What exactly is The Huntsman: Winter's War? Is it a sequel to 2012's Snow White & The Huntsman? Or is it a sequel to the that same 2012 film? Well, in the vein of 300: Rise of an Empire, The Huntsman looks to be a bit of both, looking to fill in the gaps before and after the original story of Snow White. The real question though is: did anyone ask for a sequel for that? I personally didn't see the original as it looked uninspiring and wasn't the biggest fan of Kristen Stewart at the time, even with a then newly minted Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Charlize Theron in supporting roles.

Well, the powers that may be (in this case, just Universal Pictures) decided a prequel/sequel was in order, and due to off-screen reasons chucked out Stewart and director Rupert Sanders as well, bringing in Cedric Nicolas-Troyan to the director's throne (he was visual effects artist for the original). With Stewart gone, Universal not only retained Hemsworth and Theron, both fresh from 2015 smash hits (Avengers and Mad Max respectively), but also brought the entire cavalry to the table by adding in Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain to the mix. With an even more star studded cast this time round, is The Huntsman considered the fairest of them all? Or was the poison apple the more viable option?

Beginning with the prequel side of things, we see Theron's Evil Queen actually has a younger sister called Elsa Freya, who soon develops ice powers out of anger and retreats up to the north, singing Let It Go in the process. There she trains an army of kidnapped kids who she calls her Huntsmen, who aren't allowed to love and based on this film, don't do any hunting at all (they attack and loot kingdoms though, but Huntsman sufficed probably due to continuity reasons with the original?). Anyway, two of her Huntsmen, Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain) fall in love, further enraging Elsa Freya who banishes Eric away, which inevatably brings us to the sequel side of things, as Eric's tasked with retrieving/destroying the possessive mirror from the original, with the past soon catching up on him.

For a two-hour film, this film really drags us through the story, as we spent almost a third of those for the prequel portions. The lighter tone of the film is formed on the basis of its drab humour, relying from cheap jokes about ugly people to pseudo Scottish accents from a quartet of dwarves, with only one of them returning from the original (Nick Frost!). The stakes are low this time around, and the confusing combination of betrayal, lost love and resurrections  is possibly the most uninspiring fantasy film to date this year. Speaking of accents, both Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain's Sara have this really phony Scottish accent throughout the film, you'll start to suspect that Sara is this universe's version of Merida from Pixar's Brave. A timely retreat in Scotland might have been a better tonic for more accurate accents (if that was what they were aiming for anyway). 

Chris Hemsworth is channeling a lot of his Thor persona into playing Eric, even if you slapped on a cape and switch his axe for a hammer and you'll get the same results (how I yearn to a performance akin to Hemsworth from Rush). Emily Blunt really hams things up (in a good way) as Elsa Freya, but is given little to do here other than to sit on her ice throne or wave her hands around to the tune of Let It Go (her costume was really good though). The real star here is Charlize Theron's returning Evil Queen, who shines in what little screen time she has this time around. Hell, she makes the film's average CGI look good around her! For a director who is a VFX specialist, this ones seen in this film (and there are plenty) was a meek effort.

The Huntsman: Winter's War feels like a rushed project where the studio decided to plomp ahead after already spending money developing a sequel before the Stewart-Sanders incident. A phrase put forward at one point during one of the film pitches was probably sounded similar to "Hey guys, should we explore a time when Thor decides to team up with Brave's Merida to fight Elsa from Frozen? Wait, this isn't a Disney meeting?". Even with a number of famous cast additions, the end result was a film, being a sequel that no one wanted, that had you bothered for neither the characters nor the story. One parts dull, another parts silly, perhaps the only redeeming quality The Huntsman indefinitely has was introducing audiences to the brilliant credit music (also: the joy of the whole thing ending) as performed by Halsey:

4.0/10