W - Winter War (The Huntsman: Winter War Review)

By: Mini Stephens on 11:44

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The Huntsman Winter War is a Prequal/Sequal to the first movie in the franchise - Snow White and The Huntsman (Released back in 2012 it stars Kristen Stewart as Snow White). The beginning of the movie starts in the past. Before the Huntsman ever met Snow White. It shows how Freya, after being betrayed by her evil sister Ravenna (The evil step mum/queen in the first movie), releases her power of turning her enemies into ice. She then retreats to a northern kingdom to create an army of huntsman from young children; so when they become adults they can be her protectors. Freya believes to love anyone or anything is a weakness, so she teaches her young soldiers to never fall in love, and has one law in her kingdom, don't love. When Eric (Chris Hemsworth and The Huntsman in the first film) and fellow warrior, Sara, break this law and fall in love, the angry ice queen does whatever she can to stop them. Even making them think the other has betrayed them, the film then skips to the future (after Snow White) and the couple meet again as the war between them and the siblings escalates, Eric and Sara return to Freya's kingdom and in the climax of the film they end up working together to end Ravenna's wicked reign, once again.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film, the fast pace meant it was constantly moving and at times it was very tense, however, they also included light hearted comedy within some of the characters (such as the dwarfs) which made the darkness of the story actually seem a bit lighter as the banter between the characters made the life threatening situations not seem as terrible as they actually were.

But, one problem I did find with the plot was that between the two films it didn't seem to connect together very well. They mentioned Snow White and how she defeated Ravenna, however, the issue I found was within Ravenna's family. In the first film Ravenna was really close with her brother, Finn, and when he died it was as if a part of her had been killed as well, but he isn't mentioned at all in the second film, it is like he no longer matters to the character or that he didn't even exist. This is the same with Freya, a sister to Ravenna and Finn doesn't seem to exist in the first film, she isn't mentioned at all but when she appears in the second film it's as if she's existed the whole time. Also, Ravenna's power came from her mother "By fairest blood it is done, and by fairest blood it can be undone" is one the major quotes from within the first film; but Freya seems to just have her power within her that she releases at the beginning of the film. This is one of the other things that doesn't seem to make sense to me, how can Freya just have power when their mother seemingly gave Ravenna her power?

Considering all of those things I did still really enjoy the movie, it's good as an individual film and the acting is absolutely incredible. The character development for the Huntsman/Eric is also really great to see; it's interesting as an audience member to see who his 'Wife' is and where he comes from - how he became a huntsman in the first place. You do need to see the first movie to understand this one, however I would hugely recommend going to see it as the plot is exciting and funny and you're constantly wondering what antics the characters are going to get up to next.

The Huntsman: Winter War is currently still in cinemas, so to see film times from your local cineworld click here!

"Love does not make you weak. It's all that ever gave you strength"

Until Tomorrow,

Alice x