Snow White and the Huntsman is an uneven interpretation of a very popular, very successful story, The Game of Thrones.

Well, perhaps not. But the comparison is not entirely unjust. From the moment the evil queen, played with a fierce appetite for melodrama by Charlize Theron, cons a morally superior king out of life and throne and then marches in her equally evil brother, you begin to wonder if the Dothrakis are not soon to follow.

The film plays out like a truncated mini-series favouring a well-balanced focus on five essential characters: Snow White, the queen, the queen’s brother, the duke’s son and the huntsman.

Within the story too lie shades of Sleeping Beauty, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, and a not-subtle-enough-for-me slip into the New Testament. This Snow White recites the Lord’s Prayer and there’s a resurrection with a call for the meek to inherit the earth.

I have little doubt of the influence Christian doctrine would have had on the original text and all these inclusions could well be justified for I confess that memory of the Snow White mythology fades with age. After all, I’m basing my Snow White knowledge on the Disney animated film, a landmark production for being the first feature length animated movie but hardly a harbinger of a faithful adaptation.

Perhaps this is a purer Snow White. A version closer to the original story than the one Disney softened up for children the likes of which I once was. If true, then this Snow White could well be a more satisfying tale to the millions upon millions of fairytale geeks that are out there somewhere, I’m sure.

It’s unlikely the film’s design and significant slant towards the dark will be much of a disappointment to anyone. There’s a savoury bleak artistry that leaves this Snow White almost humourless, save for a few slapstick dwarf antics.

First-time director Rupert Sanders creates an impressive medieval landscape in this retelling of the classic fairytale where Grimm/grim is highlighted and merriment left to Disney. The result is a pleasant enough adventure with a few unpleasant bumps along the way.

But most of what you might want from a Snow White story is here: an evil queen, a magic mirror (actually, it’s more of a magic serving tray morphed into leaking lava lamp), a prince, seven dwarfs, a poisoned apple and a huntsman.

And all that is left out — the wishing well, the cozy shack, an old hag, a prince and a few other specific elements — is made up for with a lot more huntsman.

If the dwarves (none named Dopey, Doc, Sleepy, etc.) look and sound familiar, it’s because they are played by familiar full-sized actors:  Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Toby Jones, Ray Winstone and others, all reduced and retouched to become miniatures of themselves. It’s as if the filmmakers were trying to get the jump on the upcoming Hobbit movie. It’s freakishly effective but one has to wonder if there is not a union protecting the few roles available for undersized.

Snow White and the Huntsman is hostage to the some of the same limitations that plagued The Hunger Games in that it wants to be violent and yet requires a PG rating if it’s to have any kind of box office success. But unlike The Hunger Games whose blurred and softened reference to violence seems contrary to the story, Snow White is effectively frightening, and often disturbing – all the while never quite crossing the line into adult entertainment.

But a family picture this is not. And that’s where I find the film uneven. In truth, Snow White and the Huntsman clearly reaches beyond the texture and tone of a child’s bedtime story and yet doesn’t entirely commit to its own darkness.

Saying that, would I take my six-year-old to see it? Not unless I hope to destroy whatever remaining vestibules of the innocent faith she has in a kind and decent world. I’m reserving that particular father/daughter moment for The Dark Knight Rises.

Rating: 3/5.

Director: Rupert Sanders  

Run Time: 129 mins