The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)

The movies overall was good...but Kristen Stewart as Snow White, her presence was very much needed to improve the plot of the film. It didn't happen though. That was the disappointing portion of the movie. It a third sequel is made, please add the original cast members too along with the new ones.

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR is a belated sequel to SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, thankfully ditching Kristen Stewart's character (yay!) and focusing instead on Chris Hemsworth's dashing but one-note hero. This is one of those stories that serves as both prequel and sequel, but in the main it turns out to be a mish-mash of genre tropes and themes utilised better in the likes of the NARNIA trilogy. Charlize Theron is bypassed and has little screen time, with the bulk villain duties instead given over to an insipid (and utterly unimposing) Emily Blunt. Jessica Chastain plays a single-note warrior woman while film as a whole is obsessed with constant CGI scenery and effects at the detriment of any discernable storyline. Indeed, the dialogue and plot are both full of cliches, with Hemsworth's character alone seemingly killed two or three times in various hackneyed moments of high drama. I did enjoy the first movie, to a degree, but this one's a step too far in the wrong direction.

I don't know why there was no connection between the huntsman and the baby in this. He coulda been the father, or even been the baby, himself. I guess the fewer connections the better these days, right. I'm not sure what a wood monger, name of Eric is doing being called a huntsman, or what anyone is doing being a huntsman in the first place. What is this Camelot, the Sherwood forest, I thought movies were supposed to reflect our circumstances not create a different, albeit realistic, reality. And wasn't it the beautiful love interest that was carrying the bow. Shades of Hunger Games, starlet Jennifer L. But given the out of step development of this plot of origin, this movie came after the first, but is set in a time before the time frame of the first - just press one if you are French, two if you're Spanish, or three if you're English - Eric, I mean, if we're English, don't the adjectives come before the nouns, it would make more sense in a foreign language where the adjectives come after the subject. But in a society without any royalty to speak of, who cares. I think I counted two flashbacks of the same incident, the baby of the ice cream, I mean queen - one from the POV of the ice queen, and one from the POV of the other ice queen, I guess I'll call them Ice Queen's, one and two. And several other miscellaneous flashbacks from the supporting cast. Yeah, Liam or was it Chris Hemsworth was in a supporting role. And what does an axe do but chop wood, how much wood, could a wood chuck, chuck if a wood chuck could chop wood. Well, now wood chucks or racoons here, dames and dudes. It's a buck or two, an arrow or two, and some weird dynamic around the mirror, that's just a shiny piece of metal. This didn't really test my meddle, but it did kind of make me crazy and a little angry watching this movie, but such is life. Thanks Chris, (not Hemsworth, BTW)

Although this movie did not do well in the box office, I thought it was great. It was cool to see how the Evil Queen uses evil to give her sister some power, but it takes heartbreak in order for it to occur. The Winter Queen does not allow anyone in her kingdom to fall in love, because of this heartbreak, and in the end she finds out the truth and is devastated. I thought it was a great sequel, good cast, good plot, just overall good.