It’s a fairytale tradition as old as time itself: prince rescues princess, they fall in love, and live happily ever after. Whatever obstacle is in their way, he is the one who overcomes it; the gender roles are more constraining than any corset.

Movies can sometimes be even more confining than fairytales. Many male-driven action vehicles marginalize women as little more than sex objects, as evidenced by the dearth of chatter devoted to the leather-clad derriere of Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers. And many films geared toward a female audience tend to be equally exploitative, typecasting men as oafish hunks possessed of washboard abs and a phobia of wearing shirts. Not so in Snow White and the Hunstman: it’s a smart, feminist story about a heroine who slays a monstrous matriarch, with the men along for the ride.

The film pits Twilight star Kristen Stewart as a strong-willed storybook princess destined to rescue her people against a frosty queen who has a vampire-like need to feed on young beauties as part of her anti-wrinkle regimen. With literally an entire kingdom at stake, not since Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West engaged in battle over a pair of red pumps has womankind been given such an expansive arena to solve their disagreements.

Snow White and the Huntsman is director Rupert Sanders’ first film, and it’s an ambitious one: dark and gritty, more like The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones than the Disney cartoon generations have come to love (or loathe), the movie reportedly cost more than $170 million to make, and boasts more special effects than probably any other fantasy film, ever. Astonishingly beautiful but numbingly brutal, there’s epic battles, thrilling chase sequences through festering sewers and swamps, and nary a romance; your mother’s Snow White this is not. Even the film’s source material — the beloved Brothers Grimm fairytale — is less, well, grim.

As Snow White, Stewart is decidedly less girly than Lily Collins in the same role in the campy Mirror Mirror that was released in March. More self-confident and not about to play housemaid to any dwarves, she is driven by a single, burning goal: kill the queen, save the kingdom. That, of course, leaves no time for washing dishes or singing to birds. Though she pulls off a serviceable English accent and shows a greater range of emotion than she’s usually much-maligned for (particularly through the genuine fear she shows in her eyes), it’s still sometimes difficult to see her as the messianic Joan of Arc-type figure Sanders attempts to portray her as. After being resurrected from the dead (following eating a poisoned apple, of course), for example, Stewart is expected to give a rousing speech rallying those around her to storm the evil queen’s mammoth castle and end her reign once and for all; instead, all we get is mumbled stammer, and a look from Stewart that suggests she’s about to faint. However, she is able to handle her choreography somewhat realistically, dispensing justice to evildoers with just enough authenticity to seem believable ­‑‑ not too over-the-top like some women in fantasy films a la Xena or Red Sonja. All in all, it’s a marked improvement from the Twilight role of a helpless young maiden, but still leaves a bit to be desired.

Thor hunk Chris Hemsworth plays the film’s other titular character, the huntsman. A sad drunk hired to whack Snow White before having a change of heart; he’s more than capable of knocking a few villains around with his massive axe. But unlike Stewart’s male co-stars in the Twilight series, Hemsworth’s shirt fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on one’s point of view) only comes off once, and even then only partially. Instead, he stammers with clunky dialogue even more wooden than Jeremy Irons in the 2006 sword-and-sorcery box office bomb Eragon, following Stewart around with a look of confusion (and a seemingly bottomless flask) throughout most of the movie’s 127 minutes — even when his (non-romantic) kiss brings Stewart back from the dead (in what is also one of the film’s more awkward moments, thanks to a cringingly painful speech from Hemsworth).

The strongest performance of the film, hands down, belongs to Charlize Theron. The South African-born actress is magnificently malevolent as the evil Queen Ravenna, in what is undoubtedly one of the better performances of her career. Like the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, our blood literally goes cold every time she appears on screen. The actress has no middle register, either declaiming mightily (in chilling close-up shots) or turning deathly quiet as wrinkles spread over her face — as they’re apt to do before her next infusion of youthful life. She’s so terrifying that the women of an entire village disfigure themselves so as not to incur her jealousy. Before the final battle with Stewart, a panning shot of Theron standing in front of her magic mirror surrounded by bodies strewn across the floor chills us to the core. The last time we saw such an altogether menacing figure on screen, Luke Skywalker was learning the ways of the Force.

In addition to the Darth Vader-esque evil of Theron, another central strength of the film is the costumes. Stewart’s Snow White is much more tomboyish than previous incarnations — not quite the Lisbeth Salander of fairytale princesses, but close. Under her dresses, she wears leggings. For the climactic final battle, the first thought viewers have of the armor she wears is ‘Geez that looks heavy!’ It’s a stark comparison to the goddess-like Theron, who’s a thrillingly wicked sight in a raven cloak designed by Colleen Atwood. She is so bad, with her runway-ready villainy chic costumes (complete with a crown of thorns that never leaves her head), it’s good.

Not all about the film’s production is positive, however. Though Director of Photography Greg Fraser’s (Bright Star; Let Me In) cinematography is unquestionably stunning, viewers will get serious Lord of the Rings déjà vu with all the aerial shots, particularly of soaring castles and vast wilderness. The chamber where Theron keeps her magic mirror looks an awful lot like the lair of the evil wizard Saruman, and a heavily CGI-aided scene involving a massive troll only adds to the nostalgic feeling; one half expects an army of orcs to pop out at any point during the struggle. Still, the effect is enough to make one want to book the next flight to New Zealand.

As mentioned, the CGI is as over-the-top as Theron’s evil queen. Virtually every scene is doctored in some way, and the effect is so seamless, so organic, that we hardly even question it. The Dark Forest is a hallucinogenic nightmare of scuttling creatures and pus-filled swamps, while an interlude (and the only lull in the action) in “Fairyland” is charmingly imaginative despite its obvious kitsch (think moss-covered tortoises, toadstools with eyes, and flower petals that transform into fluttering butterflies). Later, a scene in which Theron morphs into a flock of crows takes the cake as the most spectacular visual achievement of the film by far.

Supporting actors remain just that: supporting. It’s a shame too, as some of them — particularly the dwarves (eight, not seven, and played by such noted actors as Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones, Nick Frost, and Bob Hoskins) — are quite charming. The issue, though, is that in a movie as massive as this, characters come and go at a rapid-fire pace, typically by meeting an untimely demise (such as, for instance, a brilliant white stag whom we get to know for approximately 20 seconds about two-thirds of the way into the film before yet another battle). Of course, this also means that — with the exception of the lead actresses Stewart and Theron — characters’ backstories remain almost a complete mystery.

Another flaw is the writing. Screenwriters John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and Hossein Amini (Drive) provide some big-name polishing to Evan Daugherty’s screenplay, but overall it’s more functional than fun. Laughter is never intentional: there’s not much in the way of wit or even idle banter to punctuate the relentless action. Everything, it seems, is dead serious — even the dwarves’ song is a funeral ode to one of their fallen.

Speaking of dwarves, it’s their very seriousness that will leave some viewers disappointed (not to mention the height issue with all of them being of standard human stature). After debating killing a lost Stewart and Hemsworth when they first meet more than an hour into the movie, they eventually join Stewart’s crusade against the queen. Playing a pivotal role in sneaking into Theron’s castle in the final battle (whilst dispensing of an entire guardhouse full of soldiers), they carry out their business with nary a high-ho or declarations about the need to go off to work. Also disappointing, none of them are named “Grumpy,” or “Doc,” and instead are given rather pedestrian names like “Gus” and “Muir;” Walt Disney must be turning in his grave.

It may not be the “fairest of them all,” but at least Snow White and the Huntsman is the best fantasy film since Frodo Baggins & Co. went to Mordor. Though hampered by weak dialogue and Sanders’ apparent intention to audition for Middle-Earth (or perhaps Narnia, though in a June 2 interview with the U.K. newspaper The Guardian the director says his next projects will focus on the origins of the Drug Enforcement Administration and a sci-fi version of the 1966 film Battle of Algiers), the film is saved by stunning visuals and an even more stunning performance by Theron (which, in all likelihood, has thrust her into the Oscar conversation). Plus, it’s refreshing to see a princess not end up hitched to a prince, happily indifferent to the verdicts of mirrors. Ditto the fact she saves the kingdom.

Rating: 3 out of 4

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