Directed by Rupert Sanders
(PG-13)
**
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The second take on Snow White this year “fails to realize the full potential of its ambitiously dark vision,” said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. In the title role, Twilight’s “faintly bruised-looking” Kristen Stewart is “nobody’s idea of the ‘fairest in the land,’” nor is she a match as an actor for her onscreen nemesis. “By far” the best thing about this film is Charlize Theron’s turn as the evil Queen Ravenna, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. She’s a “fascist of feminism,” embittered that beauty is her power. Theron’s performance “has the blood of operatic anger coursing through it” as Ravenna dispatches a huntsman to fetch Snow White, whose heart will grant her immortality. “Incongruously,” Stewart’s “sulky” Snow White leads a peasant revolt against her rival instead of sharing the screen with her for more than a couple scenes, said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Given the material, the budget, and the “ravishing production design,” this summer extravaganza shouldn’t have turned into “a dull piece of junk.” Somehow, it managed to.
