Trailers are tricky little beasts. They promise us a dazzling, epic ride — explosions, brooding stares, cinematic grandeur — and then you walk into the cinema and… sometimes the movie doesn’t quite match the hype. You feel short-changed, like the popcorn was stale and the Coke a little too flat.
With Snow White and the Huntsman, I didn’t have that problem. The trailer featured Charlize Theron, and let’s be honest: when someone with that kind of acting pedigree appears on screen, you already expect the best. Theron delivered. As the deluded, deranged, utterly terrifying queen, she owned every scene. And the movie actually tried to give her a backstory — why she’s obsessed with beauty, why Snow White is her ultimate threat. In short, the queen isn’t evil just because she likes her reflection; she wants power, immortality, and the validation that comes with being “the fairest of them all.”
When I was a kid, I never understood why the queen would care so much about being the most beautiful. Vanity? Sure, but this movie goes further. The queen sees Snow White as a threat to her very existence — a literal and metaphorical reflection of the mortality and decay she fears. She will go to any length to preserve her beauty, even if it means consuming a girl’s heart. It’s a stark reminder of the pressures placed on women — then, now, and right here in Singapore. As I sat in a Cathay Cineplex seat, surrounded by an audience quietly munching on popcorn, I couldn’t help thinking about the endless beauty treatments, whitening creams, gym routines, and social expectations that weigh on women. Beauty is currency, power, and survival. And this queen? She took it to the extreme.
Interestingly, this version doesn’t paint Snow White as purely innocent, nor the queen as purely evil. Snow White’s story hints at darker undertones — possibly incestuous feelings for her cousin, a drive to seize the Magic Mirror and continue the queen’s reign. The narrative pushes the idea that women, even those we idolise as “good,” are complicated, capable of darkness, ambition, and cunning. In a Singapore context, where young women can feel trapped by Instagram-perfect faces, whitening obsessions, and society’s insistence on “looking your best,” it’s easy to empathise with both characters, in very different ways.
The movie’s visuals are impressive. The castle, perched in eerie splendor on an island only connected at low tide, has a gothic grandeur reminiscent of the Ghormenghast series. The Dark Forest is menacing and labyrinthine, while the enchanted fairyland is lush and magical. Theron’s queen commands supernatural powers that are rendered beautifully by the special effects: flocks of black birds transforming into fighting demons, shards of metal slicing through the air. But the real treasures of the movie are its locations, and the Huntsman’s familiarity with the Dark Forest is the plot’s clever nod to knowledge and survival — a skill as necessary as beauty in a world that judges women so harshly.
Where the film falters, however, is in storytelling. It attempts darkness, but somehow it feels half-hearted. The queen’s backstory is fragmented; if you blink, you might miss the emotional weight. Snow White’s hints of moral ambiguity are easy to overlook if you’re distracted by the CGI or the soaring orchestral score. And some scenes are visually confusing: a reindeer in the forest conjures Harry Potter vibes, while snowy wandering recalls Bella in Twilight. The narrative ambition is there, but the focus isn’t sharp enough to make the movie extraordinary.
Still, there’s something to admire. Theron’s queen reminds us that the pursuit of beauty can be monstrous — a warning wrapped in glamour and darkness. And Snow White herself is no blank slate; she has ambition, desire, and perhaps even a moral darkness of her own. The tension between the two characters reflects the pressures women face worldwide, from Singapore to Hollywood: to maintain youth, to maintain power, to survive in a system that rewards appearance above all else.
Watching this film in Singapore, I couldn’t help but notice the audience’s reactions. The silence during the queen’s monologues, the gasps during battles, the occasional laughter at odd moments — it felt like everyone was absorbing the story differently, much like women absorb societal pressures differently. For some, the queen is cautionary; for others, aspirational in a very twisted way. The point is, beauty has its costs, and we all pay them differently — whether it’s through surgery, diet, or endless self-criticism.
In the end, Snow White and the Huntsman is visually striking, thematically intriguing, and anchored by a phenomenal Theron performance. But the story could have been sharper, darker, more focused. As it stands in 2012, it’s a movie that flirts with extraordinary but settles comfortably into ordinary — much like society’s obsession with beauty: dazzling on the surface, but with a complex, sometimes uncomfortable depth lurking beneath.
Written by: Adi Jamaludin
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