Mirror Mirror Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Mirror Mirror Blu-ray Movie Review

The fairest of them all?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater June 29, 2012

Revisionist fairy tales appear to be the current big Hollywood thing. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland might have kicked it off in 2010, followed by Red Riding Hood in 2011, but this year and the next are when we'll start to hear once upon a time a few too many times. There are new live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Pinocchio in the works, two new Sleeping Beauty-inspired movies on the way—Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie, and a modernization with True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld—and then yet another reimagining of Peter Pan.

Oh, and how's this for double-take-inducing news: Disney has promised to somehow mash up Snow White with Seven Samurai for the upcoming Snow White and the Seven, banking rather optimistically that audiences won't already be sick of the core story after the recent Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror Mirror. Neither of which entirely succeeds at justifying its existence. The latter, directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall), might as well be titled La Belle et la Bête—it's gorgeous to look at, but the storytelling is doggerel.

It's a problem that definitely affected Singh's last film, Immortals, a vivid "Caravaggio meets Fight Club" spectacle that utterly butchered Greek mythology and gave us no characters worth caring about. With the exception of The Fall—his globe- spanning passion project —this has been Singh's modus operandi since The Cell. He gives us lots to look at, but little to feel. You know how babies are easily distracted by movement and bright colors? That's how Mirror Mirror treats its audience. The film is gorgeous to behold—with sets out of some fantasy version of Marie Antoinette and brilliant costumes by the late Eiko Ishioka—but slick production design can't mask a so-so story.

Scripted by Marc Klein and Jason Keller, Mirror Mirror follows suite with many contemporary fairy tale redux films, retooling the plot into a female-empowerment fable. The initial setup owes more to the Disney animated classic than the Grimm Brothers' original. After her father's disappearance and presumed death, Snow White—the gamine Lily Collins, drummer Phil's daughter—lives under the thumb of her narcissistic step- mother, the Queen (Julia Roberts), who's threatened by Snow's youthful beauty. And it would serve here to say that Collins is beautiful; with her dark hair and thick eyebrows, she bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Audrey Hepburn.

Against the Queen's orders, Snow White ventures out into the kingdom to see what life is like for the 99%, and she discovers they're being heavily taxed and subjected to austerity measures by their vain sovereign, who's broke but needs the cash for gross-out cosmetic treatments—bird poop facial, anyone?—and lavish costume balls intended to attract wealthy suitors. Feel free to supply your own metaphorically political interpretation. The Queen has her eyes on Prince Alcott—The Social Network's humorously named Armie Hammer—a dashing royal that Snow White rescued in the woods after he'd been strung up in his skivvies by a gang of dwarves on inflatable stilts. The Queen can't have competition for the Prince's affections, of course, so she tells a lame pun about how "Snow must do what it does best...fall." (Hint: she means die.) In lieu of a woodsman, the Queen orders her sycophantic lackey Brighton—a hammy Nathan Lane—to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. Or, more precisely, to feed her to the evil griffin-like beastie that slinks through the kingdom's darkest bowers.

The monster is here to add a little action/fantasy excitement—and also to supply a twist you might've already worked out— but this isn't the only significant change to the story. Forget Happy, Sneezy, Doc and the rest of the pint-sized whistling miners; this Snow White's seven dwarves are Time Bandits-style thieves with names like Wolf, Grub, and Napoleon, all led by the suspicious Grimm (Danny Woodburn), who wears an incongruous cowboy hat. In the requisite training montage, they teach Snow White to wield a sword, which will come in handy since she's going to have to save the day with spunky girl-power. In this version, it's even Snow White who breaks a spell with a kiss, bringing the Prince back to normal after he'd imbibed the Queen's "puppy love" potion, which turned him into a slobbering but loyal face-licker.

The problem with Mirror Mirror is that it's all-around dull and dramatically limp, undistinguished in tone from countless iterations of the story that have come before. It's fluffed with jokey dialogue—most of which quickly falls flat—and never manages to mix its characters in any interesting or unexpected ways. Julia Roberts is too tame by half, Collins is more pleasant than a real presence, and their scenes together just don't snap. Even the reversal of putting the Prince in the typical distressed damsel role feels too calculated to be surprising. At least Snow White and the Huntsman opted for a darker, more grown-up vibe; Mirror Mirror is more of the same, cartoonishly lighthearted and danger- free. To be fair, the intended audience is the under-10 crowd, but even then, kids would be better served with something like Pixar's Brave, which is smarter, better-written, and far more fun.

Mirror Mirror Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I'll say this for Tarsem Singh—he knows how to paint a pretty picture. Mirror Mirror's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation is across-the-board stunning. Shot digitally with Sony's F35 high definition camera, the image is very nearly noiseless, even the darkest scenes. What grabs you immediately, though, is just how sharp the picture is, from start to finish. The finest details of the actors' faces and clothing are visible in every frame—the slightest wrinkles around Julia Roberts' mouth, Lily Collins' individually visible eyelashes, the threading and texture of Eiko Ishioka's magnificent costume work. Clarity- wise, this is one of the best Blu-ray images I've seen so far this year. Color is no slouch either. With the exception of the forest scenes at night—bathed in blues—most of the film has a warm, creamy cast to the highlights, with ultra-vivid reds, deeply burnished golds, and crisp yellows. Skin tones have been given an appropriate fairy tale bronzing, black levels are deep without crushing shadow detail, and contrast in general is punchy, giving the picture a healthy dimensional quality. And sitting with room to spare on a 50 GB disc, there are no discernible compression issues whatsoever. If "fairest of them all" applies to any aspect of Mirror Mirror, it's definitely the picture quality.

Mirror Mirror Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nearly as impressive is the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which features excellent clarity, dynamic breadth, and almost non-stop immersion. The rear channels are busy with effects and ambience—water lapping and bells tolling, creatures slinking through the forest and behind our heads, horse-drawn carriages bolting across the soundstage, glass exploding outward in shards. Even the hush of snowfall is audible. During the action-heavy scenes, swords clank and blows land with subwoofer-assisted oomph. It all sounds wonderful—clear and punchy and intense. Disney go-to composer Alan Menken knows his way around fairy tale music—he did the scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin—and his orchestral work here swells and sweeps appropriately, filling out the mix and complementing the onscreen action. Throughout it all, dialogue is clean, balanced, and easily understood; there are even some nice moments when the voices seem to accurately reflect the acoustics of their surroundings. The disc doesn't include any foreign language dubs, but there are optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for those that might need or want them.

Mirror Mirror Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 6:55): Five deleted scenes, including an alternate opening.
• Looking Through The Mirror (1080p, 12:58): A series of cast and crew members gushing about Tarsem Singh as a "visionary artist."
• I Believe I Can Dance (1080p, 11:01): The film's choreographer, Paul Becker, teaches us the dance moves for the film's final number.
• Mirror, Mirror Storybook (1080p): A remote-controlled "storybook" version of the film, running 28 pages.
• Prince and Puppies (1080p, 1:59): A bunch of puppies watch the "puppy love" scene and give their thoughts on Armie Hammer's performance.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:07)
• Sneak Peeks (1080p, 4:28)

Mirror Mirror Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With a surfeit of fairy tale films coming down the Hollywood pipeline, I have a feeling Mirror Mirror will be quickly forgotten, potentially lingering in the pop culture consciousness only as a trivia question about Lily Collins' first feature performance. Minus Eiko Ishioka's costume work and Tarsem Singh's curated visual style, the movie just doesn't do enough to distinguish itself. That's not to say it's bad, just that it's dull and ultimately unnecessary, and that kids under ten will probably be better served getting their cinematic kicks elsewhere. The film's Blu-ray presentation is practically perfect, though —with colorful, blade-sharp picture quality and engaging audio—so those still interested in picking this one up have no reasons not to on the technical end.