While I wouldn’t say that I was a huge fan of the first movie, I would say that it interested me enough so that I would want to watch the second movie. Coming into the movie with the pretense that it was a prequel, I was surprised while during the movie the time shifted and became more of a sequel than the prequel it was made out to be.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War starts out way before the first movie where Ravenna, Charlize Theron, has been taking over kingdom after kingdom with her evil ways hoping that her more pure sister Freya, Emily Blunt, will soon discover her own powers and become more like her. Although Freya vows to never be like Ravenna, a tragic event turns her just as evil as her sister. The story then concentrates on Freya as she makes her descent into darkness. Raising an army of children to help her take over kingdom after kingdom, this is where the Huntsman’s, Chris Hemsworth, backstory comes in. As much as this is Freya’s tale, it also becomes the Huntsman’s tale of love and loss. After a while it will cut to seven years later where Snow White is being tormented by the mirror left behind by Ravenna. The Huntsman’s is tracked down in order to find the mirror before Freya can find it and take over the world.
I can’t be the only one who thought they were deceived by this movie. I completely thought that this movie was a full on prequel, telling the story of before Ravenna set on her destructive path to get rid of Snow White. I never really thought that this movie would take the turn and become both a prequel and sequel in the same movie. I didn’t really like this change since I thought that a sequel should include Snow White a little more. I know the reasons why this movie couldn’t include Snow White, but still they should have left it as a prequel instead, which would have worked out just fine. The story itself to this movie was boring and over extended. Yes there were some funny parts to this movie, a little bit of romance thrown in there, and had a lot of action/adventure moments, but it still wasn’t something to brag about. Overall the movie was at best predictable with little to no surprise as who really ruined Freya’s life making her become who she was. Of course the movie had that overly happy sappy ending, which was also pretty damn predictable.
While the movie suffered from an overall bad plot and bad direction of story timeline, the acting was something that brought this movie to life. As in the first movie, Charlize Theron shines as Ravenna. She plays the evil queen spot on in the little time that she’s in the movie. Emily Blunt also does an amazing job of playing Freya, moving from the complete opposite of Ravenna when the movie starts to becoming that spot on evil character that wants to ruin everyone’s lives thinking it’ll make her own better. Chris Hemsworth is well, Chris Hemsworth and since this is a part action movie, this is where he of course shines. I was surprised by the part that Jessica Chastain played. Was she the also the villain or was she one of the good guys, this was the only part of the movie that kept you guessing and, while was still a little predictable by the end, had you guessing for a little while.
I don’t comment much on special effects because I don’t think there’s been a movie that I’ve reviewed that actually had a spectacle of special effects before, but this one does. Not only does this movie have a huge amount of special effects, it’s actually one of the better parts of the movie. As with the first movie, they spared no budget in the special effects department and it shows as it really brings the movie to life and is probably one of the best parts of the movie.
Overall I give this movie a 2.5 out of 5.
While I can get over the fact that this movie wasn’t a prequel but a sequel, I can’t get past how dull and boring the main story of the movie was or how predictable this movie turned out to be. Even though I did enjoy the acting as well as the special effects, a movie has to have a little bit more to it than just that. If you watched the first movie and enjoyed it, you’ll probably want to see this one as well and I can’t stop you because the temptation to know more about a continuing story is always there. If you haven’t watched the first movie though, I would say that even though you can catch on really quick as to what’s happening, stay away from this one because it’s not worth the two hours.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 