Red Riding Hood

This film is a fun adaptation from the old fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. In this version, however, the wolf is in fact a werewolf. Intriguing right? Valerie, played by Amanda Seyfried of Mamma Mia, is red riding hood, but she is not little in this version. She is a young woman who is in love with one man, Peter played by the smoldering Shiloh Fernandez, but engaged to be married to another, Henry played by the elegant Max Irons. When Valerie’s village becomes plagued by the wolf, the villagers begin looking for ways to rid themselves of it. While some decide the best course is to hunt it and kill it themselves, others call upon the help of renowned werewolf hunter Solomon, Gary Oldman. Everything quickly descends into chaos as all fail to kill the wolf and Valerie realizes that she has a connection to the wolf. Can she discover who it is in time to save her family and friends?

I thought this movie was really fun. My expectations were low, however because of Catherine Hardwicke at the helm. You may remember her as the director of the first Twilight film who was not invited to direct the following installments. I take similar issue with this film as I did the Twilight film. As a director she relies heavily on cliché and tired old scenes that makes today’s discerning viewer roll their eyes. I found myself snickering at certain scenes that were meant to be poignant or meaningful but I just found them stupid.

That being said, the music choices were very intriguing. The music pulled the anachronistic elements together and made them seem less out of place and more cool. Also the visual element to this film was quite good. These were the two elements that drew me in on the first preview. While these elements make for an attention-grabbing and exciting preview, they don’t hold a film together very well. The dialogue cliché and borderline laughable, the story is quite formula in general, and all the characters are flat. But hey, this isn’t supposed to be Ben-Hur! This is made to be a fun way to pass a couple of hours. And it does that quite well. Am I going to buy it? No. Am I glad I went to see it? Yeah, it was fun. My personal experience was a bit ruined since the theater I was at kept cutting the sound out, but that almost made it more fun.

My opinion in a nutshell:

Entertainment- 7- The people are pleasant to look at, the costumes, sets and music are all appealing, and the violence and sexy bits are all adequately vibrant without being graphic. Just don’t expect too much and you will enjoy your two hours quite nicely.

Award-worthy- 2- This movie was made for fun. Not quality. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?