The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Serving as both a prequel and a sequel to the 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, the visually engaging but otherwise completely lifeless, The Huntsman: Winter’s War has arrived in the form of one big icy lump of disappointment. It’s a painfully unexciting fantasy adventure which fails to build any sort of intrigue, interest and innovation with it's potentially deep mythology

The Huntsman: Winter’s War begins with a lengthy prologue – set long before Snow White defeated the Evil Queen, Ravenna (Theron) – where we learn about Ravenna’s younger sister, Freya (Blunt) who, is betrayed a secret lover,  has managed to awaken her magical powers of controlling ice and has now fled to the North to rule over her own glacial kingdom.

Having built an army of Huntsmen to conquer the lands and eventually defend her wintry palace, Freya is soon angered when she learns that two of her very best warriors, Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Chastain) have broken the ultimate rule and fallen for one another. She separates the two lovers through an act of dark magic and several years later, with Snow White now in power, Eric is trying to get back to some sort of normality; but when goblins take control of the Magic Mirror, Eric goes on a quest that soon leads him to his long-lost love.

Helmed by first-time director, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan – the French filmmaker was in charge of the special effects in the previous film – and scripted by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin of Hercules, Hangover II fame, the film takes itself far too seriously; a characteristic that paints the plot passionless and detached. Fetching visuals and the elaborate costumes keep things interesting, but the rich imagery cannot make up for the fact that the story is flat and painfully uninvolving, despite the film’s accomplished cast.

Hemsworth and Chastain, whose love affair is the supposed heart of the story, share very little chemistry, whilst both Blunt and Theron offer performances that seem to do no more than go through the motions. It’s an unconvincing and a joyless piece of filmmaking which feels empty, forced and most of all, unmagical.