I quite like Jessica Chastain as a kind of thinking woman’s action hero (I mean, I quite like Jessica Chastain in general), an earnest student of theater and stage combat who approaches her tasks here with a focused seriousness of purpose. And Hemsworth is—well, come on, just look at him. But also, slightly less pruriently, Hemsworth has a movie-star glow about him that seems awfully rare and precious these days: a clever-hunky wit masking hidden depth, bringing to mind a younger Brad Pitt.

It’s also a gas, a heartening one, to watch Theron and Blunt tear at it in their bits of screen time together. Theron glides around commandingly, and Blunt is, well, always great, isn’t she. Here she lends the material more dignity than maybe it even deserves. Between those two, Chastain, and two sprightly dwarves played by Alexandra Roach and a delightful Sheridan Smith, this is an uncommonly gender-balanced fantasy-adventure film, hopefully a continuation of something started in Theron’s action movie to beat all action movies, Mad Max: Fury Road . Sure, you could snicker at Theron’s posh-by-way-of-the-dentist’s-office regal drawl, and Blunt’s magical owl mask that gives her special sight (why does she need the mask if the magic comes from her?). But it’s so refreshing to see two actresses devouring everything around them in this kind of goofy, overwrought movie that I think the film should be spared our cheapest, easiest derision.

And, yeah, look. You could also chortle as gold-plated goblins swish around forest trees like monkeys. Or when Sam Claflin shows up for a few minutes as Prince Charming, making you think, Oh, right, him, from the first one. Or when this movie entirely forgets that Ravenna had a creepily devoted brother in the first film. (That was her brother, right?) And so on. There’s a ton of goofy stuff here, and if you want to snidely laugh at it, go ahead. But for its mix of high style and camp, butt-kicking action and fantasy majesty, and its cast of strong, admirably committed actors—many of them women!— The Huntsman: Winter’s War is, to my mind, more than respectable entertainment. It may not be the movie event of the season, but, hey, at least no one blows up Metropolis.

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Movie Reviews

No snow this time around, so the 'huntsman' should probably let it go.

Andrew Lapin

Queen Freya (Emily Blunt) and Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) in the story that came before Snow White: The Huntsman: Winter's War . Giles Keyte/Courtesy of Universal Pictures hide caption

Queen Freya (Emily Blunt) and Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) in the story that came before Snow White: The Huntsman: Winter's War .

A Snow White tale without Snow White is like an apple without its core. Yet here we are, four years after the minor financial success of the Kristen Stewart-led Snow White and the Huntsman , gazing into the mirror without the dark-haired beauty. The first film had somewhat grand ambitions in trying to reclaim Disneyfied fairy tales for older Grimm fans. But this sequel has a different motivation, one which becomes apparent as soon as Emily Blunt unleashes ice from her lungs and dons a wardrobe of bright blue scaly dresses.

Yes, The Huntsman: Winter's War is here for the Frozen assets that have suddenly made Hans Christian Andersen's two-century-old tale The Snow Queen look like very lucrative property. In their bid to ape a rival's success, Universal Studios seems to have chosen the closest available wicked queen with whom they could defrost this new mythology. Thus, Charlize Theron's gold-plated evil empress Ravenna now has a sister in Blunt's fragile ice Midas, Queen Freya. In the film's opening third, set before the events of the first movie, Freya discovers her cold hands after a personal tragedy and flees to a kingdom in the North.

If the phrase "kingdom in the North" conjures up images of a certain Wall, perhaps one guarded by a ragtag team of warriors with shifting allegiances, rest assured this movie knows something of that parallel, just as it's aware of the other one. The desire to prompt a Pavlovian response from Game of Thrones fans extends even to the casting of a leather-bound Jessica Chastain as "Sara," a fiery redhead warrior who's gifted with a bow and enjoys making love in the hot springs . Like the other soldiers in Freya's huntsmen army, Sara was an orphan trained from childhood to serve the queen, though the film provides zero sense of what life was like growing up in a year-round winter boot camp. (Did they ever get sick of snowball fights?)

Chastain is a powerhouse of an actress, and she's brought added depth to supernatural roles when called to, as in her terrifying performance in last year's Crimson Peak . But how many ways are there to play a character, fairy-tale or not, who's written as an unlicensed copy? About all she can do is break Freya's one ironclad rule of the North: No one is permitted to love. When Sara falls for the strapping Eric (a returning Chris Hemsworth, still charming and rugged and wielding an axe as though it were a certain hammer), there's frozen-over hell to pay.

We are then thrust forward in the timeline seven years, so that Eric can go on the hunt for Freya and reconnect with his one true love after all that other Snow White stuff has happened to him. He gets assistance once again from the local dwarf population, with Nick Frost making a return alongside three new faces, all superimposed onto smaller bodies for our mild amusement. The script, by two credited writers, bears all the hallmarks of a rush job, especially when you take a gander at co-headliner Ravenna and realize she serves no narrative purpose (which might be why Theron has so little screentime that she hardly gets to snarl).

First-time feature director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan was a special effects supervisor on the first Huntsman film, yet there's no visual splendor to be found in the kingdom this go-around. At one point Eric's party gets menaced by some brown goblins who look like they're fresh from a mud bath. At least Nicolas-Troyan doesn't try to cover up the film's lack of Stewart: We see "Snow White" once, from the back, and the rest of the time she is only alluded to in passing, since it is still technically her reign. It's too bad: someone with the name "Snow" would probably get along swimmingly with the Snow Queen.

There would be use for a properly dark Frozen retelling, more in line with the original tale, where the afflicted actually uses her power for malfeasance . But Freya is a snow day late and a dollar short. By the time we learn just how deep her abilities run, it's too late to do anything with them. Her lack of true gumption in a land of supposedly unhinged magic people prompts another question: What's the point of all the blood, sexy costumes and PG-13 sensuality when the theme of the movie (Love Conquers All) is so childish? If you're going to murder a baby in the first act and hint at the possibility of actual black magic at work, to then handle the rest of the narrative with the same kid gloves as the cartoons do is insulting — and the Thrones comparison this film wants to prompt looks even more embarrassing.

Heck, the Frozen comparison is embarrassing, too. At least that version knew it was for children.

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The Huntsman: Winter's War Reviews

Blunt and Chastain never manage to make their characters more than inevitable Comic-Con costumes, while Charlize Theron’s evil queen, carried over from the predecessor, is relegated to the status of a bookend threat.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2023

The screenplay doesn't evoke much emotion and certainly fails to carve out a place in our memory banks.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 15, 2022

Fairytale lovers, angsty romance novel lovers, Chris Hemsworth lovers, watch The Huntsman: Winter's War.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 9, 2021

Helmed by first-time director Cedric Nicolas Troyan, the film's glorious visuals and passionate turns from the always-brilliant trio of Blunt, Theron and Chastain help negate the well-trodden fairytale narrative.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2021

As before, Theron dominates the proceedings; unfortunately, she has about as much screen time as the Jawas in Star Wars.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 18, 2021

Drones on for almost two hours until the narrator closes the movie with something to the effect of the story may be over "but fairy talks never end." That doesn't seem so much like an ending as it does a threat that they might make a sequel to this mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 3, 2021

In a livelier film with more invested performers, this could be a nicely subversive touch, but the viewer can hardly be blamed...

Full Review | Dec 23, 2020

The story is so commonplace and derivative of other popular fairy tales that it is absolutely not a new telling of anything at all.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 5, 2020

A flaccid story that's as exciting as being draped with a wet towel.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 13, 2020

This film is perfectly entertaining enough to while away an evening, if you are into the fantasy genre. It also stands for something more important than the sum of its parts - that THREE fantastic actresses can dominate a blockbuster movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Jul 1, 2020

It's gown porn.

Full Review | May 1, 2020

It's very convoluted, but still watchable.

You can't, and shouldn't, shut your brain off for any entertainment. But you can be asked by said entertainment to forgive its stupidity in exchange for a good time. A Winter's War asked. I said yes. And that's how babies are made.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 9, 2019

Winter's War is a total guilty pleasure that revels in its own flaws. Its tongue-in-cheek charm won't be for everyone...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 4, 2019

A sequel and prequel in one and all bad.

Full Review | Original Score: F | Apr 2, 2019

The Huntsman: Winter's War is basically blah.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 19, 2019

The film successfully exemplifies love throughout the story and contains great performances. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Feb 12, 2019

Hemsworth isn't stretching his acting chops here, but he's entertaining.

Full Review | Feb 2, 2019

The Huntsman: Winter's War may not be the fairest of them all, but it's a pretty escapism.

Full Review | Jan 23, 2019

It brought beautiful costumes into this world, and also has bracket narration by Liam Neeson. So, you know, it might be your thing.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2019

Film Review: ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’

The added star power of Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt isn't enough to enliven this dour prequel-cum-sequel to 'Snow White and the Huntsman.'

By Guy Lodge

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Spare a thought for Snow White: So casually has she been written out of “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” that even Queen Ravenna’s all-knowing mirror, when called upon to name the fairest of them all, omits her as a contender. Vague excuses are made for her absence from a film that awkwardly positions itself as both prequel and sequel to the Goth-lite derring-do of 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” though perhaps Snow skimmed Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin’s perfunctory script and reasonably decided she couldn’t be bothered. In her (and Kristen Stewart’s) place, a Katniss Everdeen-styled Jessica Chastain steps into the breach, fighting for good alongside Chris Hemsworth ‘s eponymous hero — this time against two wicked-queen combatants in Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt , whose glittery sisterly feud would have made for an adequate spinoff vehicle on its own. Even their doubled-up diva-tude, however, can’t ignite a rhythmically flat, seemingly committee-helmed franchise outing that never decides on its dramatic center.

“There is another story — one you have not yet seen,” a po-faced (and excessively employed) narrator informs viewers at the outset of “The Huntsman: Winter’s War.” He’s speaking somewhat optimistically, it turns out, since Spiliotopoulos and Mazin’s hastily cobbled-together mythos cribs liberally from existing fairy-tale lore, with a not-inconsiderable side scoop of Disney’s ubiquitous smash “Frozen.” What the narrator doesn’t tell us is precisely which story he’s referring to: At least two are jostling for space here, each one stepping conspicuously around the events of the previous film, though not maintaining complete continuity with it. (The intermediate backstory of Chastain’s virtuous warrior Sara, for example, appears to shift at least once in the course of the new pic’s screenplay alone.)

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“The Huntsman’s” opening act, chronologically preceding the timeline of “Snow White” by a couple of decades, is dedicated to matters of queenly corruption, reintroducing Theron’s vixenish Ravenna as she adds another royal scalp to her growing list of kills, via a black magic-abetted chess match. She assumes power as her pure-hearted younger sister, Freya (Blunt), looks on; professing to have no political or supernatural aspirations, Freya instead dreams of courtly bliss with the young Duke (Colin Morgan) whose child she is to bear. When her plan is foiled in grisly fashion, however, her witchy powers — chiefly, a touch of frost markedly similar to Queen Elsa’s — belatedly emerge. She defects to her own wintry Ice Queendom, fostering her own army and banning human affection from her domain: “Love is nothing more than a fairy tale,” she hisses, coolly oblivious to her own generic surroundings.

Among the child soldiers she rears are prodigious huntspeople Eric and Sara, who eventually take the strapping, mutually amorous forms of Hemsworth and Chastain. Their romance prompts an arctic intervention from Freya; Eric is banished, believing Sara dead. It’s here that the tale of “Snow White and the Huntsman” slots in in its entirety, necessitating an ungainly timeline leap of seven years: War is indistinctly looming, reigning monarch Snow White is indistinctly indisposed, and the vanquished Ravenna’s missing mirror is now a vital quarry sought by Snow White’s and Freya’s palaces alike. Huntsman Eric is enlisted to retrieve it for the former, as faces from the past are resurrected along the way.

It’s a straightforward enough quest, though the doom-laden stakes attached to it aren’t most urgently felt. As if anticipating auds’ lack of investment in Eric’s rather colorless presence, much of his ostensible screen time is given over to the “Lord of the Rings”-aping comic relief of sidekick dwarves Nion (Nick Frost, returning from the previous film) and Gryff (Rob Brydon, providing his patented Welsh-neurotic shtick). It’s a dynamic that itself doesn’t quite click until Sheridan Smith, as assertive she-dwarf Bromwyn, arrives on the scene. Regrettably dispensable to the larger narrative, Smith (whose firecracker skills are already familiar to British TV auds) nonetheless proves the liveliest element in these dour proceedings. She certainly has more voluble chemistry with Hemsworth than a muted, uncertainly Scots-accented Chastain — formidable in medieval archery chic, but otherwise (not unlike Stewart before her) finding little to grapple with in a character strictly shaped with the Hollywood screenwriter’s favored tough-cookie cutter. The silly-stern sportsmanship she brought to last year’s “Crimson Peak” would have been most welcome here.

Also opting not to camp things up — at least minimally so, relative to Theron’s gilded bitchery, is Blunt, who maintains a shrill, brittle sense of vulnerability in Freya even as she crosses over to the dark side, though the film is considerably less interested in such character detailing than in giving her the glitziest brand of digital sorcery money can buy. No prizes for guessing that first-time feature helmer Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, taking the reins from Rupert Sanders after Frank Darabont’s abortive involvement, was the Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor on “Snow White and the Huntsman”: Every frame here is expensively embellished with racing icicle formations, arbitrary light beams or glistening synthetic sprites, though he seems to have a less decisive hold on the film’s lurching to-and-fro storytelling.

If, then, the pic seems to rush through the murkier adventures of the Huntsman to hasten a palace-set finale that may as well be subtitled “Slay, Queen,” it’s because the posher of its twin story arcs simply affords more fabulous spectacle — in the effects department, certainly, but also in the form of Colleen Atwood’s unapologetically over-designed royal gowns, veritably cantilevered constructions of metal, feathers and flesh. (Even Hemsworth’s fetching leather work garb has taken on a slightly impractical showiness; it’s barely a few rips away from fetish gear.)

The sheer abundance of on-screen ornamentation isn’t quite enough to make “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” a beautiful film — in contrast to the Indian-ink-and-gold contrasts of Greig Fraser’s work on its predecessor, there’s a milky glare to Phedon Papamichael’s lensing that isn’t quite seductive. Still, it’s one that has been exhaustively designed by many hands — which only further shows up its inelegant patchwork in the writing department. “While fairy tales do come true, none ever truly ends,” that same tireless narrator intones before the credits roll — inevitably threatening a further contortion of this heavily stretched story material, but inadvertently copping to the shapelessness of what we’ve just seen.

Reviewed at Vue West End, London, March 30, 2016. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 113 MIN.

• Production: A Universal release and presentation of a Roth Films production in association with Perfect World Pictures. Produced by Joe Roth. Executive producers, Sarah Bradshaw, Palak Patel.
• Crew: Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. Screenplay, Evan Spiliotopoulos, Craig Mazin, based on characters created by Evan Daugherty. Camera (color, widescreen), Phedon Papamichael; editor, Conrad Buff; music, James Newton Howard; production designer, Dominic Watkins; art director, Frank Walsh; set decorator, Dominic Capon; costume designer, Colleen Atwood; sound (Dolby Digital), Chris Munro; re-recording mixers, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano; visual effects supervisor, Paul Lambert; visual effects, Double Negative, Pixomondo, Digital Domain, the Mill; stunt coordinator, Ben Cooke; associate producer, Lynda Ellenshaw Thompson; assistant director, K.C. Colwell; second unit director, Simon Crane; second unit camera, Igor Meglic; casting, Lucy Bevan.
• With: Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron, Sheridan Smith, Rob Brydon, Nick Frost, Alexandra Roach, Sam Claflin, Sophie Cookson, Niamh Walton, Conrad Khan, Sope Dirisu, Sam Hazeldine, Colin Morgan.

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‘the huntsman: winter’s war’: film review.

Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron are back for the follow-up to 2012's 'Snow White and the Huntsman,' joined by Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain but sans Kristen Stewart.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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In many respects,  The Huntsman: Winter’s War, producer Joe Roth ’s follow-up to 2012’s  Snow White and the Huntsman , is a slicker, more accessible, possibly more commercial film than its predecessor. And yet there’s something ineffably dispiriting about it. Derided before anyone saw a still as the sequel-prequel-whatever that nobody really wanted, it’s passably entertaining, and like the last one breathtakingly crafted, especially Colleen Atwood ’s microscopically detailed costumes. But it still carries the sulfuric whiff of a changeling creature, a serviceable vehicle bolted together from remnants, if you can say that of an expensive package that includes Chris Hemsworth , Charlize Theron , Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain in its cast.  

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Although literally brighter and more sunlit than Snow White, the absence of key talents casts shadows over its surface. Snow White ’s original director Rupert Sanders, currently filming Ghost in the Shell , was replaced by writer-director Frank Darabont ( The Walking Dead ). Creative differences saw off the latter, and so the director credit now goes to Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (he was the VFX supervisor on Snow White and the Huntsman  and second-unit director on Maleficent ).

Release date: Apr 22, 2016

Obviously, the most palpable absence is that of Kristen Stewart’s Snow White, gone probably not because of her much-hyped extramarital affair with Sanders but because the actor would have been perhaps too expensive for this installment, according to some sources . It’s not hard to figure out how Universal and Roth did the math to work out they didn’t need Stewart, especially now that Hemsworth , barely a blip on the tracking data in 2012, is such a huge deal on the back of his work in the Marvel universe.

Whichever way you add it up, it’s not just a significant loss, but an ironic one: Isn’t part of the appeal of fairy tale rejigs like Snow White and the Huntsman, Maleficent, Into the Woods , the TV series Once Upon a Time and, going back to a cornerstone work, Angela Carter’s short stories in The Blood Chamber that they offer a feminist or at least female-centric twist on traditional (and often traditionally misogynistic) material? So in 2016, after all the debates about disparate pay, the Bechdel test, the paucity of female filmmakers and female lead characters in mainstream filmmaking, # AskHerMore and all the rest, isn’t it kind of depressing that one of the few big-budget franchises of the last five years to feature a woman protagonist has literally written her out of her own eponymous story in order to make some guy the star of the show? It’s as if Lionsgate and Co. had decided to get rid of Katniss after the first The Hunger Games movie in order to focus on Liam Hemsworth’s Gale instead because Jennifer Lawrence was too expensive.

The excision must have not sat right with someone on the team because as if to “right” the gender imbalance and make up for the absence of Snow White herself, The Huntsman: Winter’s War  borrows from the Disney/ Once Upon a Time playbook of mix-and-match storytelling to introduce a character from a completely different fairy tale: the Ice Queen, that iconic figure from Frozen … sorry, Hans Christian Andersen.

It turns out that Ravenna , the evil queen played by Theron in Snow White , had a sister named Freya (Emily Blunt) as well as a brother whose existence wasn’t mentioned in the first film. In the extended prequel portion of the story, we learn how originally gentle Freya, along for the ride while Ravenna rehearsed her black widow routine on previous kings, got her magic frosty freak on after her nobleman lover (Robert Wilfort ) seemingly burnt their infant daughter alive in order to get out of marrying her.

Having developed post-traumatic ice-generating power, Freya sets herself up in a kingdom in the north, determined to use her army of abducted child soldiers to wipe out romantic love everywhere. Two of her early conscripts are Scots-accented Eric (Conrad Khan, later  Hemsworth ) and Sara ( Niamh Walter who, like Khan to Hemsworth , is exceptionally well cast or made up to look like someone who would grow up to be Jessica Chastain ). Despite the brutal conditions of Freya’s army, called the Huntsmen, the two fall in love. However, when their passion for one another is discovered, Freya separates them with a wall of enchanted ice through which Eric sees Sara being killed by their friend and fellow soldier Tull ( Sope Dirisu ) — hence Eric’s identification of himself as a widower in the first film.

Seven years pass, according to the subtitles and, by implication, in that time all the events of the previous movie happen. In The Huntsman ’s present, Snow White (only her back is seen), now married to William (a briefly returning Sam Claflin ), is disturbed by the malign influence of Ravenna’s magic golden mirror around the castle. It falls into the hands of CGI goblins (pleasingly gorilla-like) and Eric is dispatched to retrieve and destroy it. Assisting him in this endeavor will be Nion (Nick Frost), one of the seven-to-eight dwarves met in the earlier installment, and Gryff (Rob Brydon ), who supposedly are brothers even though they have completely different regional British accents.

Gender parity is achieved when Eric meets someone from his past and the troupe is joined by Mrs. Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith) and Doreena (Alexandra Roach), two female dwarves whose snappy, caustic banter with Nion and Gryff provides credibly entertaining comic relief, thanks especially to Smith and Brydon’s piquant timing and easy chemistry with each other.

They, at least, look like they’re having a bit of a laugh, but that doesn’t feel like it’s the case for the actors playing the non-dwarf characters. Hemsworth and  Chastain — who, incidentally, have absolutely zero chemistry as a couple — both seem defeated and miserable, and don’t even get to have the fun Theron and Blunt enjoy goggling their eyes while looking villainous at various points throughout.

Plus, the latter two get to model some of the very best creations to come out of Colleen Atwood’s atelier, proper exhibition-worthy works of art that are the stuff of costume fans’ wildest dreams. Like her work for the many Tim Burton films she has costumed for, as well as the film musicals for Rob Marshall ( Chicago , Nine , Into the Woods ), these gowns are insanely detailed and 4K-ready down to the tiniest sequin and fake headdress feather, set off beautifully by Luca Vannella’s fittingly intricate make-up and hair designs (which will in themselves launch a thousand how-to YouTube clips on braidwork ).  

When the knives are drawn at the end, and CGI lets rip with the climactic destruction, it’s like a cross between Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale and RuPaul’s Drag Race. But surely something has gone very wrong with a film when viewers feels more invested in the costumes than the characters.

Production companies: A Universal Pictures presentation in association with Perfect World Pictures of a Roth Films production Cast: Chris Hemsworth , Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Nick Frost, Sam Claflin , Rob Brydon , Jessica Chastain , Sheridan Smith, Alexandra Roach, Sope Dirisu Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan Screenwriters: Evan Spiliotopoulos , Craig Mazin , based on characters created by Evan Daugherty Producer: Joe Roth Executive producers: Sarah Bradshaw, Palak Patel Director of photography: Phedon Papamichael Production designer: Dominic Watkins Costume designer: Colleen Atwood Hair and makeup designer: Luca Vannella Editor: Conrad Buff Music: James Newton Howard Visual effects supervisor: Paul Lambert Casting: Lucy Bevan Rated PG-13, 117 minutes

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Review: ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ is a fairy tale in search of a tale to tell

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One trick of great fantasy storytelling is establishing the rules of the world — in “The Lord of the Rings,” hobbits fear adventure; in “Harry Potter,” Muggles can’t perform magic; in “Avatar,” humans can’t breathe on Pandora. From those limitations come sympathetic characters and a story with a real sense of peril.

There are no discernible rules in the world of “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” a dreadful sequel to 2012’s darkly appealing “Snow White and the Huntsman.” In the pale update, nearly every major character dies and comes back to life at least once and a convoluted narrative yields not a single, palpable moment of drama.

Not even the considerable charm of Chris Hemsworth, who plays the seemingly immortal, ax-wielding title hero, or Emily Blunt, as an ice queen with head-scratching motives, can save this dull mash-up of fantasy genre cliches, which wastes its A-list actors, stunning costumes and computer-generated artistry on a fatuous story with zero stakes.

The 2012 film, directed by Rupert Sanders, mostly succeeded as a visually rich retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, with Kristen Stewart playing Snow White as a brave warrior princess and Charlize Theron delivering a deliciously over-the-top evil Queen Ravenna.

The new movie, written by Craig Mazin and Evan Spiliotopoulos and directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, leaves out Stewart’s role. Really, it’s a Snow White movie without Snow White — can you imagine Iron Man putting up with that?

Set both before and after the events of the first film, “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” stars Blunt and Theron as Freya and Ravenna, a pair of rivalrous royal sisters — think “Frozen’s” Anna and Elsa with better eye makeup and worse attitudes. Ravenna mostly stares in the mirror and makes malevolent declarations. Freya, who starts the film in love and quickly suffers a trauma, begins shooting ice out of her hands, wearing metallic headpieces and training an army of child soldiers.

Hemsworth’s Eric and Jessica Chastain’s Sara emerge as the most talented fighters in Freya’s army. Speaking in muddled Scottish accents and wearing cute leather hunting outfits (perhaps they’re hunting for the plot?), Eric and Sara fall in love and try, unsuccessfully, to escape Freya’s icy grasp.

Over the next hour, Hemsworth swashbuckles through six or seven plot reversals and multiple inscrutable fight scenes. He is joined by some bickering dwarves, Nion (Nick Frost) and Gryff (Rob Brydon), and becomes determined to capture Ravenna’s magic mirror. Wait, is Ravenna dead? Who’s alive? Who knows? Who cares? It’s raining and cellos are playing so something bad must be happening.

Though the cast are all pros who do their darndest to deliver the bewilderingly bad dialogue with conviction, even an Oscar winner like Theron can’t sell lines like, “A humble pawn can bring down kingdoms.”

Nicolas-Troyan, who had been the visual effects supervisor on “Snow White and the Huntsman,” is making his directorial debut here, and there are moments that help explain how he got the job. When Eric and his merry band end up in a computer-generated forest, it’s a gorgeous, magical place, where giant, moss-covered tortoises roam and butterflies flutter. If only we could linger here on the mossy forest floor and forget the dizzying subplots swirling in our heads.

Costume designer Colleen Atwood, who earned her 10th Oscar nomination for her work on the previous “Huntsman” film, delivers the drama the story lacks, this time via exquisite metallic gowns and headpieces. She drapes Theron in a kind of molten gold dress and Blunt in multiple ice crystal-inspired frocks.

At one point, when the two sisters appear on-screen talking conspiratorially in their glittering garments, I fantasized about what the actresses might have whispered to each other between takes: “Do you have any idea what’s happening right now?”

“No. Did you read this script before you agreed to it?”

“No. But the good news is, we look fabulous.”

[email protected]

------------

‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’

Rated: PG-13, for fantasy action violence and some sensuality

Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Playing: In general release

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The Huntsman: Winter's War

Eric and fellow warrior Sara, raised as members of ice Queen Freya's army, try to conceal their forbidden love as they fight to survive the wicked intentions of both Freya and her sister Rav... Read all Eric and fellow warrior Sara, raised as members of ice Queen Freya's army, try to conceal their forbidden love as they fight to survive the wicked intentions of both Freya and her sister Ravenna. Eric and fellow warrior Sara, raised as members of ice Queen Freya's army, try to conceal their forbidden love as they fight to survive the wicked intentions of both Freya and her sister Ravenna.

• Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
• Evan Spiliotopoulos
• Craig Mazin
• Evan Daugherty
• Chris Hemsworth
• Jessica Chastain
• Charlize Theron
• 238 User reviews
• 287 Critic reviews
• 35 Metascore
• 16 nominations

• The Huntsman …

• Queen Freya

• Mrs. Bromwyn

• Young Pippa

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Jessica Chastain Through the Years

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• Trivia In the weeks following the Sony e-mail hacks, which made public thousands of privately circulated messages relating to the studio and its practices, it was revealed that Charlize Theron was to be paid substantially less to reprise her role in this film than her returning co-star, Chris Hemsworth . Theron, herself a proven box-office draw, refused to sign on to the film unless Universal agreed to pay her the same salary as Hemsworth. The studio accepted her terms, and both Theron and Hemsworth were paid just over $10 million each for the film.
• Goofs In the previous film, Queen Ravenna had a very close, somewhat mystical bond with her brother Finn, who was her head enforcer. He is also seen during a flashback to when Ravenna received her magic powers. This film, however, makes absolutely no mention of him in either the scenes set prior to the first film or the ones set afterward. In addition, there is no indication in the first film of Ravenna having any other siblings besides her brother.

Sara : We blind ourselves to the truth because we are weak, because we hope. But there's no hope for love. Love ends in betrayal. Aye and always.

• Crazy credits The world in the Universal logo turns to gold and morphs into a mirror.
• Alternate versions In Singapore, the film was edited for a PG13 rating. The distributor chose to remove the sex scene between Sara and the Huntsman. The uncut version was classified NC16.
• Connections Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Chris Hemsworth/Jessica Chastain/Kirsten Dunst/Stephen Mangan/Raleigh Ritchie (2016)
• Soundtracks Castle (The Huntsman: Winter's War Version) Written by Halsey (as Ashley Frangipane) and Lido (as Peder Losnegård) Performed by Halsey Orchestral Arrangements by James Newton Howard Courtesy of Astralwerks Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews 238

• Apr 9, 2016
• How long is The Huntsman: Winter's War? Powered by Alexa
• April 22, 2016 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Official site (France)
• Snow White and the Huntsman 2
• Wells Cathedral, Wells, Somerset, England, UK (exterior scenes, interior scenes)
• Universal Pictures
• Perfect World Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $115,000,000 (estimated)
• $48,390,190
• $19,445,035
• Apr 24, 2016
• $164,989,338

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 54 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• Dolby Atmos

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The huntsman: winter's war, common sense media reviewers.

Messy, violent Snow White sequel wastes its great actors.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Love can be enduring and powerful, not fleeting an

The huntsman never stops loving Sara; he stays tru

Both queens kill people in many different ways. A

Ravenna plays footsie with her husband. Eric and S

Insult words such as "ugly," "stupi

The huntsman and the dwarves have a drink at a pub

Parents need to know that The Huntsman: Winter's War is both a prequel and sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman , following the origin story of how Eric (Chris Hemsworth) became a huntsman. Like its predecessor, the film is violent and dark, despite the fairytale references and themes. Kids may…

Positive Messages

Love can be enduring and powerful, not fleeting and fair-weathered. Also messages about teamwork, friendship, and the real meaning of family, and the story explores how jealousy can corrupt.

Positive Role Models

The huntsman never stops loving Sara; he stays true to her. Eric is brave and saves lives. Sara redeems a betrayal by protecting Eric. The dwarfs act honorably and help the huntsmen try to defeat the evil queens. Queen Freya discovers that love is real and acts accordingly.

Violence & Scariness

Both queens kill people in many different ways. A baby is burned to death in her crib. Ravenna can summon tar-filled death rays, while Freya commands ice to do her bidding -- like freeze people into a state of suspended animation or freeze and shatter them into pieces. The huntsmen army kills in battle. The goblins are large, horned, ape-like creatures that scarily scream and attack humans.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Ravenna plays footsie with her husband. Eric and Sara share intense gazes, kiss passionately, and make love more than once; in one scene, they're naked in a hot spring (bare shoulders, backs shown as they kiss, and in another, they undress each other while lying down (bare backs visible, side view of him on top of her).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Insult words such as "ugly," "stupid," "idiot," "monster," "evil."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The huntsman and the dwarves have a drink at a pub.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Huntsman: Winter's War is both a prequel and sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman , following the origin story of how Eric ( Chris Hemsworth ) became a huntsman. Like its predecessor, the film is violent and dark, despite the fairytale references and themes. Kids may think it's going to be like the hit TV show Once Upon a Time , but the movie has intense scenes like an infant's death, startling betrayals, and many deaths (though only a few are shown up close). Both queens (played by Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron ) kill, albeit in different ways, and there are scary, horned, ape-like goblins that pursue and nearly kill the protagonists. While there's little in the way of language or drinking, there are two sensuous-but-not-graphic love scenes -- expect to see kissing and bare shoulders/backs. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (18)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Not for kids.

Good movie but some indecency, what's the story.

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR is both a prequel and a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman . At first, the story takes place nearly 20 years before the events of Snow White , when Queen Ravenna ( Charlize Theron ) has a beloved but (until then) unmagical younger sister, Freya ( Emily Blunt ), who's pregnant with her lover's (an engaged man) child. Ravenna tries to convince Freya that love never works out, but Freya refuses to believe that ... until her beloved burns their baby girl in her crib. At that moment, Freya's magic is unleashed, and she becomes an ice witch (think Elsa in Frozen ). She flees her sister and creates an empire where love is a sin by raising an army of huntsmen -- children whom her minions kidnap. A decade later, Freya's two best warriors, Eric ( Chris Hemworth ) and Sara ( Jessica Chastain ), fall in love; Sara is killed, while Eric is banished in punishment. Then the action shifts to seven years later, after Snow White defeats Ravenna. Eric is commanded to destroy the Magic Mirror before Freya takes possession of her late sister's most valued object. But not everyone presumed dead is actually gone.

Is It Any Good?

Despite a fabulous cast, Theron's absence for most of this visually outstanding but underwhelming film takes away its most compelling element -- a treacherous villain. Blunt is a wonderful actress, but her Freya, while fascinating, isn't as interesting as her older sister. She's like Elsa with a big army and a frozen heart, but she's not convincingly eeevil like Ravenna. The romantic subplot between Eric and Sara is predictable from the first time they lay eyes on each other as kidnapped children, and no time is spent on how their forbidden love managed to grow in a kingdom where they're supposed to feel only loyalty. The messy plot doesn't allow viewers to see more than that they were the best and prettiest and therefore fated.

By the time Theron finally pops back into the picture, it's too little, too late to save it from mediocrity. Her slithering, scheming queen is the brightest part of the movie, and even the talented stars and funny cameos from Nick Frost , Sheridan Smith, and two other British comedians as dwarves can redeem this confoundingly boring mess. The only saving graces (besides the stars) are the gorgeous costumes and the visually impressive enchanted forest. Otherwise, seeing this is merely an exercise in supporting quality actors stuck in a subpar sequel which is made even more infuriating by the obvious way it leaves room for yet another installment.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Huntsman: Winter's War works as both a prequel and sequel. Is it successful in bringing the Snow White story forward? Do you need to see the first movie to understand/appreciate this one?

Even though this movie is about fairy tales, it's not really aimed at younger audiences. Do you think the violence is necessary to the story? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Discuss how women are depicted in the movie. What are the positive representations of women? What are the negative representations? What's the ultimate take-away?

Who are the role models in the movie? How are the characters courageous ? Why is that an important character strength?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 22, 2016
• On DVD or streaming : August 23, 2016
• Cast : Chris Hemsworth , Charlize Theron , Jessica Chastain , Emily Blunt
• Director : Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Fairy Tales
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : fantasy action violence and some sensuality
• Last updated : April 28, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• DVD & Streaming

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• April 22, 2016
• Chris Hemsworth as Eric/The Huntsman; Charlize Theron as Ravenna; Jessica Chastain as Sara; Sheridan Smith as Mrs. Bromwyn; Nick Frost as Nion; Alexandra Roach as Doreena

Home Release Date

• August 23, 2016
• Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

In Snow White and the Huntsman , the two titular fairy tale types join forces to best that wicked Queen Ravenna and her magically imbued golden mirror.

But don’t you want to know how Eric became the skilled, valiant and just slightly heartbroken huntsman that he is?

OK, you may not have actually been wondering about that, but it’s a story to be told … and so Hollywood will try to tell it. And since Snow White’s nowhere to be found in this one, it all ties back, in a way, to the wicked Ravenna. That beautiful and deadly queen had been marrying and knocking off kings to gain riches and land for some time, of course. But it was actually her sister, Freya, who was most to be feared.

After losing her infant daughter through a terrible betrayal, Freya was left with a frozen shard of a heart, they say. And she gained icy powers strong enough to freeze the world solid.

You’re suddenly thinking about Elsa and Anna, aren’t you? Admit it! But don’t expect some fabulous Frozen story of two loving sisters to emerge here. After Freya was betrayed, she moved to the North, created a bitterly cold kingdom of her own and began stealing away children from every village and town in the land.

She was saving them, of course! In her own mind, at least—in her own twisted, demented heart. What the Ice Queen was really doing was growing and training them up to be an army of huntsmen who would help her rule the world. These skilled warriors would attack neighboring kingdoms and bring the spoils back to her.

You may now be concluding that Ravenna’s love-’em-and-kill-’em method of gaining kingdoms was simpler and less messy than her sister’s. And even if you’re not, I’m telling you to. But the fact is, Freya was making a point. She is absolutely cold to love, you see. And she’d rather freeze out every neighboring handsome king than look at him.

That’s why she got so ticked off when her most brave and skilled huntsman, Eric, fell in love with a female huntsman named Sara. The Ice Queen would soon deal with that foolishness!

See how it’s all starting to tie together? Eric and his secret love? Freya and her cold anguish? Ravenna and her magic mirror?

You’re not seeing it? Turn the glass a tad to the left. No?

All right. Never mind. Let’s just start over. There are these two wicked and powerful sisters …

Positive Elements

The real-life lessons in this dark fairy tale are sparse, but the film lightly suggests that being loving and loyal are solid attributes. And that being brave and self-sacrificial isn’t so bad either.

Spiritual Elements

This is a world of unexplained magic. Both Ravenna and Freya have powers that grew out of personal tragedy in their lives. And the magic mirror is a great source of mysterious might as well. Ravenna states that when she was killed (in the Snow White and the Huntsman movie), her spirit left her body and took up residence within the mirror itself. While talking of bad choices and forgiveness with Sara, Eric says that “someone else” is left to judge their actions.

Sexual Content

Eric and Sara kiss and embrace while naked (they’re seen from the shoulders up) in a hot springs and while partially clothed in the midst of having sex. The latter scene shows guy and gal stripping off tops (giving the camera a side view of Sara’s breast).

Sara typically wears a leather outfit that accentuates her curves. Ravenna and Freya prefer low-cut dresses. One very buxom innkeeper shows quite a lot of cleavage.

A female dwarf tosses around winking quips about dwarven sexuality. A pair of male dwarves speak of the amount of alcohol needed to bed a female dwarf. And Sara shares a bit of sexual innuendo as well. Freya becomes pregnant and gives birth out of wedlock.

Violent Content

Ravenna magically kills her husband while playing a game of chess, his blood slowly seeping onto the board. Freya’s child is burned to death (offscreen) in her crib. We see several scenes of slashing and impaling battle between Freya’s armies and their foes. Battlefields are left littered with corpses pierced by arrows and abandoned blades. Men and dwarves are frozen solid and magically impaled with spear-like tendrils.

In up-close pummeling struggles between Eric and several groups of enemies we hear bones break. In fact, he finishes a battle with a fierce and roaring goblin by somersaulting over the beast, grabbing its horns and viciously snapping its neck. During a number of fights, both Eric and Sara are left scraped and bloodied. We see that Sara’s back is covered with scars. We watch as she’s stabbed from behind with an assassin’s blade. Eric is shot in the chest with an arrow. Children are hit with blunt weapons, shoved about and physically tormented. Goblins get engulfed in blue flames.

Crude or Profane Language

One use each of “b–ch” and “a–.” Those interjections are joined by a variety of crude English phrases, including “b-gger me,” “bloody h—,” “p— off,” “w-nker” and “b-llocks.” God’s name is misused.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Eric and his dwarf companions drink ale at an inn. A dwarf drinks booze from a flask.

Here we have another Hollywood prequel-slash-sequel. Or perhaps an action-slash-adventure romantic fantasy prequel-slash-side-story-slash-sequel is the most accurate description. The point is that, besides all the slashing violence, The Huntsman: Winter’s War isn’t all that sure what it is, or what it even wants be.

The film’s story sprouts out of its predecessor’s Snow White (ish) roots like an accidentally dropped magic bean. It buds into several disjointed tales without really being sure of who’s story it’s telling. And by the time it gives blossom to an infant’s horrible and grisly murder, stabbing and hacking magical battles, slavering beasties, bits of sexy seduction and a number of dwarf-sex script giggles, well, the whole proceeding feels like it would rather cuddle up to Game of Thrones than sit and talk with Once Upon a Time .

Even the moral lessons and learning opportunities that you’d typically point kids to in a fable or fairy tale have pretty much been chained up somewhere in the Ice Queen’s dungeon, never to be seen onscreen.

It’s not that this visually picturesque but overgrown pic is outright rotten. It’s just that it’s unpruned , shall we say. Like that tangled fairy tale forest most sensible adventurers steer clear of in the dark of night.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Dwayne johnson & ryan reynolds' feud is bad news for netflix's most-watched franchise, tom brady roast: 15 best jokes & wildest moments from netflix's special, every single piece of  the huntsman: winter's war  underwhelms - resulting in a strained prequel/sequel/spin-off fairytale with very little magic..

Long before Snow White rose to defeat the malevolent sorceress Ravenna (Charlize Theron), the Evil Queen moved unchecked from kingdom to kingdom, murdering rulers, amassing power and fortune, with her tender-hearted sister, Freya (Emily Blunt), in tow. Yet, when Freya's lover kills their newborn child, she discovers her own dormant magic ability - control of frost and ice. Armed with new powers, and scarred from her lover's treachery, the cryomancer heads North, carving out her own dominion - a place where love is a sin - and taking in the orphaned children of kingdoms she conquers, training the youth to fight as warriors in her personal army of "huntsmen".

When two of her best huntsmen, Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain), fall in love, Freya is forced to make an example out of the pair - unintentionally setting a heartbroken Eric onto a path that would eventually lead to Ravenna's downfall at the hands of Snow White years later. Unfortunately, Snow White's victory is short-lived, as a dangerous black magic haunts the benevolent ruler - and the new queen is forced to call on Eric for help once again, sending the Huntsman back into battle to face an old enemy - and the promise of closure to his past life.

Where moviegoers and critics were split on Rupert Sanders'  Snow White and the Huntsman (for a variety of reasons), the film managed to rack up a solid box office turn - cementing interest in a sequel, The Huntsman: Winter's War , at Universal Pictures. Unfortunately, behind-the-scenes controversy derailed production on a full-on sequel to the film - causing both the director and star Kristen Stewart to leave The Huntsman followup. In the coming months, the studio courted several well-respected filmmakers (including Frank Darabont) - eventually settling on Snow White and the Huntsman 's second-unit director, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, to helm the project (marking his feature debut). The result is exactly what moviegoers likely expected: fleeting moments of fun that are undermined by clumsy filmmaking, cheesy performances, mundane effects, and bizarre retcons of Snow White and the Huntsman  events in order to salvage a franchise - rather than deliver a quality film set in the Huntsman 's world.

In spite of lengthy exposition (from Liam Neeson) that attempts to reframe the Snow White story around The Huntsman, Winter's War fails to build on, nor differentiate itself from, the prior franchise entry. Instead of a clean relaunch or continuation, Winter's War spends a significant amount of time justifying why The Huntsman isn't with Snow White (in spite of a life-giving "true love" kiss in the previous film) - endeavoring to both keep the door open for Stewart to return while also charting a course without her (in which the Huntsman and his own band of accomplices could return for a third entry). In juggling the future of this story, as a film series, Nicolas-Troyan is diverted through a wishy-washy set of hurdles that refuse to commit any main character to a definitive fate or personality - subsequently undermining any emotional impact the onscreen drama should deliver.

A bizarre patchwork of uninspired choices turn  Winter's War into an unappealing franchise product rather than coherent standalone film experience, as Nicolas-Troyan's installment falls short in providing the same visual flair, exciting action-fantasy spectacle, or stirring tale of self-empowerment that made Sanders' adaptation a surprise hit at the box office. Among some of the clumsier aspects, as the director attempted to tether Winter's War to its predecessor, is that Snow White is only shown from the back (making it more , not less, apparent that Stewart did not return), only one of the original seven dwarves, Nion (portrayed by Nick Frost) returns to assist Eric, and the filmmakers retcon the death of Ravenna for an underwhelming third-act twist (spoiled in the film's marketing), with absolutely no evidence in Snow White to support it. The worst part? Undoing or attempting to ignore the enormous shifts from Snow White to Winter's War ultimately undercuts the success of storytelling and characters that actually worked in the first chapter.

A convoluted backstory makes The Huntsman less interesting and less nuanced, an abrupt return from Ravenna twists the malevolent baddie into an immortal fairy tale villain (ignoring the character's previous origin and motivation: as a victim of abuse who eventually uses her power to control rather than be controlled), all while Snow White is casually name-dropped by other characters more times than she actually appears on screen (even once by a blink and you'll miss it cameo from rival  Snow White and the Huntsman  love-interest William, played by Sam Claflin).

Subverting prior characters would be forgivable if Winter's War introduced audiences to an even better band of new players; sadly, every single freshman  Winter's War character is a shell of a better hero or villain from the first movie - especially the sequel's Ice Queen. After numerous fan-favorite turns (in everything from  Looper to  Edge of Tomorrow to  Sicario ), Emily Blunt's talent is completely wasted on Freya. Where the character works at the most basic level, as a metaphor for isolation and depression in the aftermath of personal tragedy, and a point of juxtaposition for the core message of "love conquering all," that doesn't make Freya an interesting, affecting, or entertaining villain to follow in this story. Instead, Freya spends the majority of Winter's War in an emotionless haze, isolated mentally and physically  (rarely leaving the safety of her fortress) from the main story and its heroes - ultimately offering muted payoff when her personal ideology, and subsequent emotional wall, begin to crack.

Jessica Chastain is given slightly more as Sara, including a pair of slick fight scenes, but the character (and the performance) are slave to a melodramatic arc and half-baked twists - that, despite efforts to make Sara a strong female lead, ultimately confine the character in a no-nonsense warrior-princess outline (since Snow White isn't along for the ride this time). Sara is positioned to reflect both the power (Eric) and pain (Freyda) of love but the movie repositions the character so frequently that Sara's motivations and "true" feelings are hard to track (at best) and are more plot point than quality character development (at worst).

Even when Snow White and the Huntsman fell flat, the film was buoyed by Sanders' stylized fantasy riffs (as well as visual effects work), which made even mundane action look exciting in the moment, and a comparatively dark otherverse retelling of Snow White that twisted the damsel-in-distress fairytale protagonist into a battle-worn heroine capable of inspiring others (by full-on  fighting for her kingdom). As a result, Sanders established an intriguing fantasy world in which Universal Pictures could tell future stories - but, in attempting to build directly on the success of Snow White,  while refocusing on the titular Huntsman, the studio squandered any remaining potential. Ultimately, every single piece of The Huntsman: Winter's War underwhelms - resulting in a strained prequel/sequel/spin-off fairytale with very little magic.

The Huntsman: Winter's War runs 114 minutes and is Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence and some sensuality. Now playing in theaters.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comment section below.

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The Huntsman: Winter’s War review – an insipid confection

Despite a fine performance from Emily Blunt, the follow-up to Snow White and the Huntsman offers cold comfort

H ere’s the follow-up to 2012’s SFX whimsy-cake Snow White and the Huntsman , bookending that film’s narrative with both a backstory and a continuation – which makes it, I suppose, a “sprequel”. Emily Blunt emerges with honour, offering more nuance than the film deserves, as Freya, tragic sister to Charlize Theron’s wicked witch queen. Turning her back on love, Freya repairs to the northern wastes to rule a land of snow and ice, and presumably to lie low in case Disney’s lawyers question the resemblance to Frozen . Playing squeeze to Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman, Jessica Chastain dons a leather jerkin and wields a bow and arrow – solemnly channelling a touch of Red Sonja, for you older sword-and-sorcery fans. There are many offensive things about this insipid confection, foremost among them the fact that Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith and Alexandra Roach have had their faces digitally grafted on to the bodies of comedy dwarves. Even for a film set in a fantasy middle ages, that’s not very 21st century.

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The Huntsman: Winter’s War Review

The Huntsman: Winter's War almost could work as camp whenever Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt are vamping it up... which is far too little.

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It is a long accepted truth that Snow White must always get the prince at the end of her story. But in 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman , it’s inarguable that whatever your thoughts of the film are, it actually did not belong to the girl with raven hair. How could it when Charlize Theron was slithering around the set like a serpent, oozing the kind of sex and malevolence that went out of fashion with Caligula?

So of course if there had to be a sequel—such as this weekend’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War —giving the real star of that 2012 gothic camp-fest the spotlight was about the smartest thing Universal could do. Throwing in Emily Blunt as her polar bear-riding, ice queen sister is also only a chilly bonus, shameless Frozen rip-off though it may be (the movie also borrows plentifully from Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones , and The Hunger Games too!).

Alas then, sweet princesses, you sisters of insidiousness: despite a pair of movie-stealing stars who gleefully chew their scenery and shoot one another side-eye like they’re in a big screen remake of Dynasty , Huntsman ‘s new war makes the same mistakes as the old one. Where once Kristen Stewart’s earnestness distracted from Theron’s ferocious fun, there still remains Chris Hemsworth, appearing game to mug his way through his secondary franchise alongside the newly added Jessica Chastain. But while maintaining a feminine hero on the side of the angels, especially one played by an actress of Chastain’s caliber, is admirable and necessary, these films are too enamored with their sirens’ villainous call for petty ideas like virtue to matter. Such schlocky entertainment should have known by now that the devil, and this franchise’s appeal, lies in the details.

Hence the movie’s first major problem: this part-prequel and part-sequel truly does belong to its namesake, a hunky slice of blandness that, no matter how winning his smile may be, cannot overcome the shadow of his three leading ladies and a storybook plot every bit as perfunctory as its first installment—but now also completely devoid of the Brothers Grimm infrastructure to maintain something resembling a pace.

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In that familiar and classic fairy tale’s place is the origin and legendary journeys of Hemsworth’s Eric. Surprisingly, it all began faintly similar to a recent Disney phenomenon when he was but a boy. In that time, his kingdom was ruled by the eternally young and power-hungry Queen Ravenna (Theron). But in one of her apparently earliest widowings, she also kept the counsel of the kind-hearted and younger sister Freya (Blunt), a potential sorceress who rejects the family business until her fiancé murders their infant daughter in the crib. He insists he was compelled to do so (20 Florins to the commenter who can guess by whom).

Enraged, Freya’s heart permafrosts over until it is literally as cold as ice. Embracing her inner-enchantress, she lets go of all inhibition to become an ice queen by conquering a neighboring kingdom and turning all that is green into a pale sheet of white. Then to replace the child she lost, Freya kidnaps all her subjects’ children, brainwashing them to be her warrior huntsmen and to never trust love. Hence when Eric and Sara (Chastain) grow up and have a secret, steamy bathtub marriage (don’t ask), Freya is a wee bit upset and separates the young lovers… precipitating Eric’s path into the previous Snow White movie, and thus giving him a motivation to take on Freya again over the course of the rest of Winter’s War , which sees Eric return home just as Freya is about to resurrect Ravenna from the dead.

If it sounds busy, that is because it is juggling more magical narratives than an afternoon of LARP-ing. And honestly, that is much of what the middle of the movie feels like. As Eric and Sara go on the quest to retrieve Ravenna’s mirror, they spend a lot of time wandering through enchanted forests and chatting with whom I assume must be the comic relief of accompanying dwarves (a returning Nick Frost plus Rob Byrdon, Sheridan Smith, and Alexandra Roach). But to suggest these leisurely strolls amount to generic dialogue and serviceable CGI goblin-battling would be a slight on the truly plain digital donnybrooks of most other fantasy adventures.

Much of the heroes’ screen time feels more reminiscent of the kind of listless hiking that made up entire sections of syndicated ‘90s fantasy shows like Xena and Hercules . The stunts are admittedly competent, and Chastain especially seems to be enjoying the spectacle of franchise moviemaking, but the smallness of Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin’s scripted story shrinks the intended epic nature of this crusade to the kind that would fit nicely between Saturday afternoon commercial breaks. First-time feature length director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan also adds little to the proceedings other than framing the special effects to maximum effect in an otherwise impotent story.

Yet, these many, many shortcomings remain odd considering how much potential the film has whenever Theron and Blunt are onscreen, which is seriously not enough. Aye, Theron appears with a classically curled lip in about seven scenes since her character spends the majority of the picture dead (due to the events o the previous film). Blunt gets to show off better with a wonderfully detached sense of camp to her chilliness, wearing her heavy and ice-weighted gowns with great pageantry, but she is still second fiddle to the heroes.

A better film might have dispensed with such distractions and realized the story could come alive if it immediately began with Freya resurrecting Ravenna, and then getting out of the way as these two actresses worked their magic with the silly material. But unfortunately, the real stars of the picture are kept mostly in the margins until the third act, and by then whatever guilty pleasure to be had here has been too long denied. There is a gonzo nutjob movie in here somewhere about two divas going medieval. Sadly, they too easily let it go.

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David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Pity poor studly Chris Hemsworth . The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the paltry prequel in which he again lends his mighty Thor abs to the title role, reduces him to eye candy. OK, he wasn’t much more in 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. His co-star Kristen Stewart stole the show as the warrior princess who won the hearts of dwarfs everywhere. Stewart’s fling with married director Rupert Sanders may have motivated both of them to sit this one out. If so, smart move.

Now, first-time director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan calls the shots, and the dude does Hemsworth no favors. Winter’s War is a divafest from start to finish. Charlize Theron is back as evil queen Ravenna, and her beauty and bitchery remain wonders to behold. She treats her famed mirror like a toadying publicist by relentlessly demanding, “Who’s the fairest of them all?” And when the magnetic Emily Blunt shows up as Ravenna’s royal sister Freya, Hemsworth is virtually done for. These twisted sisters give the movie whatever life it has, and it’s not bloody much.

You can’t blame screenwriters Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin for spending more time with the femmes fatales than the ho-hum Huntsman. But the script lifts so much plot from Disney’s animated Frozen that it could qualify as a remake. When Ravenna plays a dirty trick on Freya, her younger sibling effing freaks out. Like Elsa, she retreats to an ice kingdom where she can freeze out what she doesn’t like. Freya doesn’t sing “Let It Go,” the Oscar-winning song from Frozen, but she does damn near everything else to remind us of a movie we’d rather be watching.

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And what of the Huntsman? He’s part of the army Freya builds to go medieval on Ravenna’s ass and steal her talking mirror. The Huntsman has been trained for battle since childhood, when he was called Eric. His rival in skill is a Huntswoman called Sara. Much to Hemsworth’s bad luck, she is played by Jessica Chastain , who can act rings around him. Since their love story packs no heat, comic relief comes in the form of two dwarfs, Nion (Nick Frost) and Gryff (Rob Brydon). But even dwarf dudes are cursed in this film, since Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith), a smartass female dwarf, steals every scene.

Somewhere in the middle of this maddening mess, the Snow White story is obliquely wedged in and Winter’s War goes from prequel to sequel. It makes no sense, but it does let Theron and Blunt, dressed to thrill in Colleen Atwood’s costumes, go at it in full-tilt boogie. The film lets rip with the crumbling of ice castles and other forms of mass destruction. But nothing can match seeing Theron and Blunt try to out-camp each other, providing the only glimmer of entertainment in a film dedicated to being ponderous. No one sings “Let It Go,” but my advice to audiences is to do just that before mistakenly buying a ticket.

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Movie Review: The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)

• Greg Eichelberger
• Movie Reviews
• 8 responses
• --> May 4, 2016

For those who believe sequels are and integral part of the filmmaking process, I present the following recent exhibits: “ The Hangover Part II ,” “ Star Trek Into Darkness ,” “ Avengers: Age of Ultron ” and “ Ted 2 .” Yes, I realize there are also other examples where the sequel bested the original, such as “The Godfather Part II,” “Superman II” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” but these are extremely few and far between. Now comes The Huntsman: Winter’s War , another part two of a film franchise that fits more than comfortably into the completely unnecessary category than one which was overwhelming demanded.

When we last left our intrepid huntsman (Chris Hemsworth, “ In the Heart of the Sea ”), he and the presumptive Snow White (Kristen Stewart, “ American Ultra ”) were battling the evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron, coming off the great “ Mad Max: Fury Road ”), and practically destroying her, as directed by Rupert Sanders in his debut.

However, because that first movie (“ Snow White and the Huntsman ,” by the way) made more at the box office than it cost to make (it’s a called a “profit,” kids), the inevitable second installment was called for. Remember, in part one, we were led to believe that Stewart was fairer (or more beautiful) than Theron, (just like the producers believe that a sequel would be a good idea, I suppose).

However, since Stewart exhibited a rare bout of good sense about a role, her character is no longer available to us in The Huntsman: Winter’s War (there’s a few awkward references, but that’s about it). Instead, we’re given the queen’s younger sister, Freya (Emily Blunt, “ Sicario ”), who has a baby that dies and then turns into a character from Disney’s “ Frozen ,” only that she kidnaps innocent children and trains them to be Winter Soldiers (sorry, it had to be written). And, since the Norse God Thor (Hemsworth’s alter ego) is unable to handle things all by himself, Jessica Chastain (“ The Martian ”) arrives as a female huntsman, for whatever that’s worth.

Still, despite three terrific female actors (all of whom have won or been nominated for Golden Globes and/or Academy Awards), their characters are dependent on Hemsworth, even though he is less a part of the plot than he was in the original picture. He swings a mean axe and can fight with the best of them, but when he begins to talk, well, all bets are off.

Replacing Sanders behind the camera, is visual effects standout Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (also a first-time helmer), who makes an interestingly dark and FX laden product complete with small scale battles, bizarre animals, fairies, animated plants and other exotic creatures. Unfortunately, the gold-plating is less than satisfying and his movie still draws comparisons to the first film, which — as mentioned several times already — was not so special in the first place and left few calling for a second effort.

Teenage girls, who flocked (incredulously) to the 2012 version, have now gone on to more “intriguing” motion pictures (the “Divergent” and “Hunger Games” franchises, among them), leaving The Huntsman: Winter’s War without much of a political base — much like a Hollywood version of John Kasich to be as topical as possible. And with “ Captain America: Civil War ” less than a week away and “ Zootopia ” still on top, it’s going to be a long, long, dreary “Winter” for this production.

Tagged: fairy tale , magic , queen , sequel , warrior

I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.

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'Movie Review: The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)' have 8 comments

May 4, 2016 @ 12:54 pm Caramel Waters

I’m with you on most of your review but I’m not so sure Kristen Stewart skipped Winter’s War on her own merit. She was a large part of what was wrong with Huntsman, so I’m more inclined to believe she wasn’t asked back.

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May 4, 2016 @ 1:36 pm Boothe

Blunt and Theron and Chastain. :D

May 4, 2016 @ 3:15 pm vickramer

A glorious film of scenery chewing cheese and syrup. A must watch for lovers of B-movie content in A-movie clothing!

May 4, 2016 @ 4:06 pm box o flies

As bad as this looks in a fun way I’m not willing to pay for it. I’ll get my kicks from it when it shows up on Showtime in an endless cycle.

May 4, 2016 @ 7:01 pm poemetic

The first was good enough for a sequel in my opinion.

May 4, 2016 @ 10:42 pm Apollo

Hemsworth CAN do more than just swing a mean axe and fight with the best of them-he looks great wet and with his shirt off also.

May 5, 2016 @ 9:00 pm BritCoss

Did I miss him being wet or shirtless? Heck, as I recall, Jessica Chastain showed off more than he did….

February 6, 2017 @ 8:35 am Nick

I enjoyed this more than the first one. Great characters, lots of action, amazing special effects.

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• Review: Gowns Aside, <i>The Huntsman: Winter’s War</i> Will Kill You with Boredom

Review: Gowns Aside, The Huntsman: Winter’s War Will Kill You with Boredom

T here’s only one reason to see Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s crazy-cluttered The Huntsman: Winter’s War , the almost wholly unnecessary sequel—actually a prequel—to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. First off, there’s no Kristen Stewart in this one, so tick that off the list. You don’t need to see it for the half- Game of Thrones, half-Middle Earth production design, an extravagant mingling of depressive forests and frosty, ice-migraine landscapes. You won’t be missing much if you forego the “I love you, I hate you, I love you” romance between career fairytale-gothic warriors Eric and Sara (Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain), who toss one another about brutally before succumbing to the dull inevitability of romance. You don’t even really need to see it for Nick Frost and Rob Brydon’s turn as randy, wisecracking dwarves, though you wonder if, given just a bit more latitude, they might have subverted the movie’s deadening squareness.

No, there’s only one reason to see The Huntsman: Winter’s War : Gowns! Insane, off-the-hook gowns. Gowns trimmed with netting, grommets and spikes. Gowns with enormous winged, gilt-feathered collars, gowns that pour from the shoulder like liquid steel, gowns whose bodices look to have been made from pleated metal. Embroidery, chain mail, jewels, metallic paillettes: You name it, these gowns have it, further augmented by crowns as jagged as murder weapons, towering hairweaves that would make Marie Antoinette weep, and more dangly earrings than you’d find at three shopping mall’s worth of Claire’s. Did I mention the heavy-metal prosthetic talons?

These outlandish creations, courtesy of veteran costume designer Colleen Atwood, nearly upstage the actresses who wear them, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt, who star as royal sisters dueling for power. (Chastain, because she’s a warrior, gets no gowns and instead must wear drab, practical forest-worthy leather jumpsuits.) The Huntsman: Winter’s War, tells the pre-Snow White backstory: Long before Snow came on the scene, Theron’s Queen Ravenna was using her wicked wiles to grab kingdoms by the handful. In an early scene, we see her playing a lethal game of chess with an aged king while wearing nothing but a tiara and a sequin-trimmed mini-robe. Clearly, he’s toast. Ravenna’s greed and ambition ultimately alienate her from her sweeter, more straight-shooting sister, Blunt’s Freya. After the quintessential betrayal, Freya turns into an ice queen who can freeze stuff with her eyes. She also has a mask of ice-feathers that turns her into an all-seeing, all-hearing owl, and she gets to ride a fearsome creature that looks like a cross between a polar bear and a tiger. I guess you’d call it a polar biger.

All of that makes The Huntsman: Winter’s War sound like more fun than it is. Gowns aside, this thing’s a snooze: Events unfold tediously, and there are many scenes in which extras with dirty faces, playing demoralized townsfolk, mill about in a desultory fashion. In the end, this is your stock boring fairytale fable about the battle between good and evil, between the haves and the have-nots. No wonder Blunt and Theron’s gown-wearing sisters—definitely in the “have” camp—are the hands-down winners. Would you rather be them, or the actor playing Uncredited Yurt Villager? I rest my case.

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The Huntsman: Winter’s War Review

BEWARE THE FROZEN HEART

After the success of Disney’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland , the movie studios of Hollywood started to revive and reimaging famous fairy tale stories through a new cinematic lens. In the 2012, two films offered two very distinct takes on the story of Snow White. While Mirror, Mirror (directed by Tarsem Singh) was a lighter and whimsical family affair approach to the classic fairy tale, director Rupert Sanders took a more epic and darker tone with Snow White and the Huntsman . While the film, which starred Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth, had its fair share of being criticized (it might vary from person to person on what that is), Snow White and the Huntsman did make a favorable return on its production investment at the box office, paving the way for a potential follow-up feature. Unfortunately, do to some behind-the-scenes controversies between Sanders and Stewart, both director and actress left the future sequel project, leaving the production at a standstill. The state of the sequel was in limbo for quite a while until director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan took up the mantle with the film The Huntsman: Winter’s War . Is this quasi prequel / sequel worth a look or is an underwhelming fairy tale spinoff?

Long before Snow White (Kristen Stewart) defeated the wicked sorceress Ravenna (Charlize Theron), the Evil Queen moved from kingdom to kingdom, murdering its rulers, and ensnaring their wealth and power for her own, with her tender-hearted sister, Freya (Emily Blunt), following her. However, sadness grips Freya’s heart after experiencing a loss and betrayal from her secret lover, triggering her power of control ice and frost to come forth. With her heart metaphorically frozen over from grief, Freya ventures north to establish her own kingdom, claiming the children of that places she conquered and training them to become her personal warriors…her “Huntsman”. With her two best Huntsman Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain), falling in love, Freya makes an example of the pair, separating them through an act of her magic. Years, later, with Snow White ruling her kingdom, Eric’s old life comes back to haunt him as news of Raveanna’s Magic Mirror is taken by goblins, requiring a quest to find and destroy the vile mirror. Joined by fellow dwarves Nion (Nick Frost), Gryff (Rob Brydon), Doreena (Alexandra Roach), and Bromwyn (Sherdian Smith), Eric set out to find the mirror, only to be confronted with Sara’s unexpected return, rekinding their love for each other as team up to thwart Freya’s plan to possess the ominous power of her sister’s Magic Mirror.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

Personally, I actually enjoyed watching Hollywood reconstruct the classic fairy tales by adding different iterations to its narrative structure. Some have been stellar, while some have so-so. Regardless, it’s very interesting what the studios would come up with. As for two 2012 Snow White movies, I liked Snow White and the Huntsman more than Mirror, Mirror (it had its charm, but I thought it was just okay). Despite Kristen Stewart’s horrible performance (and few other nitpicks to the story ), Snow White and the Huntsman was actually good, with a lot of epic fantasy elements as well as a great role for Charlize Theron to play as the Evil Queen Ravenna. I remember hearing all the scandal stuff about Sanders and Stewart and probably thought that “The Huntsman” (the intended movie title for the sequel) would be dead. Interestingly, Universal Pictures decided to go ahead with its sequel or rather its prequel / sequel story with The Huntsman: Winter’s War. When I saw the trailers for the movie, I was definitely intrigue (especially with Theron and Hemsworth returning, while adding Blunt and Chastain to the cast). In truth, after seeing the movie, I’m kind of torn with The Huntsman: Winter’s War , having “love-hate” relationship with the movie.

While Snow White and the Huntsman’s director Rupert Sanders was originally supposed to direct the film’s intended sequel, he was removed from his position as Universal Pictures searched for a new director (including Frank Darabont). The studio eventually settled on Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, who was Snow White and the Huntsman’s second unit director, to helm Winter’s War , making his directorial debut with this project as well. With knowledge previous installment, Sanders knows the world of Snow White and the Huntsman and seems to relish the opportunity to return to its cinematic world, creating new stories and adding to the mythos of the Evil Queen Ravenna and her mysterious Magic Mirror. Like before, Winter’s War is presented as an epic fantasy, keeping up the more adult-themed premise from the previous chapter. The only difference is that Winter’s War isn’t as dark as Snow White and the Huntsman (I don’t know if that’s good or bad). Production-wise, the movie looks good. Costume, set designs, art direction, visual effects are all good and have that fairy tale / epic fantasy vibe. I wouldn’t say it rivals a Middle-Earth movie ( Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit) or even Harry Potter movie, but Winter’s War holds its own within its fantasy-looking aesthetics.

Unfortunately, Winter’s War stumbles with its entire setup premise. Let me clarify that sentence for you all. Winter’s War is really an unnecessary sequel as Snow White and the Huntsman didn’t really warrant a continuation to its cinematic universe. It clearly had a beginning, a middle, and end that defined the movie and didn’t need to revisited. Thus, with Winter’s War been its intended sequel, it feels sort of clunky and tad bit convulted, with its repetitive nature of referencing some of the events from the previous movie (naming dropping Snow White a couple of times). If the movie stood on its alone (within its own cinematic universe), the movie could’ve been better. However, to present Winter’s War as a continuation to Snow White and the Huntsman is less than desirable. Adding to that, is that its title character from the first installment is absent. While I dislike Kristen Stewart and the roles she plays (including her role as Snow White), it just seems awkward that they sort of omit her from this movie (you see her briefly, but from behind and clearly not Stewart), while she was the main protagonist in the previous feature. In short, the film desperately wants you to buy into it as a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman , but comes up short.

Perhaps the greatest folly on Winter’s War was in its marketing campaign. While I do love movie trailers, I personally felt that trailers for this movie showed off a lot of the feature’s twists and “big reveals” within its limited timeframe, especially a lot of scenes during the fim’s big battle in the third act. This, of course, deflates the overall excitement and suspense when these actually scenes are presented on-screen during the movie (I really should do a movie editorial blog post on this as its happening in more and more with recent movies). Adding to that, Winter’s War feels slightly like a generic fantasy story, being formulaic with its narrative undertaking and execution and having little to no surprises in its storytelling or even its action. Personally, I guessed what was going to happen and it did happen. There’s even some gapping plot hole in its narration, with no evidence to support its claim and ultimately undercutting the story of the first film as if they were throwing some half-baked ideas into this sequel hope that it fits in the within chonology of this movie world. If you’re looking for something new and refreshing in the fantasy movie genre, Winter’s War isn’t that type of movie.

Winter’s War cast is collectively made up of a lot of well-known actors and actresses, some that new to the franchise, while others are returning to reprise their roles from first film. Most notable of who the movie’s events surround is in the character of Freya, played by Emily Blunt. Blunt, who’s known her roles in The Devil Wear Prada, Edge of Tomorrow , and Sicario , does really good as the Ice Queen Freya. She cold, heartless, ruthless, and a great character for Blunt to play. Unfortunately, given Disney’s Frozen , Blunt’s Freya is almost identical to the animated character Elsa (right down to her costume). I was sort of jokingly expecting Blunt to start singing “Let It Go”, which would be awkward and awesome at the same time. Actresses Charlize Theron returns to reprise her role the Evil Queen Ravenna. Theron seems relish her return as Ravenna, easily stepping back into the character. Like last time, she a little over-the-top with her villainy performance, but it’s not cartoonish or corny. I just love her as the Evil Queen. As a side note, when Blunt and Theron are on-screen together, it’s great.

Actor Chris Hemsworth returns to play the Huntsman Eric and, while he has the charm and bravado as he did before, it’s just okay performance. The role of Eric wasn’t a great stretch for Hemsworth to play and so it’s not as iconic as the God of Thunder in the Marvel’s Thor movies nor as charismatic as James Hunt in Rush . In short, Hemsworth does a servable job in the film as he looks and act the part of Eric (i.e. nothing really new to the character). Actress Jessica Chastain plays the love interest for Eric as the Huntsman Sara. While Chastain has the look of a female warrior huntress (with a couple of cool fight scenes), but her character is generic and her story arc is flat with its foreseeable twists. Even her performance is a little bit melodramatic with a weird Scottish accent. I mean I liked her in Lawless, Zero Dark Thirty , and The Martian , but Chastain’s role as the Huntsman Sara is mediocre. I love you Jessica, but not in this movie.

Of the seven dwarves from Snow White and the Huntsman its only Nick Frost’s character of Nion who returns in Winter’s War and does a good job in his role, providing comic relief for the feature. Rallying in that department are the newcomer dwarves, including Rob Brydon’s Gryff, Alexandra Roach’s Doreena, and Sheridan Smith’s Bromwyn. Each one has their moment to reflect on the humorous comedy in Winter’s War , so kudos to them. In a small reprising role from his previous film is actor Sam Clarflin as William, Snow White’s love interest. Lastly, Liam Nesson does the voiceover for the film’s narration.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The fantasy world of Snow White and the Huntsman returns to the silver screen in The Huntsman: Winter’ Wa r. Nicolas-Troyan’s sequel / prequel feature has its moments of flights of fantasy flair towards its genre, which makes it look appealing visually, as well as some performances (Blunt and Theron). Unfortunately, the movie is an unnecessary sequel that shifts its focus away from first film’s protagonist and refocuses on a side supporting character and, while the backstory is creative, its convoluted and formulaic plot on that fails to reach its potential.  Ultimately, The Huntsman: Winter’s War is an uninspiring continuation to Snow White and the Huntsman . To me, I personally torn about this movie, feeling like I liked it, but really didn’t. Thus, it’s an iffy choice at best (if you’re a fan of either Hemsworth, Theron, Blunt, and Chastain) and a rental at worst. Like they said in the trailer for the movie “If it’s a fairytale you’re hoping for, prepare yourself for so much more”. In truth, however, Winter’s War is a superfluous fairytale sequel that doesn’t have the desire affect to warm to hardest frozen heart.

2.8 Out of 5 (Iffy Choice / Rent It)

Released on: april 22nd, 2016, reviewed on: april 25th, 2016.

The Huntsman: Winter’s War  is rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence and some sensuality

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Nothing new here then. The most memorable thing about the first one is the whole Kirsten Stewart affair thing aha

Hahaha…your probably right.

Yeah I am not big fan of this fairytale retelling trend. A few of them have worked but most have been awful. I didnt like the first one so I’ll pass on this one

Hahaha…yeah it was okay. Some parts I liked, but it just okay and really didn’t need to be made.

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Huntsman, The: Winter's War (United States, 2016)

When Snow White and the Huntsman was released four years ago, it successfully transformed one of movie-dom’s beloved fairy tales (known primarily through the Disney animated classic) into a fantasy adventure. The Huntsman: Winter’s War , a part-prequel/part-sequel, ventures deeper into Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter territory without considering one basic rule of epic fantasy: length is a prerequisite to properly tell a story of this sort. Character arcs and plot points need to unfold over the course of hours, not minutes.  There’s a reason Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy spanned nine hours and it took eight films to bring J.K. Rowling’s vision to the screen. By cramming far too much material into 114 minutes, The Huntsman: Winter’s War feels rushed and incomplete. It doesn’t help that the screenplay is at times awful, forcing accomplished actors to recite excruciatingly bad dialogue while maintaining a straight face.

To be fair, it’s not all bad. Many elements of an effective fantasy adventure are in place, although they’re hampered by questionable execution. Individual scenes are effectively choreographed but the need to rush robs them of their capacity to thrill and excite. There are also some odd casting choices. Due to the decision not to bring back Kristin Stewart, Snow White doesn’t appear (except in a brief cameo where her face isn’t shown). And only one dwarf, Nion (Nick Frost), joins this movie’s quest. Based on his antics, he’s either “Dopey” or “Grumpy.”

The production design appears to have been influenced more by Maleficent than The Lord of the Rings . The arguing dwarves are on hand to provide the obligatory “comedic” moments that are supposed to lighten the apocalyptic implications of Freya’s plans. That might work if their banter was less inane and more genuinely humorous. As it is, they are irritating encumbrances whose superfluous nature becomes apparent with the approach of the climax.

By incorporating indirect references to Frozen and making “true love” an important theme, The Huntsman: Winter’s War hopes to win the hearts of younger female viewers. It’s a desperate ploy and the awkwardness with which it pursues this aim compromises the film’s structure. It’s possible to show love in ways other than having characters talk incessantly about it. It would be unfair to argue that there was no room for a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman . The problem with The Huntsman: Winter’s War isn’t a lack of ideas but an inability to fuse them into a compelling story that draws on the strengths of its predecessor rather than incorporating tropes into an unsatisfying mass of fantasy adventure mediocrity.

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‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Movie Review

The Huntsman: Winter’s War is advertised as a prequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman , which it is for a very short while before it transforms into a live-action Frozen spinoff morphed with a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman . The prequel/sequel brings back Chris Hemsworth , Charlize Theron , Sam Claflin (for all of five minutes) and the backside of someone who is not Kristen Stewart playing Snow White for a blink and you’ll miss it scene. What this return to the world of huntsmen and evil queens fails to bring back is any sort of a cohesive story.

Emily Blunt joins the fairy tale adventure as The Huntsman ’s version of Frozen ’s Elsa, complete with white hair, the ability to freeze whatever she touches, and her own ice castle far away from her sister. The only thing the writers forgot was to give her a talking snowman as her closest friend which, now that I’m thinking about it, would have greatly improved the story. How anyone connected with this offspring of Snow White and the Huntsman could possibly have thought going the Frozen route was the right path to take is incomprehensible. And if the writers didn’t take into consideration that comparisons would be drawn between this overwrought CGI spectacle and Disney’s beloved Frozen , then they’re obviously out of touch with movie audiences.

I can honestly say I’ve never heard anyone asking when there would be a prequel/sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman , but we’re being served up one anyway because of the first film’s respectable box office take. The original film’s popularity was driven by fans of Twilight ’s Kristen Stewart, but with the behind the scenes shenanigans between Stewart and director Rupert Sanders the sequel moved on without either the first film’s star or director. Stewart’s not really missed as Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain more than make up for her absence, but Sanders’ absence is felt. Visual effects supervisor Cedric Nicolas-Troyan makes his feature film directorial debut and despite his visual effects background, fails to make The Huntsman as visually attractive as Sanders’ Snow White .

As for the plot, basically Ravenna (Theron) activates her sister Freya’s nasty powers by killing her baby. That sends Freya into full-on Frozen mode and off she goes to set up her own ice castle and then conquer all of the surrounding lands. Freya decides that if she can’t have love, then no one in her kingdom is allowed to experience that particular emotion. She also figures out the best way to create her army is by rounding up all of the children in her land and training them to be huntsmen or huntswomen. Of course two of the children grow up to be adults (played by Hemsworth and Chastain) who fall in love, and of course those two huntspeople are the best of Freya’s army so she’s doubly angry about the betrayal. The mirror of “mirror, mirror on the wall” fame enters the picture with The Huntsman transforming from prequel to sequel at that point, and then it’s all a matter of keeping the mirror out of Freya or her evil sister Ravenna’s hands for the rest of the movie.

There are many, many battles and occasionally it’s even possible to tell who is fighting who. There’s also a batch of dwarves played by Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, and Alexandra Roach who turn out to be the best part of the whole story. Even the discussion over their enjoyment of water is better than most of the dialogue given to Hemsworth, Theron (who is absent for most of the film), Blunt, and Chastain. And speaking of the dialogue, I’m still stumped as to what accent Hemsworth and Chastain were attempting to wrap their tongues around.

The costumes are gorgeous and, as noted above, the dwarves were entertaining, but overall The Huntsman: Winter’s War feels like just a cash grab by the studio. Hemsworth and Chastain have decent chemistry and Blunt and Theron are impressive as evil sisters/queens, but there’s only so much they can do with a story that’s unnecessarily convoluted and characters that are completely one-dimensional. Stick an arrow/axe/your weapon of choice in it, this franchise is done.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for fantasy action violence and some sensuality

Running Time: 114 minutes

Release Date: April 22, 2016

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