So, saw the movie. My thoughts:
It was a visually stunning film. The director has a history of music videos and the imagery showed this. Everything looked great. I was particularly fond of the scene that was very Disney-esqque of the animals leading Snow White to the unic....err white deer that she touches before it is shot and hurt by the forces of darkness (coughLegendcough). It was the one point where the movie really sucked you into the visual feast they were going for. In fact, even though it certainly pulls from many films and media quite blatantly (LOTR battles, Legend nature visuals, Neverending Story bog-eating horses, Game of Thrones royal incest, etc. etc.) it works well in creating its own distinct world that is at least pretty to look at.
However, the problem is there is nothing below that surface. The plot of this movie is paper thin and despite having the rich heritage of the Snow White myth and the Brothers Grimm in particular to pull from, they choose to just go through the motions of Hollywood committee writing. She's the chosen one, blah blah, the Huntsman falls in love with her even though they have about five lines blah blah, half an hour is them talking for 20-second pitches between action scenes, etc. etc. Apparently all it took to defeat the Queen is to sneak dwarves through the sewers to open the gates? Did they really need Snow White for that?
Charlize Theron is a lot of fun to watch. However, she is not allowed to fully ham it up and devour the screen with her character. Despite dominating the first 15 minutes of the movie (the best part of it), once Snow White escapes she just mopes around one room in her castle with varying degrees of old-age make-up and pain on her face. Then Snow White comes and fights her. Not a whole lot to do.
Chris Hemsworth plays the burly hero who swings the axe. He swings the axe well and beyond giving Snow White the fabled kiss (as opposed to the prince), that's all that's asked of him. And swing that axe well, he did.
I'm just going to be honest Kristen Stewart was terribly miscast in this movie. I don't think she's a bad actress and I in fact liked her in Adventureland, Into the Wild, and The Runaways. However, her being Snow White always seemed odd and proved to be worse. Let's just ignore that she's supposedly more beautiful in this story than Charlize Theron (when she's obviously not), but her entire presence is a blank slate. Granted, much of that has to do with the paper thin script and a director who is more interested in visuals than pacing or storytelling. Still, Hemsworth is able to muddle through to positive results, same with the all-star Seven (Eight?) Dwarves. And Theron is able to turn her underdeveloped role into a scene-stealer. But Stewart as Snow White, much less a heroic Snow White who leads knights into battle and charges with all the St. Crispin's Day trappings that go along with it, just doesn't work. She's expresionless. She has no chemistry with Hemsworth or the prince. It just doesn't work.
The movie made a slick trailer, but it's as rotten as Snow White's ill-fated apple.
Oh well.