YMMV / The Huntsman: Winter's War

• Awesome Music: Halsey did a remix of her song “Castle” for the film, and it's amazing.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • The dwarfs, as with most comic relief characters. They're notably more comedic than they were in the first film, so it's up for debate if that was welcome or not.
  • Freya gets this big time, from fans wondering whether she's a Jerkass Woobie or an Anti-Villain. Likewise, some found Emily Blunt's performance to be full of Narm (see below) - and others found it to be a good one.
• Broken Base: Dropping Snow White from the film caused one. A few (notably detractors of Kristen Stewart) were glad to see her go. Others felt that the story needed her, and that Eric isn't an interesting enough lead.
• Critical Backlash: Despite the way it was savaged by critics, it has its share of fans, and some who even prefer it to the first.
• Critical Dissonance: Well... Rotten Tomatoes puts the critics score at 16%, while audiences are at 49%.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Bromwyn, the Deadpan Snarker of the dwarfs. She gets most of the best lines.
• Funny Moments: Charlize Theron's son got a mad crush on Emily Blunt while on set that's still going.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The film has done substantially better overseas than in the United States. It only grossed $20 million in its American opening weekend, but $78 million in other territories.
• Ham and Cheese: Charlize Theron once again does this as Ravenna. She's clearly having lots of fun hamming it up.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The revelation that the Duke was actually enchanted by Ravenna to kill Freya's daughter gets even worse the more you think about it. The Duke's horrified reaction and the line "I had to" are particularly telling: it indicates that not only was he forced to kill his own child, but he may have been fully aware of what was happening the whole time and was unable to stop because of Ravenna's spell.
• Heartwarming Moments: As evidenced here, Charlize Theron's son got a mad crush on Emily Blunt while on set that's still going.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Casting Emily Blunt alongside Chris Hemsworth in this seems oddly coincidental. Before being forced to back out because of scheduling conflicts, Emily Blunt was originally cast as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - a soldier trained from childhood and sterilised so she couldn't have children. Here Blunt is the one training Child Soldiers and her angst once again comes from children.
  • When promoting the film on The Graham Norton Show, the subject of 'dogging' was mentioned^note The practice of having sex in public. Chris Hemsworth didn't know what it was, but Jessica Chastain did - and said she found out while making the film. In the film itself there's a scene where Eric and Sara have sex in the woods - with the dwarfs nearby.
  • Colin Morgan once again playing a a man whose lover's name is Freya. It's clearly a shout out, but then next year's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword would have another Merlin cast member in Death by Cameo as an obvious nod to their role (in this case, Katie McGrath).
• Just Here for Godzilla: Probably the biggest draw the movie had was getting another chance to see Charlize Thereon Chewing the Scenery as a gloriously evil queen.
• Narm: The entirety of Emily Blunt's performance, as she alternates from being oddly bland and stoic to OUTBURSTING LIKE A MANIAC in a heartbeat, she's frequently compared to Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending. Her screams of anguish before unleashing her powers for the first time is a major moment of this.
• Narm Charm:
  • Jessica Chastain's attempts at a Scottish accent are oddly endearing.
  • Overall, the film seems to be well-aware of the cheese that comes with its speeches on The Power of Love, which makes them silly yet still charming.
• One-Scene Wonder: Colin Morgan as Freya's lover in the prologue.
• Sequelitis: This film got considerably colder reviews than the original and managed to become one of two fairy-tale sequel bombs for Joe Roth in 2016 alone, with Alice Through the Looking Glass being the other.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: A few complained that the story involved sisters, one of whom had ice powers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Rebellious Duke's son William is relegated to a one scene appearance, despite being proven as a competent fighter.

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