Review of Red Riding Hood (2011) by Leeway C — 01 Jan 2012

Stuck between two bland and overreacting suitors, Amanda Seyfield only impresses audiences with her natural connection to her character which though she only widens her eyes and move her lips.

A somewhat endurable twist on the classic fairy tale. The production and the visuals are "stunning." The script however, isn't promising especially if the script came from that good horror movie Orphan. The movie challenges the audience with a whodunit plot, its effective half of the time and besides its more than you'd expect from an old fairy tale.

I'm not sure if Catherine Hardwicke's main intentions were to show Summit Entertainment that she can create a love triangle, a medieval world and a big bad werewolf but she does succeed above-an-average scale. The setting and the scenery are well matched to Valerie's red coat and Amanda is (like the summary) magnetic in the role as Valerie. Another main disappointing aspect (besides the dented, clichéd script and the stupid acting) is the talkable, glimpse-shot wolf. I mean the studio created such a marvelous world of medieval villages and yet they can't create a fully digitalized wolf.

The only actors and actresses that stood out the most were Amanda Seyfield, the accented Gary Oldman and Julie Christie as the eccentric grandmother. The rest of the actors such as Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons both make the scenes less interesting and half of the time, the script doesn't even bother to help them.

The film (fortunately) holds a bit of your attention until the revealing of the werewolf and it took me by surprise to find out who the antagonist is. The pacing is well and there's a lot of filler along the journey: there are some back stories (such as Val's mother and her secret crush) to keep you interested and (in most chick flicks) betrayals amongst Valerie's friends. You sort of root for whoever is trying to find the possible truth (Granny visiting Henry) but get sidetracked when everyone gives Valerie an evil-demonic stare. Gary Oldman plays an insane priest slash torturer slash wolf hunter, a character you don't want to believe in because of his methods and accusations.

The soundtrack gives the film a more (for a lack of better words) emo-like beat and the rhythm has a unique cool sound that sort of matches with twilight's OST. The score is just the same, the sound is well paced but off beat and "different.".

Its attention goes to teenage girls for the most part and like twilight, be expected for a huge box office record.

A 43%.