Snow White & the Huntsman Extended Edition - Blu-Ray

Film: 2012 was to be the year of Snow White. Alongside the very colourful and whimsically funny interpretation Mirror, Mirror starring Julia Roberts and the successful US series Once upon a Time, acclaimed commercial director Rupert Sanders sent a much darker and more bombastic fantasy take on the popular fairy tale material with his feature film debut Snow White & the Huntsman.

With a ruse, the beautiful as well as evil Ravenna (Charlize Theron) has managed to win the heart of the grieving king, only to pierce it with a dagger on his wedding night and seize power in the kingdom. From then on, Ravenna rules with the help of her brother Finn (Sam Spruell with what has to be one of the nastiest hairstyles in recent cinema history), plunging the once-thriving kingdom into bleak darkness. Only Snow White (Kristen Stewart), the daughter of the slain king), could put an end to Ravenna's reign of terror. When the evil queen realizes this, she decides to have the imprisoned stone daughter killed. But Snow White manages to escape from the castle and into the dark forest. To capture the girl here, the fearless Huntsman (Chris Thor Hemsworth) is hired. When he realizes that the queen who promised to bring his dead wife back to life has lied to him, he sides with Snow White and henceforth does everything he can to help her fight Ravenna.

Visually, Snow White & the Huntsman is quite great fantasy cinema. The film has some great effects to offer, giving the adventure tale quite the showmanship. Whether it's the gloomy shadow army of Ravenna, whose soldiers fall to pieces when hit by swords, a dark forest seemingly inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures, or the fairy forest where Snow White and the Huntsman meet the dwarves, it's all full of magical ideas, with Rupert Sanders and his team always quite obviously drawing on other representatives of fantastic cinema. Whether it's Alice in Wonderland, whose producers are also responsible for this Snow White variation, or Lord of the Rings, there are always moments when genre connoisseurs are likely to feel reminded of other films. But since the composition of these various borrowings is quite coherent, this should not be judged too negatively.

What is a bit negative, on the other hand, is the dramaturgical structure of the story. It is always noticeable in the film that its director has only made short commercials so far. As convincing as the gritty action tale may be from a visual point of view, the individual sections of the story are at times bumpily connected to each other. The whole thing doesn't really seem to come together as one, which only slightly dims the positive overall impression, but also prevents Snow White & the Huntsman from being more than just (very) good fantasy entertainment.

As for the acting, this film clearly belongs to Charlize Theron. While her portrayal of the witch Ravenna could have easily been a bit more evil, overall it's just fun to watch her fight like a real meanie to be the fairest in all the land forever. Kristen Stewart isn't really bad as the struggling Snow White, but again, she always puts on that suffering look on her face that made her pine for her Edward in the Twilight movies. It would have been nice to see Stewart display a bit more acting diversity here, especially since she's certainly proven she's capable of it in the past.

Although the rest of the characters besides Snow White and Ravenna take a bit of a back seat, the fine supporting cast pulls off some really good performances from their small roles. Chris Hemsworth, for instance, solidifies his status as a handsome action star, and Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Brian Gleeson and Bob Hoskins give the fairy tale world's most famous dwarves a good mix of humor, grumpiness and pugnacity. Only Sam Claflin, who already remained rather pale in the last Pirates of the Caribbean film, remains rather colorless here as a potential love interest for Snow White.

This brings me to another positive aspect of the film. For easily Rupert Sanders could have set up a love triangle a la Edward, Jacob and Bella between Snow White, the Huntsman and the dapper Duke William. While this romantic triangle does exist, it is told and resolved only peripherally and rather subtly at the end through a significant glance from Snow White in the direction of one of the men. That Sanders eschews dripping romance and instead focuses on the adventure and fantasy aspect of the story is to his credit. Because that's exactly what turned a potential fairy tale romance for girls into a great cinematic adventure for both male and female fantasy fans, not just teenage ones. Sure, the whole thing doesn't play in the first league, for that Sanders still reveals too many weaknesses as a director. But Snow White & the Huntsman offers entertaining popcorn entertainment on a very good level. If you want to experience the well-known fairy tale in an exciting, humorous, dark, imaginative and visually very successful implementation, you should not miss this film! Worth seeing!!!

The Extendet Edition: In addition to the theatrical version, the Blu-ray also has a version of the film extended by just under four minutes, which offers some in-depth character moments, but dramaturgically is not a great addition. On a positive note, however, this extended version has made it to Germany, which unfortunately is not a given with the provider Universal.

Picture + Sound: Technically, this Blu-Ray plays without a doubt in the upper league. The picture is absolutely clean, the level of image sharpness very high and the contrasts so well matched that even in the darker scenes, the detail representation knows how to convince. The stylistically pleasing colour scheme and decent picture depth also leave a positive impression. The same goes for the audio, which features a DTS 5.1 mix with some very well-executed surround effects and decent bass to keep things moving mightily in the home theater. Very Good!

Extras: In addition to the extended film version, the disc has over an hour of other extras to offer. Things kick off with an audio commentary by director Rupert Sanders, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (head of special effects) and Neil Smith (co-editor). You can hear the enthusiasm with which Sanders approached the project in many moments of the commentary, which was admittedly recorded before the affair was revealed by Sanders and Stewart and therefore seems completely relaxed. Even if the commentary is rather technical in nature at many moments, the director's enthusiasm is definitely infectious. Commendable: optional German subtitles are available for the commentary.

First of all, video extras include a rather standard but very watchable Making Of (approx. 21 min.), as well as a short documentary about the reinterpretation of the popular fairy tale (approx. 6 min.). Furthermore, Snow White (approx. 6 min.), Queen Ravenna (approx. 5 min.), the Huntsman (approx. 5 min.) and the dwarves (approx. 7 min.) are introduced in more detail in short featurettes. Another short documentary on the effects (approx. 13 min.) and interactive 360 degree footage of five different sets round out the neat supplemental material.

Conclusion: Snow White & the Huntsman is decent popcorn cinema, worth seeing fantasy entertainment, which admittedly has some dramaturgical weaknesses and borrows here and there too clearly from other genre representatives. Overall, however, the well-known fairy tale is reinterpreted here in a visually convincing and overall extremely entertaining way, which is supported by the good technical implementation on the Blu-ray and the decent bonus material. Recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp