Snow White and the Huntsman Blu-ray Review

By Lynn Barker

Okay SWATH will go down in cinema gossip history as the film where Kristen cheated on Rob with her director. We are so over that and are concentrating on this entertaining, if imperfect, dark fairytale.

The dreaded poison apple

Story Goes: Back in the day, a prosperous kingdom was ruled by noble King Magnus and beautiful Queen Eleanor (Liberty Ross, director Rupert Sanders’ wife). They have a daughter named Snow White (Kristen Stewart later on) who becomes childhood besties with Prince William (later on Sam Claflin). When Eleanor dies, Magnus is bewitched by Ravenna (Charlize Theron) whom he believes is an innocent prisoner of war.

Ravenna, secretly a powerful sorceress, kills Magnus on their wedding night, takes over the throne and throws Snow in a tower prison. The once beautiful castle and countryside go into ruin and despair until 18-year-old Snow escapes into the Dark Forest only to be chased by a Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) whom Ravenna has sent to capture and bring to a grisly death.

Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna

With her pure heart and drive to avenge her dad and after many misadventures in the countryside, Snow gains the Huntsman’s trust and together with a gang of dwarves and her rediscovered childhood buddy William, she puts together a rebellion and rides back to recapture the castle, kill Ravenna, reclaim her rightful throne and restore the kingdom to sweetness and light.

Special Features: In the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo Pack you get both a Theatrical Version and Extended Edition of the film; just a few more scenes that only add about 4 minutes to the movie but nice to have.

On both Blu-ray and DVD we have an “Audio Commentary” by director Rupert Sanders who, together with a Visual Effects supervisor and a co-editor, chats on a lot of the technical stuff it took to make the film. They also comment on the actors, costumes, sets and trying to keep the film darker and scarier than any we’ve seen on the Snow White legend before.

The Huntsman and dwarves

“A New Legend is Born” has the actors and filmmakers talking about the atmosphere on set, the intent to keep things darker, the cool Colleen Atwood costumes, production design, props, locations, stunts etc. Oddly, considering what’s to come, Kristen says she followed director Rupert around on set “I’m sure he hates me”. Don’t think so.  This is a fun, “making of” featurette with Sam Claflin crediting visual effects with his expert archery. He could barely shoot the arrow. Kristen shows off her bruises from doing many of her own stunts including a 16 foot jump into water.

Blu-ray exclusive extras are:

“Reinventing the Fairytale” – Director Sanders on the origins of the story, Grimm’s fairy tale etc. and the writers talk of making many revisions and making the Huntsman a much more major character in this version. We see Sanders’ really beautiful concept art and learn that he got the directing job by creating a mini-movie he shot with other actors to emphasize his unique vision and showing it to the studio. It’s pretty impressive. 

“Citizens of the Kingdom” is a really interesting breakdown of each of the main characters; Snow, Ravenna, Huntsman and the dwarves. Each actor talks about their character and what makes him or her tick. Chris talks about Kristen accidentally punching him in the face and how intimidated he was by his first scene with the formidable Charlize. The major actors playing the dwarves talk about each having a “mini-me” little person double. Sam talks about having fun with Kristen, Rupert Sanders says flattering things about her and sadly, Kristen says how much she looks forward to the next film to explore her character further when we’ve been told the studio has nixed her participation.

Sam Claflin as Prince William

“The Magic of Snow White & the Huntsman”- The visual effects guys talk about all the cool CGI and motion capture effects on the movie with plenty of behind the scenes footage. You see beautiful artwork and learn how the “Mirror Man” (Who is the fairest of them all?) was made. We are shown all the creepy hallucinations Snow sees in the Dark Forest, learn how the big Troll was designed and created, how the charming Enchanted Forest was put together and how Ravenna’s scary black warriors came to be. Cool!

“Around the Kingdom 360° Set Tour” – this is very fun, interactive featurette in which you can explore all the vast sets built at the U.K.’s Pinewood Studios. You can pick a set and move around to discover various videos that relate to that set. You get "King Magnus' Courtyard," "Village Near Castle Tabor," "Duke Hammond's Castle Encampment," "Queen Ravenna's Throne Room" and "Queen Ravenna's Mirror Room."

Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth as Snow and her Huntsman

Wrapping Up

SWATH is a visually amazing film with great costumes, action, sets and visual effects. The story kind of seems all over the place but the movie looks great! It’s fun to see Charlize Theron as the evil queen really giving Snow heck. Even if you aren’t sure who Snow will end up with (the wounded Huntsman whose kiss brings her out of a coma or her childhood love William), both guys are cute, charming and fun to watch.

Snow White and the Huntsman Blu-ray

The extras in this combo pack are pretty impressive and enjoyable although where is the blooper reel; the outtakes with Kristen and crowd blowing their lines and that scene where Kristen actually punches Chris Hemsworth? I was actually on set when that happened and there were some really funny off camera moments! 

Whether you are a fan already, just curious to see how Kristen might have been attracted to her talented director, a Chris or Sam fan or just like big fairytale epics, this one is certainly worth renting and would make a very entertaining addition to your home video collection. I’d give the movie 3 and a half stars but this Blu-ray set gets 4.

Snow White and the Huntsman Blu-ray: