Ravenna, The Evil Queen

Movie poster taken from wikipedia

“mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all”


That line, maybe one of the most famous line from the fairytales universe. And the one that I loath the most, mirror? gah, fairest? gah! What is the point in asking a MIRROR how good looking you are? it’s like Narsiscus, spending his day groveling about his face and end up dying in the lake.

Okay, skip the cynicism, let’s move to the movie itself.

This year, there are two live action movie adapted from Brother Grimm’s Snow white, the first is satiric comedy Mirror Mirror (which I watched months ago) and the second is epic colossal Snow White and the Huntsman, which I watched last saturday. I just gonna talk about the second. 

First thing first, for me, the title of the movie is wrong, it should be “Ravenna, The Evil Queen”, because she’s the only great thing about the movie, anything else just mediocre.


Honestly, having Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron in the same frame is agonizingly torturing. We know Kristen Stewart, she even can’t play Bella Swan well, what make people think she can act alongside Charlize Theron?!?!  For 2 hours long, I have to endure looking at her almost unchanged expression, not to mention the constant look of hangover on her face. Why she has to be that flat? Don’t get me wrong, I think visually, Kristen Stewart is good choice for the role. She’s beautiful in the modest way, fair skin, black hair and red lips - exactly what Show White is. But her acting skill is questionable. I like Kristen in The Runaway, I like her in Into The Wild, but that’s all. In Twilight she’s well... boring! and in this movie she’s nothing more than a cute girl with no expression whatsoever. For me it is become a problem because it is compromise the flow of the story.

The core of this movie should be about Ravenna Vs Snow White, evil vs good, tyrant vs people power. Snow White as the rightful heir to the throne should be the center of the movement. Bring people together under her father’s flag and ride to bring the downfall of Ravenna. But through all the scenes in the movie, we are being fed up about how people love Snow, how people look at her as leader, how she can inspire people, how she can push the evil away from us... but it’s all just words. For me, Kristen Stewart fail to portray all those characters in her act, even when there is a time near the end that she talk in front of her people and try to inspire them to fight the Queen, her talk is flat.

And what make it worse is The Evil Queen is damn great! Charlize Theron stay to her reputation as one of the best actress in Hollywood. The presence of Ravenna is all over the movie. From her insane fear of aging, rage toward man in power and over obsession to posses power and beauty. We’re all being introduced to Ravenna’s past, what make her as evil as she is, and for the rarest plot, her sadness. This time, the evil queen is not just somekind of old auntie who fear wrinkle more than snake, she’s the manifestation of women’s worst obsession toward power and beauty. And yes, Charlize Theron nailed it. 

About the other character... well, all I can say is they are exist. The Huntsman, that featured in the title is not that special. I even kind of lost about this character. Is he good? Is he ignorant? Or just your unusual hero? I don’t know. The visual part bother me as well because it reminds me of him playing Thor, a lot.

For overall plot, I like the way the stay true to the original Snow White story. All the essences are there, the mirror -pictured in creeppier way, the dark forest, the dwarfs, the deception, the apple and true love kiss. They just twist the part of true love kiss, yeah... yeah... I know, who need a prince if you have Thor the God of Thunder right? I get it.

IMDB gives the movie 6.8/10, I give the movie 6/10. That’s it about Snow White, from fairy tales to Sci-fi, I heard Prometheus will be released at Wednesday. I am so gonna watch it!!!