Jack Goes Confidential: ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Foretells—and Beyond

The fantastical world of Snow White and the Huntsman expands this weekend by revealing how the fates of huntsman Eric and Queen Ravenna are dangerously intertwined…

Turns out that long before the evil queen (Charlize Theron) was believed to be vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she observed her younger sister Freya’s heartbreaking betrayal and exit from the castle.

But Freya was pregnant and the magic mirror spilled the devastating news that the child’s beauty was destined to surpass that of the evil sorceress queen.

Ah, but Freya (Emily Blunt) unleashed her own secret weapon—the ability to create ice which she employed in her new land of the North and used to train children into an army of huntsmen.

Fast forward to years later.

Young Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain) are all grown up—and are forbidden lovers and, and……

Well, I’d better stop right here. After all, this is a fairytale and who am I to spill the magic beans?

Suffice it to say that what we’ve got here is a prequel, but not quite the way we usually think of one.

While it sets up what happened in 2012’s SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, it also jumps ahead and over that film’s plot (and does it surprisingly well).

I’ll go one better and suggest that WINTER’S WAR is a better movie than the original!

Hey, how often does THAT happen?

And bye, bye to Kristen Stewart – whose affair with the first film’s then married director Rupert Sanders during production almost overshadowed the movie itself.

(Sanders, you may recall, was married to Liberty Ross who played Snow White’s mother in the film while Stewart was still an item with TWILIGHT’s Robert Pattinson.)

New director Cedric Nicolas-Trojan wisely cast Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain in key roles here, and their presence adds miles of acting and credence.

To suggest that WINTER’S WAR comes to market without baggage would be an understatement.

But in all fairness it holds its own – and then some. Our screening audience seemed to agree.

The film’s heavily CGI enhanced sequences are impressive. And with its ‘just right’ running time of 1:43 hours THIS PG-13 rated Huntsman prequel/follow-up delivers just what its title promises.

What more could one ask for?

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR grades an icicle-glistening: B-

(Reviewed at AMC 30, Olathe)

JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News on 98.1 FM, KMBZ