Red Riding Hood: Review By MutantFairy

This is not a "Little Red Riding Hood" movie; it's a werewolf movie for teen girls. There is a red hood, a Grandmother, a visit through the woods, a wolf & a woodsman so I guess you could say it's loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is not that little, she's an older teenager which means that there is a love story.

Amanda Seyfried seemed very bland, but she was probably directed to be that way, because by not giving her a very distinct personality she becomes Everywoman so that the girls in the audience can easily put themselves in the movie. Our heroine isn't really a heroine: she is restrained by societal norms that exist during whatever time this movie is set in. She can't marry who she loves, she isn't strong and she doesn't save the day. She represents all the young girls watching who also have similar restrictions on their life.

I liked how the buildings were designed to protect them from the werewolves with spikes & sharp edges jutting out of the walls & ledges. Even tree branches were altered by the woodsmen to be spikes to hurt the werewolf. Thankfully the werewolf is mostly CGI instead of an actual wolf. There are some pretty good actors in this movie. Michael Hogan, Gary Oldman, Michael Shanks & Virginia Madsen do a good job.

We don't know who the werewolf is but it isn't very hard to figure out, even with the red herrings & mis-direction, but that isn't the point of the movie. The point of the movie is the teen romance. People start to suspect each other of being the wolf but it never gets too intense, which I think is the main problem with this movie. Despite the torture & the deaths it never seems frightening. There is nothing scary about this movie. The werewolf injures & kills people but it is so quick (& mostly off-screen) that we are not afraid of the werewolf. The humans on the other hand are supposed to be the real monsters in this movie. The murders they commit are given a little more screen time but it still isn't enough to have a real impact. This movie is PG-13 & designed to appeal to young women so the danger is nonexistent. It's too bad because there was a lot of potential in the story; I think it might have been better if it were longer & rated R.

It's harmless fluff for teen girls & young women. But it's not bad fluff. This movie is designed for young girls & on that basis, it isn't as bad as reviewers (mostly old & male) would have you believe. The movie is not about a werewolf but about who our heroine will live "happily ever after" with.