Cast and Characters (I will focus more on the characters than the actual cast):
Snow White:
Actress -- Kristen Stewart wouldn't have been my first pick for the role, and I personally don't think she quite did it justice, though it could very well be a scripting problem. I was wary about watching a movie with her as the star, just because I was afraid it would be too Twilight-esque. I was wrong on that particular note; of course, I could keep drawing up Twilight references from Snow White, but only because I was trying to. Kristen Stewart did a wonderful job recreating the traditional character for Snow White, and I was impressed with that.
Character --The character of Snow White didn't develop very well. I was rather disappointed at this; one minute, she was an innocent princess, and the next she was a skilled warrior... I would have liked to see more depth to her character. There was no real transition point, nothing significant that happened to change her, apart from the apple incident from the stories. As a writer, I place a high value on character depth and development, and I am sorry to say that Snow White lacked both.
The Huntsman:
Actor -- Chris Hemsworth was an excellent pick, I think. He added a depth to the character of the Huntsman that I have never seen before.
Character -- While there was more character development seen in the Huntsman than there was in Snow White, I still feel that it was lacking. There was more backstory in his tale, but it seemed almost irrelevant, until the very end. Once again, there was a notable lack in transition -- there is no real spur for his sudden feelings for Snow. The character did have more depth than Snow White -- to me, he felt more real. I was impressed with the depth, but again, character development and transition were both lacking.
The Evil Queen:
Actress -- Clarlize Theron was the perfect Evil Queen. I loved her portrayal of the character; she made the Evil Queen seem truly evil. When she walked onto the screen, I got chills, knowing that something monumental would happen. She made the character of the Evil Queen seem far more real -- I could certainly sympathize with her character.
Character -- The character of the Evil Queen is by far the most impressive. I really have nothing else to say; I cannot find any criticisms -- again, this is from a writer's perspective -- in the actual character.
William:
Actor: Sam Claflin did an excellent job with his character -- the classic Prince Charming.
Character: Honestly, I found William almost obsolete. He served no real purpose in the plot -- at least, not from what I could tell. It feels like the only reason he was there was to fill in the "Prince Charming" character -- who, of course, must be in the story. I wish there were more involvement. The character had no development and very little depth. I was honestly very disappointed in this character.
The effects were amazing. There's nothing more to say about that.
Now, onto the story itself.
As I said, the characters had an extraordinary lack of development. This was a huge turn-off for me, because I feel that any good story must have character development and depth.
It feels as if the writer(s) tried to cover too many aspects of the story, and because of that, were unable to do any of them proper justice. There was a lot of random scenery, which was breathtaking, but seemed irrelevant. There was almost always a story behind the particular site, but the story was never explained. Of course, this element increases viewer interest in most stories, but it was too constant in this one. The result for me was an irritated curiosity -- what was the purpose of the fairy grove? Why was the snow-covered forest so familiar to the characters? -- that could not be satisfied by the content of the movie.
Another thing that continuously bugged me was the lack of romance. Romance isn't absolutely necessary in a movie for me to like it, but Snow White is historically a romantic fairytale. There were dozens of scenes where romance was hinted at, and could have been inserted perfectly, but nothing came of it. The ending was especially unsatisfying, because it didn't say "who got the girl". Each of the male leads have obvious feelings for Snow White, but nothing comes of it.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend this movie. The plot had too many holes in it, there wasn't nearly enough romance, and there was little to no character development.
