Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders, 2012)

Peter Jackson must shoulder part of the blame for a revival in forced resuscitations of well-worn fantasy material, which has resulted mostly in derivative dross like this 'reimagining' of the Grimm fairy tale. What reimagining in this context means is a cobbling together of meretricious staples from classics, the most transparent being the seven dwarfs, who are a carbon copy of the plucky band from The Hobbit, right down to having veteran British actors play the lot of them. Meanwhile, Snow White herself is badly served by the casting of Kristen Stewart and her slack-jawed gawp, upstaged at every turn by Charlize Theron's scenery-chewing hamming as the evil queen. It does look good, at least, but by now this is the least that one has come to expect and not sufficient compensation for a muddled and overly action-reliant script. Naturally, all this is of no consequence to its pre-teen target audience, and so a second instalment is under way, albeit thankfully without Stewart this time.

4/10