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10 Questions Left Unanswered by The Huntsman: Winter’s War

There is a very straightforward fairy tale story in The Huntsman: Winter’s War, but it takes place in a world that makes little sense.
By  · Published on April 22nd, 2016

How Does Freya Not Know There’s a World Beyond Her Queendom?

Speaking of the sisters apparently not knowing what each other is up to, there’s a scene where Freya is discussing her domination of the North lands with one of her soldiers (Sope Dirisu), and she acts like she has no idea there are lands beyond what’s included in her cool topographical ice map. She thinks that’s where the world ends. But didn’t she start out in the South? And doesn’t she know her sister was conquering all the kingdoms down there before she died? Also, she has that ice owl she ripped off from the original Clash of the Titans that she just sent to the South to spy on Eric. She’s a confused one.

How Did Eric Know About the Ice Owl?

Now, speaking of that owl, wasn’t that some coincidence that on its presumed first trip to the South it winds up easily finding Eric, whom Freya didn’t even know was alive, just as he’s being told about Ravenna’s mirror still being powerful and also lost out in the forests somewhere? It took a while, but that’s some good spy work all at once all of a sudden. Here’s the other thing, though: how did Eric know about the owl? He didn’t seem to know of its existence when it was spying on him and Sara making forbidden love in the hot springs. And this would surely be his first encounter with it since that day.

Why Doesn’t Snow White Just Destroy the Mirror?

The evil magic mirror is still causing trouble, and now-queen Snow White (non Kristen Stewart extra) and now-king William (Claflin) think the best idea is to send it away. Sure its destination is a place called Sanctuary, where it’s expected to be in safe hands, but that’s still quite a gamble. And, of course, it was because it causes the deaths of the soldiers transporting it and is stolen by goblins and could easily wind up in the hands of someone or something worse. Is that hard to just destroy? In the end all it takes is it being frozen to crack and be done with. Sure, that was probably a really cold freeze, but maybe another way? Or just put it somewhere securely covered since that’s said to be one way to keep it’s dark powers at bay.

Why Does Freya Keep Some Foes as Frozen Trophies?

Freya is responsible for the deaths of many, many people throughout the North lands, by way of the work of her army of huntsmen. And personally she can freeze an enemy to the point of them shattering into thousands of pieces. Yet she only freezes the dwarves Gryff and Doreena (Rob Brydon and Alexandra Roach) to a point where they’re still alive — because they’re good guys, and the audience likes them — and put on display in her throne room. At one point it looks like she has a handful of other such trophies and uses them as figures in a big chess game. Or maybe I was relating the image too much to the chess game at the movie’s start. Most of them also seemed to be small in size, so perhaps she does that as punishment to child recruits. But there’s no reason for her to do so with those two dwarves she has no ties to nor need for.

What’s the Deal With Ravenna Still Being Alive?

Of course Universal wanted Charlize Theron back for the sequel, but just having her appear in the prequel section, when her character would still be alive, wasn’t enough. She had to come back in the last 20 minutes for the climax. But how? She died. Well, the question is asked in the movie and it’s not really sufficiently answered. Ravenna seems not to really know if she’s alive or dead or whatever “something in between” actually means. So she threw her soul into the mirror and became a part of it, trapped, and while she could do some evil from the inside it wasn’t until Freya (or anyone?) asked it, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all.” Later, when she seems to be killed again with the destruction of the mirror, obviously she isn’t. Her soul has obviously passed on again. Where to exactly? The Huntsman 3, of course.

What the Hell is Liam Neeson Going On About?

The most baffling part of THWW is Liam Neeson’s voiceover narration. He says such ludicrous and contradictory things as “love is nothing but a fairy tale” and “sometimes fairy tales do come true.” He also begins by telling us this is the story we haven’t seen (duh) of before the happily ever after — well, that’s true for the first section of the movie but not the whole thing since it laps the plot of SWatH. He also says something about love conquering all even under the ice. I didn’t quite get the quote because it doesn’t make any sense. Neeson’s voiceover never says one thing that is pertinent to the story or anything at all. It’s as if the filmmakers just felt like fairy tale movies need a narrator but otherwise had no real point to have one.

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.