You don't need much more than the poster art to tell that this isn't your childhood's Snow White. Someone apparently thought that the children's book could be taken to a heavier and darker level for modern adults. What we get here is the nightmare version on steroids, set in an earlier age when everyone was pretty much argumentative, sour, combative, distrustful, and just out for themselves. A wretched lot. But none more so than this Queen.

Yes, it's Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron, "In the Valley of Elah") who's the biggest hater of them all. Amped up with magic powers, her dangerous, devoted brother Finn (Sam Spruell), her army, and majestic guile, she takes over any kingdom she wishes to rule on a journey to reign over the continent. In this case, it's King Magnus's (Noah Huntley) in her sights, and by presenting herself as a helpless captive she captivates his heart and becomes his queen. First order of business? The immediate installation of her mirror.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" she asks. And the answer forthcoming from it is a pleasing one, but there are reservations. Soon it'll be warning that her beauty, as well as her powers, will be curtailed by someone very close... her stepdaughter, Snow White (Kristen Stewart) .

Not being someone to stand on ceremony or subtlety, she sets her troops out to crush 'em all, though a few escape. The result is the kind king's banishment with his young son, Prince William (Sam Claflin), Snow White's childhood friend. The escapees live to tell the tale but become exiles, all.

Snow White, however, doesn't make it out of the castle. Word spreads that she's dead. But, the queen has a need for her rival in beauty. She imprisons her nemesis in the tallest tower of the castle, and there she remains for years, becoming more beautiful with each one (now Kristen Stewart).

Ravenna, showing signs of age, grows impatient to acquire immortality by devouring Snow White's heart. But before she can taste of her captive, the young beauty escapes the castle through a secret passageway and makes her way into the Dark Forest which is inhabited by some pretty scary, hostile creatures both vegetable and human.

The wicked queen is furious and attacks brother Finn for allowing the escape. He must find a "huntsman" to search for her immediately, and comes he up with the unsavory, independent Eric (Chris Hemsworth, "The Avengers"), one of the few who know the Dark Forest and has come out of it alive. This wooly but handsome guy relents, goes after his prey, finds her and winds up becoming Snow White's protector. He teaches his ward skills of combat and, in the process, becomes emotionally involved.

The staging of all of this is filmmaking at its technical best -- from the standpoint of effects, spectacle, action and craftsmanship. But this expertise ends with casting and writing (by Evan Daughety and Martin Solibakke) and, to a critical degree, to Rupert Sanders' direction.

One of the more interesting choices was Theron for a part that was certain to give us a look at her in a previously unexplored genre. And, indeed, her beauty and capacity for cold brutality paid off. (A great deal more than misconceived first choices, like Felicity Jones and Winona Ryder, would have, I'll wager).

Similarly, Hemsworth is a far more suitable Huntsman than the inconceivable first choice candidate Johnny Depp, which might have converted the whole tone of the picture into a Jack Sparrow farce.

But, though these initial casting choices were clearly inept, the worst of all was the casting of Stewart in the key role. Now, this is an actress whom the camera loves as it does few others. And, I've seen this gorgeous actress in more than the Twilight series, and have come to respect her talent in such work as "The Yellow Handkerchief" and "Welcome to the Rileys." Her shyly reserved loveliness plays well in such modest atmospheres and she can be affecting. But what she shows in the daunting demands of a Snow White, directly up against the likes of a monster of guile and evil like Theron's majestic, entirely ruthless, larger than life villain, is that she doesn't hack it. Not even close. Blah.

As the story proceeds to its eventual payoff, when the demands of acting turn serious for the Joan of Arc character that is Snow White, things begin to fall apart. Our expectations are a great deal higher than Stewart is capable of delivering. At the very end [SPOILER AHEAD], at Snow White's crowning moment, it becomes nothing more than spectacle. Well, great for the costume, art and cinematography departments. But what Stewart is doing with this glorious moment is sheer vacuity. In the moment that she at last ascends her throne, adored by all and most of all by her savior, Eric, what does she say? She stares out at her subjects and says... nothing, and the film goes down to utter defeat.

"John Carter" land.

This role doesn't require sweet honesty of its star, but a growling demand for retribution and justice -- for which direction, writing, action choreography and, possibly, her own talent, let her down.

Just picture what an excitement this film could have been with the likes of Emma Stone, Blake Lively, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel McAdams or the always feisty Ellen Page in this role! You needed someone with the looks and the grits to move the furniture.

For a film with the revisionist audacity that this one had, I can't think of a greater disappointment in its realization. It's so obvious that Sanders and staff were putting marquee value ahead of any functional calibration of realizing the potentials of their screenplay. Too bad. Stewart does ensure a healthy boxoffice (so many tween and teen fans), but little praise from the critics or the critical.

                                      ~~  Jules Brenner