Weekend Wrap-Up and Archetype Gripes

I spent yesterday kicking around town with my old friend Laura, which was a blast; we'd scarcely seen each other since I left for Seattle in 2006, and more's the pity - because we always manage to achieve awesome.* We lunched, we coffeed, and later we grabbed our respective men for a showing of Snow White and the Huntsman. The company was great. The movie was...um...pretty. But kind of weak.

I don't know. I feel like I'm not being fair, but I found it strangely flat. When I went to Twitter and Facebook in the immediate aftermath and mused about the movie's lack of resonance, the number one reply could be summed up as "KSTEW SUCKS, YO." And I was like, damn, people. Cut a girl some slack.

No, Kristen Stewart was fine. She didn't have much to work with, bless her heart, and no one else did either. I guess that's why I hate to hate on it: The actors were great. I loved drunken English Thor and his sweaty, scowly ways; the Evil Queen was power-goth murder on wheels; Prince Charming excelled with pointy things and quips; Snow of Arc had glowy skin and was kind to animals; and the dwarves were a study in Wasted But Delightful Cameos. But I felt like it never really gelled.

You'd think that the recent shotgun spray of Snow White redos/updates/reinterpretations/etc. would eventually produce something interesting by sheer statistical chance. But I'm still waiting.


* Lest you doubt: That's her in the middle back at DragonCon in 2004. See? Awesomeness.