Reviews & Ratings for
The Huntsman: Winter's War More at IMDbPro »

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Periodically disappointing

Author: peachtellsyouwhattowatch from Oz
10 April 2016

Though a big produces Hollywood movie is never "bad", "The Huntsman & the Ice Queen" turned out to be nothing more than easy entertainment. Many professionals with great CGI-skills put an effort into this movie, making it somewhat worth your time. But a bunch of A-class actors and a lot of money is not what makes an outstanding movie.

The story line is in parts weak. You get confused easily, especially if you haven't seen the first one. In my perspective the trailer turned out to be slightly misleading in aspects like screen time of certain actors and the overall depth of the characters.

It has never been a secret that the motivation behind the movie was not the story but simple moneymaking. I just didn't think it would turn out to be that obvious while watching the film. For example: I was excited for the costumes of the "queens" because this particular aspect was especially breathtaking in the first movie. They were of course beautiful but you couldn't really appreciate them. The movie focused more on quantity than on quality. Changing the villains outfits in nearly every scene, not giving its audience the chance to truly appreciate the aesthetics.

All in all the viewers were bombarded with pretty faces, detailed garments and nice scenery, which only managed in parts to overshadow the lack of authentic story making.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

Fails to improve on its ordinary predecessor.

Author: Troy_Campbell from Sydney, Australia
9 April 2016

I wasn't a huge fan of Snow White and the Huntsman, but it had enough moments of entertainment that I was mildly excited when the trailer for this subsequent effort popped up on my radar. Nothing like a second chance to fix your mistakes. Yet for all the things it improves on there are just as many areas it takes a backwards step in, placing it roughly on par with its predecessor, meaning Universal Pictures has floundered twice with this live action franchise. A hurdle the screenwriters ultimately couldn't overcome was delivering a Snow White follow-up without, erm, Snow White – Kristen Stewart being written out of the movie as punishment for her transgressions during the filming of the original – resulting in a clunky sprequel (sequel and prequel for those playing at home) with glaring plot contrivances. The narrative awkwardness also messes with the movie's tempo, however the filmmakers wisely restrain the runtime to under two hours and ensure that it's largely spent sword fighting, axe swinging and arrow shooting, albeit without creating any memorable set pieces. Debutant director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan continues the unique visual design established in the preceding movie (not surprising considering his VX background), swirling fantasy elements into the medieval environment with the assistance of top notch CGI. The real drawcard here is the cast, with both Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron returning as the hunky-brooding-charming eponymous hero and the sneering-sadistic-venomous Queen Ravenna respectively, the latter especially appearing to be having an absolute ball. New to the series are Emily Blunt as the ice-cold villain who instigates the titular battle and Jessica Chastain as a badass warrior with a complex romantic entanglement with Hemsworth's Huntsman; both of these supremely talented actresses do what they can to bring some dramatic heft to proceedings. It's a damn shame the screenplay has so many shortcomings and the action sequences fail to elevate above being merely serviceable, as Winter's War, bolstered by a cast to die for, could've been a rip-roaring franchise lifter.

15 out of 27 people found the following review useful:

A solid fantasy adventure despite not bringing anything new to the genre.

Author: gricey_sandgrounder from United Kingdom
4 April 2016

I thought Snow White And The Huntsman was serviceable at best with some nice visual effects and a good villain role by Charlize Theron. Naturally, I would probably not be interested in a sequel.

But as I am usually a sucker for fantasy and I was intrigued by the trailer and who was cast, I thought I would give it a chance.

I was going in with low expectations and felt pretty satisfied with what I saw. It is better and more enjoyable than its predecessor

The best things about it are definitely the costume designs and visual effects. You can tell hard work has been made with the costumes, especially for our main female characters. They are impressive to look at and definitely fit in with the magical kingdom that it is set in. Whilst admiring the costumes, the visuals around it fits in well and the general viewing experience is a highly positive one for the eyes.

Even the performances managed to boost my enjoyment. As I mentioned before, the casting choices for this film heavily influenced me in giving this a chance. Everyone involved I consider to be reliable choices that seem to make any potentially disappointing film worth watching. Chris Hemsworth continues to play the hero role well as The Huntsman. His fun and smiley presence makes it easy to root for him. I was really surprised to hear Jessica Chastain was a part of this and this seemed outside of her comfort zone. As a supportive role to Hemsworth, I thought she was perfectly fine on the whole, despite her questionable Scottish accent. Emily Blunt played the leading villain role well. I have been fond of Blunt's recent performances, especially in Edge Of Tomorrow. She was believable, threatening and even showed enough of a vulnerable side for us to also feel sympathy for her character. Charlize Theron is back as Ravenna, and is great as always. She constantly looks terrifying whenever she's on screen whilst also looking very attractive. There was also some solid minor roles by Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, Sam Caflin and a nice surprise to see Colin Morgan on the big screen.

The only negative that was noticeable was the comedy used. It seemed out of place at first but managed to slowly fit in as the film went along.

Despite questioning the reasoning into a sequel being made, I was perfectly fine with the mash-up of the two fairy tales 'Snow White' and 'The Snow Queen' to give this sequel some logic as to why it is being made. Whilst giving this a lot of positives, it is mainly due to going into the film with low expectations. The best stuff is just not strong enough and the content does not bring anything new to the genre. It is lovely to look at, and the performances keep the film moving. If you look like the fantasy genre, then this will be a fine couple of hours.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

Their was no need for this sequel/prequel?

Author: sophiebyrom-20030 from United Kingdom
9 April 2016

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Where do I start? Right, to begin, I did like Snow white and the Huntsman and did really like what director Rupert Sanders did with the cliché tale and characters. He turned Snow White into this heroine and a leader, the Huntsman into this broken character who had a broken past as well, Charlize Theron's Evil queen was great and she wasn't just evil for the sake of 'being evil' which added depth to the character and the whole darker feel to the tale and film. But The Huntsman is a mess start to finish. First of all, The Huntsman was pitched as a prequel, when really it spends 15 minutes before the original film and the rest of the film after it. which means they were treating the audience like idiots and they put anything in the trailer's just to get people to go see it. Secondly, the new story just seemed really forced. The whole film just seemed like the studio was trying to make more money. The characters was completely off, especially Chris Hemsworth, his character was completely different in this movie, I know most of the movie does take place after the previous film and you could be happy that the war had stopped, but no one goes from being grumpy and sad to being happy and telling jokes that fall flat. Things are horribly shoe- horned with absolutely no effort. One character is just their just to give the huntsman a plot, like he actually says the plot in one line, other characters such as the dwarfs are just there to add comic relief to an already bald script and most of the humour is slap stick such as swearing and has no effort and the worst shoe-horned thing was trying to make both of the movies relevant. The name is even misleading it's not even a war it's more of a sight disagreement. in a nutshell, The Huntsmen was made to get more money not for the enjoyment of the public.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

No story

Author: kyliem11 from United Kingdom
10 April 2016

Where is the storyline in this movie? Uninteresting characters, poor dialogue, it tries to be humorous but fails, the dwarfs look ridiculous, literally put a man on a horse and shrink them! It just does not work at all.

I like Chris Hemsworth, especially as Thor, but this performance is poor, his character is simply dull. A few special effects lift this movie on occasion and Blunt and Theron do their best to be mean, apart from that the movie provides nothing new or interesting.

We did not really need this, sort of, prequel/sequel to the first movie, it provides nothing extra from the original. Reading my review back, I think 5 out of 10 is actually generous for this movie, all round a bit of a waste of time.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:

Well, I enjoyed it.

Author: Aniviel2 from United Kingdom
11 April 2016

Some people really need to get over themselves, judging by some of the reviews for this film. It is a fantasy based on children's stories - what the hell were they expecting, Hamlet or Henry V?

It was a fun ride with plenty of action, plenty of humour, and a great cast - Chris Hemsworth brings his usual cheery action hero to the mix, Jessica Chastain was a good addition as The Huntsman's wife, and Emily Blunt played the fragile Ice Queen wonderfully well. The Dwarfs were comic relief as always, but it worked well with fewer of them and a couple of females in the mix.

The story wasn't overcomlicated but if I want that, I'll go watch Memento. Chill out a little, folks.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:

Decent fantasy flick with some beautiful visuals

Author: tigress-62-531003 from United Kingdom
7 April 2016

I saw the first part and liked Charlize Theron as Ravenna and Chris Hemsworth as Huntsman Eric, but overall I was not too impressed by it.

This prequel/sequel takes what I liked about the first film and removed most of what I disliked to make a decent if not particularly special fantasy action adventure.

We learn about the Huntsman's background and his wife, Sarah, who was mentioned in the first film. Also, we find out Ravenna has a sister, Freya, played by Emily Blunt. Charlize Theron delightfully plays it up as evil Queen Ravenna again, and I am a little disappointed that she did not get more screen time. The first scene with Ravenna playing chess with her royal husband is the best scene in the film. Then she disappears for half the movie. Also, I wish she would have had more scenes with her sister to show more of their relationship. I don't remember if Ravenna had a sister in the first film, but even if she did, we knew nothing about her.

There is a creative interpretation of goblins in this film, which I will not give away. The visuals are overall pleasing to the eye, especially the climax has some beautiful visual effects. I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous film's awkward fight in the end. That said, the fight scenes are shot with much too many cuts for a 3D audience, a common problem with films wanting to cash in on the 3D feature but putting no thought into how a film has to be shot differently from 2D for a 3D audience. There is a scene with CGI animals akin to what we saw in the first film, which went too over the top for my taste (and the animals don't look too convincing - you can see they are CGI).

The plot is very straight forward but apart from the common problem RPG pen & paper groups have, namely that not everybody has a reason to join the adventure, it was fine. Seriously, the dwarf characters were obviously there for comic relief but they added little to nothing to the plot and I did not understand why they accompanied the Huntsman in the first place.

The resolution comes too quickly in my opinion, it would have been better to linger more on the consequences of the second turning point. It feels rushed and doesn't explore the feelings of our characters very much, going rather straight to the action.

One thing the film does very well is including female characters as something other than decoration. There is a 50:50 gender split when it comes to the main characters (didn't catch if it was the same with extras, sorry) and the female characters have a purpose and motivation without being sexualised or treated as eye candy. This is something severely lacking in most fantasy films, so I want to compliment the film makers for doing a good job on that front. Well done!

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10. Enjoyable, decent fantasy flick, but nothing special. I would not necessarily watch it again, but also wouldn't be opposed if someone else wanted me to watch it with them.

7 out of 13 people found the following review useful:

More than just visual effects!

Author: kimmyypritch
4 April 2016

I previewed this movie tonight having no recollection of ever seeing the first one (although I realize now I have and simply forgot about it due to its mediocrity). This movie was awesome! As in the first film, the visual effects are stunning and even though I am easily displeased with shoddy CGI, only in one brief scene did I think it was done somewhat poorly. (For reference, I did not see it in IMAX or 3D). While some of the plot points were transparent, the narrative as a whole was quite engaging and was acted well enough for me to really feel for the characters. Another reviewer mentioned the humor of the film in a somewhat negative way but I (and by the sound of it, the rest of the theater) thought it was done perfectly-- it wasn't forced onto characters or into situations it didn't belong in but instead lent itself to filling out the characters and even making some subtle points about relationships, friendships, and life as a whole.

Love, Action, Comedy and Special FX

Author: bilsy from Australia
6 April 2016

Started by telling the story which ramped up and took a bit to take off. But once the story was set and you got the base story the movie went from alright to very very interesting.

The movie hit every feeling and done it well and balanced it just as good. If your into love movies the story between The huntsman and Sara is amazing and something most strive to get.

If you want action and gore there is definitely plenty of that also. Add to it magic and special effects and this movie will keep 9 out of 10 very entertained.

Nick Frost playing a dwarf will capture that last person and make this movie one that everyone will find something they like in it.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

A slick and enjoyable fantasy romp, let down by a muddled plot and basic dialogue.

Author: missashton92 from United Kingdom
6 April 2016

The Huntsman: Winter's War is great fodder for fans of the genre; the slenderly plotted film moves along at a nice pace and the cast do a decent job with what they're given. Although it's undoubtedly a cash-grab sequel (do not believe the "before Snow White" marketing), it manages to argue its case for existing fairly well. Contractual obligations aside, Hemsworth and Theron resume their roles with great gusto, with Hemsworth arguably vastly improving on his performance in the first film. Throw in Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain and you're confronted with a pretty enviable - if surprising - cast for a film of this level.

The basic driving plot of the film is centred on Eric's (the previously anonymous Huntsman from the first outing) dubiously arranged quest to locate and return the powerful magic mirror, before it falls into the wrong (icy) hands. Accompanied by some foul-mouthed dwarfs, the scenes in the forests and fields are probably some of the better sequences in the film, if only for their tonal consistency rather than their originality. These portions of the film focus on action and comedy, and the camaraderie comes across well enough.

This quest is framed at both the start and end of the film by a strange and rather hastily delivered - yet nonetheless enjoyable - story of two sisters and a sad betrayal. Ravenna (Theron) and Freya (Blunt) are supposedly the closest of siblings who become parted by a very dark event that awakens a great power within Freya. Fleeing her sister's kingdom in a mix of despair, anger and confusion, Freya sets up home in the mysterious "North" and uses her new strength to gather children to train as her army. It is here that the two stories are tied together, with stolen children Eric and Sara (Chastain) growing to become two of her trusted Huntsmen. The scenes in the North are mostly effective and judiciously used; the muted colour palette here isn't allowed to become boring, and this mini saga is undoubtedly uplifted by Blunt's delicate performance.

If you have seen the trailers for this film and are keen to experience the full thing, go in with realistic expectations and you'll have a fun two hours; I am certain that the vast majority of prominent critics will despise this film, but it wasn't made for them. Yes, it's a patchwork production of popular elements from other sources and is generally a rather campy affair, but that's what makes it such an inoffensive and entertaining film. There is plenty to like here, if you give it a chance.

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