Action/ Drama/ Fantasy
Rated – M
Duration –1 hours 54 mins
Release – April 2016
Director –Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Cast –Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron
Mr Knight
The best thing about this sequel/ prequel mix up… No Kristen Stewart. But seriously, it wasn’t as bad I thought it may be going in… but that really was a factor. I can’t stand Kristen Stewart. Anywho, I digress.
This fairy tale spinoff, elegantly narrated by the man himself Liam Neeson (uncredited), tells of two royal sisters, one evil (Charlize Theron) and one in love (Emily Blunt). Theron plays the evil queen Ravenna from the first Huntsman movie, who betrays her loved up sister to remain the fairest of them all. Little did she know that her secret betrayal would awake a deep power in Freya (Blunt) turning her into an ice queen.
After the betrayal Freya resents people’s feelings of love and she travels north, covering the land in ice and putting fear in all those in her lands. She sends her armies throughout villages kidnapping children to create an army of Huntsman. As these little warriors grow up, we meet Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman and his warrior lover Jessica Chastain as Sara.
Years go by, the magic mirror goes missing, and our two heroes are brought into a deadly adventure to recover it whilst dealing with the evil queens.
Well let me say it could have been terrible, but it wasn’t. The film had all the right ingredients. The cast was actually first class. I have no idea how they paid for Hemsworth, Blunt, Chastain, Theron and more! The special effects were also pretty impressive. The movie was actually more violent than I thought it would be, too. So where did it go wrong?
The story kept jumping from important theme to important theme without any depth. Emily blunts lover at the start of the movie for example says about three words. Emily Blunts desire to destroy kingdoms, kidnap children and bring up huntsman also wasn’t very well explained. It was just told by Liam Neeson and it happened. The writers needed to take some advice from the Game of Thrones team and this movie could have been a lot better.
The stellar cast is definitely what saved it. If they had even one B grade actor/actress as a main character it would have crashed and burned. Hemsworth and Chastain managed to use their talent and likable acting styles to drag this flick out of the mud. My final thought. A reasonable popcorn flick without a knocking your socks off script.
Mrs Knight
I went in with the lowest of low expectations with this one. To be honest I really didn’t want to see it, especially when we did because I was tired and had a headache. So already, a tough crowd to please! Let me start by saying, it exceeded my expectations.
The Huntsmen: Winter’s War is a prequel and sequel of Snow White and The Huntsmen with Kristen Stewart. Thankfully they cleverly wrote her part (Snow White) out of this one. Just to remind you all, this original movie was the one where Kristen cheated on boyfriend Rob Pattinson with Director Rupert Sanders – SCANDAL!
Anywho…The movie begins as a prequel with the background story of two Queens, who they are and how they got to where they are. The sisters/queens are played by the beyond gorgeous Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt. After Freya (Emily Blunt) loses her child and boyfriend she turns into Elsa from Frozen, an ice queen angry at the world who no longer believes in love. This causes a problem after she kidnaps a whole bunch of children including Eric and Sara who grow up to become The Huntsmen, the charismatic Chris Hemsworth and the Katniss Everdeen-esque character, played by Jessica Chastain.
The storyline wasn’t particularly interesting or clever, but it had an impressive cast, as listed above. I also enjoyed the costumes and special effects, especially Ravenna (Charlize Theron), in particular at the end of the movie. To be honest I was a little confused with the story as it kept jumping through time and I was trying to remember what happened in the first movie. They could have split this into two movies, a prequel and then a sequel so they could have gone into more detail of the story and it would have been less confusing. But then again, who wants to sit through three of these movies?
It definitely wasn’t all bad, and was definitely better than I thought it would be. I do think it is targeted at a younger, teenage audience. Especially the comedy moments, where I didn’t manage to crack a smile but the group of teens in front cracked up.
If you’re going to see it, I’d recommend seeing it in cinema for the special effects and beautiful costumes of the Queens. But perhaps go on a Tuesday, so you don’t have to pay full price. It involved familiar fairy tale characters in an unfamiliar and new story. Make sure you simply enjoy it for what it is.
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