Last week I had what I've christened a ‘cinematic binge’. Basically I went to the pictures three nights on the bounce.
When they released the first images of this I was VERY interested, it looked bright, colourful and fun which is right up my street. Then they released this ridiculous trailer which put me right off. However, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and went to go see it.
‘Mirror Mirror’is a twist on the universally known story of Snow White. After the tragic death of his wife, the King is left to raise their only child, a girl called Snow White (Lily Collins). After a few years the King re-marries and mysteriously disappears leaving his Queen (Julia Roberts) to rule. It is only after he has gone that the Queen’s true colours are revealed, she rules with no regard for her people, taxing them into poverty. The Evil Queen keeps Snow shut in the palace to prevent her from taking her rightful place on the throne.
I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but I really try not to judge things before I’ve seen them and it’s for films like this that I bear that rule in mind. That god awful trailer does this film a disservice, the film itself is infinitely better than the trailer would have you believe. I mean if you’re not a fan of camp things, don’t waste your time or money but if you’re after a super fun fairy-tale romp ‘Mirror Mirror’ could be just the ticket.
The writing isn’t naff as you might expect, it’s light and breezy. Some of the more comedic scenes trail off rather than hitting the punchlines but for the most part it’s nice and family friendly.
I think one of the things that makes it so entertaining is that all of the cast seem to be having a hoot.
Lily Collins is suitably fresh faced and adorable as our heroine Snow White. She’s very sweet, likable and is absolutely beautiful. She also embraces the‘this princess saves herself’ vibe that her character has. I really like that, I mean she’ no Katniss Everdeen but she kicks a decent amount of fairy-tale ass.
Julia Roberts is a bit hit and miss. Most of her over the top-ness villany goes down quite well but her attempts at comedy fall a bit flat, verging on cringe-ey. That said, it’s hard to criticise someone that seems to be having such a good time :-)
The Seven Dwarves are brilliant. Their characters aren’t really delved into that deeply on an individual level(which I would have liked) rather they act as a unit which is quite nice.
However, performance wise, Armie Hammer steals it as the dashing Prince Alcott. They play him as a classic Prince Charming which suits his drop dead, matinee idol good looks down to the ground. I enjoyed him in ‘The Social Network’ but in this he gets to stretch his comedic muscles to great effect. The humour is unashamedly aimed at a children but it raised several chuckles from me (read into that what you will…).
There is a rather large Disney shaped Elephant in the room whenever ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ is adapted. Thankfully, Tarsem Singh has not made a frame by frame re-hash of the 1939 seminal classic, I think he’s made something that’s original enough to stand on it’s own, out of the shadow of the house of mouse.
It looks beautiful; fantastically fairy-tale and fun, however there are some things that feel like they’ve been done for the sake of it just to be a bit fancy. Like the idea of the titular Mirror (the face in the Mirror is a reflection of the Evil Queen but with magic powers and without any flaws), but is it really necessary to have her go through the weird water mirror and into a random straw hut? No, I don’t think it is.
This is a really accessible family film. It’s by no means a Tomboy adventure but it’s not as girly girl-ish as it could have been. I don’t think it’s had the good fortune it deserves, possibly because of that god awful trailer and the fact that it came out a week after ‘The Hunger Games (under which EVERYTHING was trampled for about a month after its release).
Now, if that dose of fairy-tale lovliness wasn’t enough to make your day how about some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. The‘Prometheus’promotional train is running down the track. A video of David the android (played by Michael ‘I want his Babies’ Fassbender) and poster were released on 17th and 18th April as part of the ongoing ‘Prometheus’ viral ad campaign.
The video is unnerving to say the least (I've watched it at LEAST 15 times). There’s something about the accent he’s using. I think it’s the bit where he says“distressing… or unethical”. That pause is properly sinister. And I mean, I think he’s lush, but Fassbender in a bag… WEIRD!!!
I must commend the marketing team for all of the promo they’ve been doing, it’s inspired. The super-slow eeking out of information since July last year, the pictures, the trailers, the viral 2023 TED conference (which was hosted on the TED site as well as Youtube boosting awareness of the conference, which is great), the‘David’ teaser and now this. It’s brilliant. 1st June can’t come soon enough!
2. ‘The Avengers’ had the biggest worldwide opening of any superhero film ever. I’ve seen it. I will be writing about it soon. Watch this space :-)
3. New Trailer for ‘Brave’! I know that we’ve all been burnt after ‘Cars 2’ but I think it looks really good. It’s Pixar’s first foray into full on fairy-tale and I like the look of it!
That’s all for now. In the coming days I’ll be posting about ‘Shame’, ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ so stay tuned!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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