Friday, June 1, 2012

Battle of the Snow Whites - previews

So there are now two Snow White movies out, Mirror Mirror, which came out about a month ago and now Snow White and the Huntsman. I have not yet seen either films, so I'm basing this solely on the trailers.

Mirror Mirror stars Julia Roberts as the evil queen and Lily Collins as Snow White. The movie seems to have quite a silly take on the fairytale with a fair amount of stumbling, Nathan Lane and a steampunk-looking corseting contraption. The costumes are colourful and over the top and the scenery seems to consist entirely out of computer generated backgrounds. Whilst Lily Collins makes for a beautiful, traditional looking Snow White, Julia Roberts seems to lack real evil resulting in a movie that seems more like a pantomime than a modern retelling of one of the most well known and best loved fairy tales.

Snow White and the Huntsman has a grittier tone to it. When I saw that Kristen Stewart was going to play Snow White, I cringed. Her acting in Twilight was so excruciatingly bad, I couldn't imagine her being able to do anything other than staring poutily off in to the middle distance but, I must confess, she looks pretty badass in this trailer. Of course the story is pretty much the same as Mirror Mirror, but while that one seems to go more for a family audience, Snow White and the Huntsman appears a lot more true to the original darkness of the fairytale. Charlize Theron looks pretty convincing as the poor girls evil stepmother, Kristen Stewart seems to bring a resilience and cunning to Snow White that really makes it stand out from previous versions. Instead of solely relying on the protection of the dwarfs and the huntsman, she makes her own escape and fends for herself. The whole movie looks a lot darker, of course there is again plenty of CGI but it all looks pretty stunning. I suppose with them casting K-Stew as Snow White and with the look of the film they're hoping to attract the Twilight audience which is not an inconsiderable one, but while I couldn't stand the tedious, slow-paced sulkfest that was Twilight (I didn't even finish watching the first one even with the help of Rifftrax) I'm really quite looking forward to watching Snow White and the Huntsman.

So, who is the winner? Undoubtedly Snow White and the Huntsman, Charlize Theron totally out-evils Julia Roberts, Kristen Stewart would totally kick Lily Collins' ass and you don't have to put up with Nathan Lane in jodhpurs. Let me know what you think!

Mirror Mirror official trailer:


Snow White and the Huntsman extended preview: