THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR (2016)

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s film is both a prequel and sequel to SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN while combining elements of Hans Christian Anderson’s THE SNOW QUEEN into a screenplay written by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin. Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Nick Frost and Sam Claflin reprise their roles from the first film while introducing new characters played by Emily Blunt, Rob Brydon and Jessica Chastain. The film seems to concentrate more on the characters played by Mr. Hemsworth and Ms. Chastain and to its credit relies a bit less on CGI (computer graphics imagery) than often seen in this type of movie but more than I would have preferred. Though certainly not a great film, it has fine production values and a talented cast with Ms. Theron appearing at the beginning and reappearing near the end but is unfortunately absent for the majority of the film.