The Huntsman: Winter's War

More and more we have been fascinated with fantasy type films, so Hollywood keeps rafting them out in droves. Whether the fantasy film is based on a comic book, on has a medieval or fairy tale setting, these films are a great way to escape for a couple of hours. When "Snow White and the Huntsman" arrived in 2012, it attracted more moviegoers than was expected, so Hollywood had to continue this with releasing "The Huntsman: Winter's War".

This spin-off of "Snow White and the Huntsman" acts as both prequel and sequel to the original film, detailing the adventures of Eric the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) as he gets caught up in the rivalry between wicked queen sisters Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and Freya (Emily Blunt). During his quest, Eric is also endangered by his feelings for fellow warrior Sara (Jessica Chastain), since ice queen Freya has decreed that love is forbidden in her kingdom. Meanwhile, their mission?: to keep the mirror from getting in the hands of Ravenna which would then allow her to reign over all which would be the end of their respective kingdoms as they knew them.

Others to round out the cast are Nick Frost as Nion, Rob Brydon as Gryff, Sheridan Smith as Mrs. Bromwyn, Alexandra Roach as Doreena, Sope Dirisu as Tull, Sam Claflin as William and Sam Hazeldine as Leifr.

This was effectively directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan ("Carrot vs. Ninja" (short) '11). I think what helped this filmmaker pull off the direction of this was the fact that he was the Second Unit Director on the original film which gave him an upper hand of familiarity when it came to this--knowing the cast, the nuances of each character and the like. Assuming a third installment is produced, Troyan should excel even more with that production. It was written with much fluidity by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin which was based on characters created by Evan Daugherty. Whereas Spiliotopoulos has more experience with dramatic fictional characters, Mazin has the comedic experience that was needed to pull off the comic reliefs which there were a number of. I believe that this script excelled due to this duo of work, otherwise it probably would've been bogged down with choppiness and a lack of cohesiveness. Usually films of this genre aren't written very well, but with these two penning it, they found a combination of drama and comedy that worked well with this storyline. Certainly where this film also excelled was that of the costume design brilliantly designed by Colleen Atwood ("Snow White and the Huntsman") and the visual effects predominantly created by Double Negative and Digital Domain.

Certainly if you enjoyed the original film, you'll like this one even better in my opinion. The fact that the writers took us back to how the Huntsman became the Huntsman pre Snow White and the fact that Ravenna had a weaker sister was intriguing as it was entertaining. And isn't this what we like about going to the movies?

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                   Rated: PG-13                                  114mins.