Mirror Mirror Directed by: Tarsem Singh Starring: Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer Rating: Not Yet Rated Release Date: March 16, 2012
TRAILER SCORE: 1/10
Thoughts by TSR: This kind of breaks my heart. Not because I was especially excited about another revisionist Snow White film, but rather because I am quite fond of a lot of the people involved. Alas, nothing about this trailer for Mirror Mirror gives me hope for the final film, nor does it allow me to describe it as anything other than terrible.
There are so many things I hate about this trailer. I hate the made-for-TV-level voiceover that plays throughout. Even more than that, I hate the “I believe I believe I believe in love” song/dance number that serves as the opening and immediately works to turn me off the entire thing. But it gets worse. Much worse. The acting is dreadful across the board, particularly from a certain Oscar winner (I’m looking at you, Julia Roberts). It hurts to see someone like Armie Hammer be completely lost in something that looks this bad, especially coming off strong work in The Social Network and J. Edgar. The trailer also features gems such as “Snow White? Snow who? Snow way!” and “Say hello to my little friend,” (referring, of course, to one of the dwarfs).
I would say pathetic attempts like that are the worst thing about this trailer, if not for the fact it was directed by Tarsem. Maybe it’s simply a case of them not being finished (in which case, why would you have released the trailer?), but this doesn’t even look all that visually impressive. Say what you will about Tarsem’s other films, but nearly everyone can agree they are nice to look at. The Fall was able to transport me to that world, but here nearly every shot just strikes me as a bunch of sound stages masked with shoddy CGI.
I’ll give them this: Snow White’s swan hat and Armie Hammer’s rabbit ear top hat are hilarious. But when that sentence is the nicest thing I have to say about a trailer? Ouch. I’m not someone who thinks everything needs to be dark and gritty (though, in this case I do think the darker Snow White and the Huntsman looks infinitely better). The idea of a Snow White film with this lighter tone is perfectly fine. Unfortunately the issue is in execution, and this trailer for Mirror Mirror is an abject failure on every level.