Cult Classic certainly seems possible. I think it could develop a similar status as Hook, especially in contrast to its Darker And Edgier twin. I just wish the film hadn't been released so soon after its advertising campaign started.
Tuckerscreator: I think you may be onto something there. I like Mirror Mirror better than Hook, but the two do have some similarities, like that apparent desire to deconstruct and reconstruct the source material at the same time, and the grandiose production design wedded to a very intimate, un-epic story.
As far as the ad campaign goes, I think I saw trailers for both this and Snow White and the Huntsman for the first time in late 2011 or something; not an unreasonable lead time for either movie. Where Mirror Mirror seemed to fall short was the marketing dep't not really knowing to do with it, and just harping on Julia Roberts and the humor. Which is a mistake because Mirror Mirror's punchlines are not that great out of context; if you laugh at its slightly corny jokes in context, it's probably because the movie's got you invested in liking or hating the characters involved.
If I'd been cutting the trailers, I think I would have, yes, showed Julia Roberts being evil, but then borrowed heavily from the dwarves+Snow scenes, including the training montage, because that to me was the real heart of the movie, and probably the most unique thing about it besides the visuals.
Well, I didn't know the movie existed until the trailers started popping up on Youtube, only to find that the movie was coming out the very next day. I'm not sure if that's my own fault or the advertising campaign's, but if it were the latter then it certainly would have been better to give the anticipation for the movie more time to build up.
I had the opposite opinion about the trailers themselves, though. I found them funny, and usually I REALLY loathe watching movie trailers. And it sold me when it showed Lily Collins as a cute little snarker. She's at least got to be a better Snow White than Kristen Stewart.
Sorry for the blank comment-hit wrong button. I guess I must have missed the more recent and balanced trailers in favor of the "All Julia and Nathan, all the time" ones. And yes, seriously, my Dilbert stress toy would probably make a better Snow White than the chick from Twilight. :)
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Possible Cult Classic in the Making? (Spoilers)
I didn't like the trailers very much, because they had that obnoxiously snarky, too-cool-for-the-old-school vibe that I associate with The Nineties, and because they seemed to be seriously implying that the evil queen was the protagonist, if only in a My Best Friends Wedding Villain Protagonist way. But I gave it a try at the cheap theaters, basically expecting some shiny sets and costumes and not much else. I got that, plus a lot of cheesy but likable humor, the most playful swordfight I'd seen since the first Pirates of the Caribbean, and a surprisingly fun set of characters.
Lily Collins maybe wasn't quite pretty enough, but she had a real earnestness and mischievousness that really sold me on the character. Julia Roberts is very amusing as the selfish, high-maintenance evil queen, and surprisingly chilling as the Mirror. Nathan Lane, who I tend to think of as an entertaining Large Ham, had a surprising warmth and vulnerability as her minion. The dwarves, played by actual "little people," are Crazy Awesome personified. Armie Hammer as the Prince is perhaps the weakest link, but he at least manages to be somewhat sympathetic in a thankless Chew Toy role, and his swordplay is rather good.
The film's taken some flak as being anti-feminist, but I'm not sure I agree. Yes, Snow White is merely okay at physical combat, after a few weeks or months of training by the dwarves, and not totally on a level with them or the Prince, who've been doing this all their lives, but that struck me as fairly plausible, and she evens the playing field with her Guile Hero and Magnetic Hero moments. The queen is a selfish and short-sighted ***** who spends other people's money on herself, is nasty to the help and her stepchild, and in general is a spot-on caricature of a fairly common personality type, both male and female, that deserves most of the flak it gets.
The other controversial aspect is Snow White's final confrontation with her stepmother. I thought it worked in context. Snow is the king's acknowledged heir at this point, a high-ranking authority figure in the realm, and she basically tells the stepmother: "Here is the method of your execution; if you reject it, I can arrange another." Bearing in mind, at this point, the stepmother is a traitor and former usurper who's just demonstrated that she will NEVER stop scheming against Snow.
JMNSHO.