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.
In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.
Director:
Rupert Sanders
Stars:
Kristen Stewart,
Chris Hemsworth,
Charlize Theron
Hansel & Gretel are bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past.
Director:
Tommy Wirkola
Stars:
Jeremy Renner,
Gemma Arterton,
Peter Stormare
The ancient war between humans and a race of giants is reignited when Jack, a young farmhand fighting for a kingdom and the love of a princess, opens a gateway between the two worlds.
Director:
Bryan Singer
Stars:
Nicholas Hoult,
Stanley Tucci,
Ewan McGregor
Perseus braves the treacherous underworld to rescue his father, Zeus, captured by his son, Ares, and brother Hades who unleash the ancient Titans upon the world.
Director:
Jonathan Liebesman
Stars:
Sam Worthington,
Liam Neeson,
Rosamund Pike
As his kingdom is being threatened by the Turks, young prince Vlad Tepes must become a monster feared by his own people in order to obtain the power needed to protect his own family, and the families of his kingdom.
A young fugitive prince and princess must stop a villain who unknowingly threatens to destroy the world with a special dagger that enables the magic sand inside to reverse time.
Director:
Mike Newell
Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Gemma Arterton,
Ben Kingsley
As an Orc horde invades the planet Azeroth using a magic portal, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war.
Having endured his legendary twelve labors, Hercules, the Greek demigod, has his life as a sword-for-hire tested when the King of Thrace and his daughter seek his aid in defeating a tyrannical warlord.
Aliens and their Guardians are hiding on Earth from intergalactic bounty hunters. They can only be killed in numerical order, and Number Four is next on the list. This is his story.
Director:
D.J. Caruso
Stars:
Alex Pettyfer,
Timothy Olyphant,
Dianna Agron
Beatrice Prior must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to tear her society apart with the help from others on her side.
Evil sorceress Queen Ravenna's powers allow her to know that her younger sister Freya, whose powers have not yet emerged, is not only involved in an illicit affair with an already elsewhere engaged nobleman Andrew, but is also pregnant with his child. Sometime after Freya gives birth to a baby girl, Freya discovers that Andrew not only reneged on his promise of elopement with her but also murdered their child. In a grief-fueled rage, her broken heart freezes over and she kills him with her sudden emergence of powers - the elemental control of ice..
Young Sara has a face full of freckles. Older Sara does not (as Jessica Chastain has a clean face). Freckles can fade with time, especially in a land with little sun. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator:
What does the mirror show you? What do you see? An oft told tale. That of Snow White, how she vanquished the evil Queen Ravenna and took her rightful place on the throne. But there is another story, one you have not yet seen. One that comes long before "happily ever after."
See more »
Crazy Credits
The world in the Universal logo turns to gold and morphs into a mirror. See more »
Alternate Versions
The Indian release was cut, in order to obtain a UA rating the distributor made reductions to the sex scene between Sara and the Huntsman as well as muting all uses of the term 'bitch' from the film's soundtrack. See more »
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 See more »
I saw the first part and liked Charlize Theron as Ravenna and Chris Hemsworth as Huntsman Eric, but overall I was not too impressed by it.
This prequel/sequel takes what I liked about the first film and removed most of what I disliked to make a decent if not particularly special fantasy action adventure.
We learn about the Huntsman's background and his wife, Sarah, who was mentioned in the first film. Also, we find out Ravenna has a sister, Freya, played by Emily Blunt. Charlize Theron delightfully plays it up as evil Queen Ravenna again, and I am a little disappointed that she did not get more screen time. The first scene with Ravenna playing chess with her royal husband is the best scene in the film. Then she disappears for half the movie. Also, I wish she would have had more scenes with her sister to show more of their relationship. I don't remember if Ravenna had a sister in the first film, but even if she did, we knew nothing about her.
There is a creative interpretation of goblins in this film, which I will not give away. The visuals are overall pleasing to the eye, especially the climax has some beautiful visual effects. I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous film's awkward fight in the end. That said, the fight scenes are shot with much too many cuts for a 3D audience, a common problem with films wanting to cash in on the 3D feature but putting no thought into how a film has to be shot differently from 2D for a 3D audience. There is a scene with CGI animals akin to what we saw in the first film, which went too over the top for my taste (and the animals don't look too convincing - you can see they are CGI).
The plot is very straight forward but apart from the common problem RPG pen & paper groups have, namely that not everybody has a reason to join the adventure, it was fine. Seriously, the dwarf characters were obviously there for comic relief but they added little to nothing to the plot and I did not understand why they accompanied the Huntsman in the first place.
The resolution comes too quickly in my opinion, it would have been better to linger more on the consequences of the second turning point. It feels rushed and doesn't explore the feelings of our characters very much, going rather straight to the action.
One thing the film does very well is including female characters as something other than decoration. There is a 50:50 gender split when it comes to the main characters (didn't catch if it was the same with extras, sorry) and the female characters have a purpose and motivation without being sexualised or treated as eye candy. This is something severely lacking in most fantasy films, so I want to compliment the film makers for doing a good job on that front. Well done!
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10. Enjoyable, decent fantasy flick, but nothing special. I would not necessarily watch it again, but also wouldn't be opposed if someone else wanted me to watch it with them.
12 of 27 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
I saw the first part and liked Charlize Theron as Ravenna and Chris Hemsworth as Huntsman Eric, but overall I was not too impressed by it.
This prequel/sequel takes what I liked about the first film and removed most of what I disliked to make a decent if not particularly special fantasy action adventure.
We learn about the Huntsman's background and his wife, Sarah, who was mentioned in the first film. Also, we find out Ravenna has a sister, Freya, played by Emily Blunt. Charlize Theron delightfully plays it up as evil Queen Ravenna again, and I am a little disappointed that she did not get more screen time. The first scene with Ravenna playing chess with her royal husband is the best scene in the film. Then she disappears for half the movie. Also, I wish she would have had more scenes with her sister to show more of their relationship. I don't remember if Ravenna had a sister in the first film, but even if she did, we knew nothing about her.
There is a creative interpretation of goblins in this film, which I will not give away. The visuals are overall pleasing to the eye, especially the climax has some beautiful visual effects. I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous film's awkward fight in the end. That said, the fight scenes are shot with much too many cuts for a 3D audience, a common problem with films wanting to cash in on the 3D feature but putting no thought into how a film has to be shot differently from 2D for a 3D audience. There is a scene with CGI animals akin to what we saw in the first film, which went too over the top for my taste (and the animals don't look too convincing - you can see they are CGI).
The plot is very straight forward but apart from the common problem RPG pen & paper groups have, namely that not everybody has a reason to join the adventure, it was fine. Seriously, the dwarf characters were obviously there for comic relief but they added little to nothing to the plot and I did not understand why they accompanied the Huntsman in the first place.
The resolution comes too quickly in my opinion, it would have been better to linger more on the consequences of the second turning point. It feels rushed and doesn't explore the feelings of our characters very much, going rather straight to the action.
One thing the film does very well is including female characters as something other than decoration. There is a 50:50 gender split when it comes to the main characters (didn't catch if it was the same with extras, sorry) and the female characters have a purpose and motivation without being sexualised or treated as eye candy. This is something severely lacking in most fantasy films, so I want to compliment the film makers for doing a good job on that front. Well done!
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10. Enjoyable, decent fantasy flick, but nothing special. I would not necessarily watch it again, but also wouldn't be opposed if someone else wanted me to watch it with them.