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'Winter's War' is Part Two of a Strange Trilogy

In the first place, The Huntsman: Winter's War, which is supposed to be some kind of sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, which had Kristen Stewart as Snow White, has neither Kristen Stewart nor anybody else as Snow White, whose birth is announced at the very end of the movie. It also kills off just about anybody who might have a role in the real story of Snow White, so the creators of this strange trilogy are going to have to create a whole new cast for the third movie in order to get to the Snow White story at all.

And in Winter's War, they have created a whole new world that Snow White never lived in, if we can take Walt Disney's version as an original. Snow White's world included a wicked witch with a few supernatural powers like distant sight, plus a magic mirror that helped her, but otherwise was a pretty standard forest, while the world of Winter's War is full of comic-book-villain supernatural powers and a wicked queen who wants to rule the world.

The basic story seems to be that of the Ice Queen, who was in a completely different fairy tale. The seven dwarfs, who were simple miners and jewel prospectors, are transformed and limited to two warrior men, one warrior woman, and another women who seems to be inspired by television's Xena the Warrior Princess's female companion. Since I avoid this kind of material like mosquitos in summer, I presume there are a lot of other parallels and echoes of other shows that pass right by me, though I did notice the usual tired old quest journey with attendant special effects.

Those special effects are as impressive as they always are, though I could have done without the Gollum. But then, I would have preferred to do without The Huntsman: Winter's War altogether.