ADVENTURE; M, 2hr 7min

STARRING: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth

As if the 1812 fairy story weren’t sufficiently Grimm with its wicked queen, poisoned apple and glass coffin, commercials director Rupert Sanders and his trio of screenwriters have taken the tale in a newly dire direction. A spitfire highlight, Theron’s phenomenally outfitted Queen Ravenna is a raging, youth-sucking psychopath. As the daughter of the king whom Ravenna marries and promptly murders, Snow White (broody dish Stewart) is lucky to escape with imprisonment, until a pot-stirring magic mirror informs the queen that (a) her stepdaughter is fairer than she and (b) consumption of Snow White’s heart will guarantee immortality.

Keeping her wits about her, budding warrior SW escapes to the hairy Dark Forest where she joins forces with the despondent Huntsman (Hemsworth, ho-hum) assigned to retrieve her. Eight gnarly dwarves (Bob Hoskins and Ray Winstone included) show up, too.

Some scenes are sublime, for their rapturous, bedazzling beauty or their darkly snowbound thrall. Construction-wise, though, the laborious action struggles to hit an assured stride. Thwarting injustice is all very noble, but without the glue of full-bodied characters and cut-thrust dialogue, the pieces of the puzzle won’t click into an enthralling whole.

Andiee's Rating: **1/2

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