It may be rooted in a children’s story, but this movie isn’t for kids- it probably would have traumatized me when I was ten.There’s lots of fighting, blood, digitally engineered monsters, sinister backdrops, etc. Ravenna is pretty terrifying; she sucks the youth out of peasant girls to keep her beauty and keeps Snow White imprisoned in a tower a la Rapunzel, among other grisly feats. I think Theron did a really nice job playing the character.

The movie changes one major thing from the fairy tale- no prince. (In addition to the huntsman, Snow White has another love interest.) However, the other elements of the story are all there, if twisted and rearranged.

This includes the seven dwarfs.Since the dwarfs are comical characters I wasn’t expecting to find them in such a macabre story. They are, however,  a small part of the plot, and they manage to be so without seeming too cheesy or out of place.

One problem with the movie for me, is that I never really seemed to understand the character of Snow White. For a movie like this, I think it would make sense to make her a full on butt-kicking warrior princess to contrast with the original Snow White, but the director apparently did not agree. Her stepmother is a far more interesting character.

I can see this appealing to fans of Twilight, beyond the whole Kristen Stewart thing. (For the record, I didn’t like her in either movie, but I think she does a better job in this one.) There’s a love triangle, the supernatural, dark magic, and a bit of bloodshed. It’s not the most life-changing movie you will ever see, but I enjoyed it, and I think others would too.