There are so many conflicting messages in "The Huntsman: Winter's War" that after the first half hour you give up trying to decipher them, only to realize they aren't messages at all but a grab bag of snippets from various Hollywood blockbusters.

You're reminded of the old joke about a frugal aunt who has a box stashed in her closet labelled: "Strings too short to use." "The Huntsman: Winter's War" appears to be what happens when you have a team of writers all clutching at the short strings, and a director who is the kind person who can't say no.

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan's movie is both a prequel and a sequel to the 2012 "Snow White and the Huntsman," another re-interpetation of the classic fairytale, which featured Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman. Though events in the new movie take place before and after the 2012 one, Snow White is nowhere to be seen and the story runs laps around a plot that tries to keep calm and carry on, like it doesn't matter.