Mirror, Mirror is the first of the Snow White films to hit the big screen this year. I didn’t really have very high expectations, but this movie at times tried too hard — jokes about how focus groups really like princes to save the day — while at the same time didn’t try hard enough because it had moments that were incredibly slow and boring.

Julia Roberts comes out ok because she plays against type. She’s the evil stepmother (in some amazing costumes which were the best part of the movie) who is keeping poor Snow White (Lily Collins) a hostage in the palace because Snow White is prettier and of course the rightful heir to the kingdom. The queen demands that Snow White be killed on her 18th birthday, but she escapes and is adopted by the most crotchety band of bandit dwarves.

The dwarves help remind her that she needs to fight the queen and so they train her in their bandit ways. During the training we get to see a plicky Snow White trying to gain confidence in herself. And I’m not going to be giving anything away by telling you that good triumphs over evil. Lily Collins as Snow White is cute, she tries, she just doesn’t have much to work with. This is a movie for kids, there are lots of pretty costumes and colors (and the dwarves get around on this awesome stilts), but the film says nothing new, nor worthy of someone over the age of 12.