Snow White a Mix of Good, Evil

Snow White and the Huntsman, the latest take on the fairy tale starring Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron, is an impressive spectacle, featuring all kinds of brooding visual effects. But critics are sharply divided as to whether the film is an overall success:

• "There is nothing cute about this movie. And that feels right. There is something exciting about how seriously Snow White and the Huntsman takes its themes," writes AO Scott in the New York Times.

• The movie is "an absolute wonder to watch and creates a warrior princess for the ages," writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. "But what this revisionist fairy tale does not give us is a passionate love—its kisses are as chaste as the snow is white."
• But at Slate, Dana Stevens calls the film "increasingly incoherent" and feels like it "squanders the dramatic potential inherent in the ancient fairy tale" by keeping Snow White and the queen separate for all but two scenes.
• "As Snow, Stewart gets to swing a sword, but don't be fooled," notes Rafer Guzman in Newsday. "She spends so much time waffling sullenly between two warrior-suitors that Snow White feels like little more than Twilight in chain mail."

(More Snow White stories.)