10. The Huntsman: Winter’s War
I’ll be honest: I didn’t think Snow White and the Huntsman was all that bad. Actually, I remember enjoying it fine at the time. Was it good? Probably not. I saw it half-awake in back of a car, so my memory of it is blurry and fleeting at best. But I enjoyed the striking visuals, I admired its sharp production designs and I kinda liked its ballsier take on the fairy tale, even if it wasn’t wanted or warranted. That said, nobody — including myself — asked for a sequel, let alone one without the titular Snow White involved. And, much like Alice Through the Looking Glass, it didn’t look like anyone involved with the production wanted to make it either.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War is a blatant, soulless cash grab, with nothing to offer the world besides half the cast of the original film and a bunch of ideas stolen from other, better films and TV shows. Taking elements from Frozen, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Fern Gully, HBO‘s Game of Thrones and Conan the Barbarian, to name a few, and throwing them into a lazy cocktail of boredom worth $115 million, it’s a prime example of the disconnect shared between audiences and filmmakers. A film without merit, need or approval, it’s an infuriatingly pointless endeavor, made without love or inspiration. It’s one of many films on this list made by a board of executives rather than a filmmaker with a vision, resulting in an end product without anything unique or distinctive to offer audiences.
Worse of all, however, The Huntsman rounds up a more-than-admirable cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Nick Frost, Rob Brydon and Charlize Theron, and doesn’t give them tiddly-twat to do for two hours. Only Chastain looks like she’s having any fun at all, while Theron’s over-the-topness is more appreciated here than before solely because it bring a little life to the proceedings. Fairy tales are meant to be magical, but this was a bad apple from the start.
