dir. Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
In a fantasy kingdom, two sisters – one a queen with magical ice powers – must work through their estrangement and resentment. In the end, true love saves the day. It’s almost funny how obviously The Huntsman: Winter’s War rips off Frozen. Both a prequel and a sequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, Winter’s War actually manages to be more faithful to Frozen’s story beats than its own predecessor’s, but the Disney cartoon undeniably has deeper themes and better characterisation. The titular Huntsman, Eric (Chris Hemsworth), is shown as a youth falling in love with Sara (Jessica Chastain), then witnessing her apparent murder. We then flash-forward through the events of the first film to find Eric still pining for Sara, then bewildered and delighted to learn she still lives. Winter’s War merrily skips over the fact that Eric’s love for Snow White in the original film was portrayed to be true and pure enough to save her life; this romance is simply not mentioned, the movie instead confusingly suggesting that Eric longed for Sara all along. This rewrite would be forgivable if the movie weren’t also encumbered with terrible CGI, irritating comic relief dwarves, and the most contrived method of resurrecting a previous film’s villain that’s ever been committed to screen. The ice queen and her sister’s relationship is initially set up to be the emotional core of the film, but it’s in fact Eric and Sara’s true love which saves the day – a true love which is never portrayed as anything but insipid and formulaic. Where Frozen managed to get away from that tired old trope, Winter’s War drags us right back to it.
BMDb 