How do you get people excited about an entirely unnecessary sequel? Easy: You cast two of cinema’s most kickass women to join Thor and Imperator Furiosa, then promise plenty of scenery chewing, sword-clashing, and maybe a few steamy looks of longing. Sold. Though Snow White And The Huntsman wasn’t outright panned when it hit theaters in 2012, you’d be hard-pressed to find a tried-and-true fan of the grim fairytale retelling. But the team behind Winter’s War knows what audiences liked about the original (mostly Charlize Theron), so they decided to up the ante with Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain, thus making this weird, quasi-live-action Frozen one of the spring’s must-see movies. The Huntsman: Winter’s War comes from special-effect maestro Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and also stars Chris Hemsworth, Nick Frost, Sheridan Smith, Sam Claflin, and Rob Brydon.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War opens in theaters everywhere on April 22, but The A.V. Club and Universal have an opportunity for you to see it for free on April 19. For your chance to win a pair of passes to the advance screening, simply follow the link here and enter your information. Remember: Advance screenings are often intentionally overbooked, so be sure to arrive early if you want to guarantee yourself a seat. An official plot synopsis and trailer for the film can be found below.
Long before the evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya (Emily Blunt), suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly huntsmen—including Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and warrior Sara (Jessica Chastain)—only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love.
When Freya learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power. But once she discovers Ravenna can be resurrected from its golden depths, the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever seen. Now, their amassing army shall prove undefeatable unless the banished huntsmen who broke their queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one another.