[yasr_overall_rating]
As a war between rival queen sisters Ravenna and Freya escalates, Eric and fellow warrior Sara, members of the Huntsmen army raised to protect Freya, try to conceal their forbidden love as they combat Ravenna’s wicked intentions.
“The Huntsman: Winter’s War” was heavily sold as a prequel in the previews leading up to its release, however, most of the film takes place after “Snow White and the Huntsman.” While the characters are expertly cast and the CGI is toned and beautiful, the story is amiss and feels rehashed. Once upon a time seems to be a new, recurring theme in both animated and live action films and while “Frozen” and a few others did the ordeal well, “Winter’s War” seems to fly at half-mast with the idea, creating a film that is overly mediocre.
The film starts off with a plot that you can call from a mile away. An earlier version of Raveena (Charlize Theron) appears strong and overly menacing to the point where it is almost laughable. Once she is introduced, a death takes place which throws her sister, Freya (Emily Blunt) into a spiraling drop which transforms her warm and fuzzy aura into a cold and icy demeanor (Think darker Elsa but only slightly). Once Freya is at the bottom of her own personal hell she decides to recruit children by killing their parents.
This is where we find Eric and Sara, two children who become hardened warriors and revel themselves to be Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain. These two, armed with spotty Scottish accents learn to love each other (which is strictly forbidden) and some stuff goes down and Eric is forced to make his way from Freya’s kingdom into hiding and seven years later, the meat of the story comes into play.
Yet with this large portion being where most of the story happens, the film is very light on narration in general, even during the second half. It will take you 1/10 of a second to see something that is thirty minuets down the road, that’s how re-done all of this is. Evil step-mother, evil character with a hidden heart of gold, heroic good guy who has the same demeanor as Thor? It’s all been done again and again and it’s a shame because this all-star cast could have slam-dunked some original material.
In theaters now
