Red Riding Hood – advance review

Review:

Yes, Red Riding Hood is indeed a bad movie – but if you liked Twilight, I suspect you’ll enjoy this one too. After all, it was made with you in mind.

There is an interesting premise buried within this movie – the idea of a werewolf hiding in plain sight, and a town turning on each other in fear of the wolf who walks among them, is fantastic – but the execution doesn’t come any where near doing it justice. In terms of plotting and mystery, this movie pretty much falls flat on its face. It’s a kaleidescope of interesting bits that never coalesce, never form a coherent whole – which is a shame, because if it had worked, this would have been a solid movie. A lot of potential was wasted here.

Still, this movie was billed as a breathless romance, and as such it certainly delivers plenty of attractive young people mooning over each other. I’m not immune to a fun cheesy romance – I’ll even admit I enjoyed Letters to Juliet – but while this cast has plenty of allure, the chemistry is only adequate, not stellar. I blame the script, to be honest – Amanda Seyfried (Valerie) is a fine young actress, but she really doesn’t have much to do here aside from widen her eyes in fear or longing. And the circumstances of Valerie’s family trying to keep her from her obvious true love, Peter, were just painfully contrived – her fianacee, Henry, is more interesting as a wolf suspect than a love interest, and calling the whole situation a love triangle is far too generous; there’s no question who Valerie is going to choose in the end.

Honestly, this movie just invites Twilight comparisons – from the mist-strewn helicopter shots of forest and dale, to the casting of Billy Burke (Bella’s Dad) as Valerie’s father, to that same stilted quality that irritated so many in Twilight, Catherine Hartwick (the director) is pretty much repeating her Twilight work here. And yet there are some genuinely gorgeous visuals in this movie – when the red cloak was swirling, and the scene with the metal mask (I can’t say more for spoilers) – along with a fair amount of entertaining action and fight scenes. Plus the wolf is way cooler – and scarier – than the wolves in the Twilight saga. (And as a bonus, if you watch sci fi TV, you’ll see a lot of familiar faces in minor roles -Vancouver casting at its finest.) Even despite the lack of plot, there are aspects to this movie that are hypnotic and alluring.

Hands down, without question, my favorite part of this movie was the sight of Gary Oldman hamming it up with gleeful verve. He chews the scenery in glorious fashion, and is clearly having a grand old time – much like Michael Sheen in New Moon, Oldman knows exactly what this movie is and is there to enjoy it. He’s pure fun to watch – and yet once again I couldn’t help but wistfully think how much better this movie could have been if, say, Oldman had a plot and some decent character beats to work with.

Still, the movie wraps up well, with a nice action finale and an ending as romantic as anyone could wish. As I was walking out of the theater I overheard several tweens declaring it was like the best movie ever, and they want a sequel now! And I’ll admit, despite the fact that I groaned a few times while watching this movie, I never once thought of leaving. Red Riding Hood is a flawed movie, no question, but it does have the ability to suck you in with its glorious cheese – but only if you let it.