Not that anyone was really asking for a sorta-prequel to "Snow White And The Huntsman," but Universal has made one anyway with "The Huntsman: Winter’s War." And credit is due to the studio for landing Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt,both of whom could be doing far better things than joining the returning Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron in this picture. Frankly, I’d love to see all four star in anything else but this.
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, visual effects supervisor on the first film, is directing this one, which tells the story of what happened before the Snow White legend and involves lots of fighting, jumping off things and mirrors. Here’s the official synopsis:
Long before the evil Queen Ravenna (Theron) was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya (Blunt), suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly huntsmen — including Eric (Hemsworth) and warrior Sara (Chastain) — only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love.
When Freya learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power. But once she discovers Ravenna can be resurrected from its golden depths, the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever seen. Now, their amassing army shall prove undefeatable…unless the banished huntsmen who broke their queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one another.
