Mirror Mirror (2012)

Not the fairest of them all

An evil queen steals control of a kingdom and an exiled princess enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright.




In an attempt to shake things up regarding the well loved fairy tale, Tarsem Singh has chosen to make a few changes. Firstly, he puts the films focus upon Julia Roberts' evil queen, which is a bad decision as Roberts lacks gravitas, possibly due to her hamming it up in her role. He also makes Snow White into less of a damsel, which isn't bad as the female empowerment angle is handled well, but Lily Collins plays the role too blandly to really make you care for her or her journey.

No caption can epitomize how
ridiculous this picture is

The changes are things I don't really mind, but the slow and dull delivery doesn't help to try and make them work. The worst part of it all, however, is the many (and I mean many) attempts at jokes, which have little more wit than the kind of jokes you'd see in a typical straight-to-dvd film or an awful kiddie flick (minus the pop culture references). The low point of it all is a toss-up between the 'Puppy Love' scene shown in the trailer and a moment where bird poo gets put on the Queen's face.

It's not all bad though. While the costumes may be utterly garish, the cinematography is great to look at, Armie Hammer gives off the best performance of the film and the Dwarves were worth every minute of their screentime.

While Mirror Mirror may be pretty on the surface of things, it's ultimately hollow underneath. When puppets sent by the Queen start playing 'Whack A Dwarf', you'll feel the film has gone on for too long.