BEDA #16: Red Riding Hood.

"If I like it I will blog about it, and if I don't like I will blog about it more."

AH, Catherine Hardwicke... will you ever learn? People hated Twilight so why bother making a film so soon? Really. I get you started this super successful franchise, but it gets so much stick these days and just by seeing your name in the trailer I was put off. There were good actors in your film, so you're lucky; because really advertising it as 'from the director of Twilight' is just asking for it. Most people who liked your movie back in the day, don't really like it now. I saw New Moon and it was so much better -- I actually enjoyed it and stand it was by far the best of them so far, granted that's not saying much -- but then after that I didn't give a shit. Point being, if I were her I would not put that in the trailer as a selling point. I suppose that's the problem with opinions: now that I dislike it, I am going to nitpick until I find every bad thing about the film.

Or rather, I thought I was going to. It wasn't actually that bad; I was annoyed beforehand that my friends had backed out of seeing Scream 4 (which I had looked forward to for the whole day before) and told me at the last minute even though everyone had confirmed they were fine with seeing it. I know we're all bad with scary films: somehow it's turned out that I'm the best with them? I don't know how that happened. We were watching 'Hole' and everyone hated it and I was fine; the dead girl was creepy yes, but I stood by that it was a children's film and therefore it could not be that bad. And guess what? It really wasn't. That was the scariest part.

I am well aware it was going to mess with our sleep patterns: I saw Paranormal Activity. I was there; I know what it's like to not sleep properly for months. But still, it looked like a good film regardless and I wanted to see it. It looked witty and looked like it kind of mocked the idea of horror films; in the sense that some characters were film geeks and therefore used their knowledge of horror films to deduce who was going to die next or how or when. Kind of the things Ciara and I talk about: 'If you were in a scary film, how would you guarantee your survival?'. I mean, obviously they're going to have fall into some traps otherwise no-one would die and then it would not be Scream; it'd be nice, but that's not people would go to see it for. For that reason, I was just interested in how it would going to play out; maybe I would not have slept that night but maybe I would have. Usually when I plan to watch a scary film and then don't, by nightfall I am glad I made such a decision; I don't know if it was because I was with people (we all slept round Kate's after) but I was fine with it. I was like, "Man I wish we'd gone to see Scream 4 because Red Riding Hood was stupid."

Which brings us onto my pretentious review. I like to pretend I know about films. I do not: I know how to criticise, but I could never ever ever make a halfway decent one myself. For this reason, I get disappointed because so much work and talent and effort goes into making a film -- most of the time -- and then to see it just be... stupid, is sad. RRH was not terrible and I have seen worse films. I have also seen much, much better films (Tangled, Scott Pilgrim, V for Vendetta). I think my problem started in the beginning; the dialogue was clumsy and forced and awkward and by God I did not understand why Peter, the main love interest, was so special apart from the fact that she grew up with him. There was a lot of intense staring and I was reminded of what people said about Twilight -- was I blinded that much by my love for the books that I didn't notice how awkward it is when no-one talking in the cinema?

The actors that I liked in it, Amanda Seyfried and Billy Burke and Gary Oldman, did what they could with this film. They made it okay in my opinion. That and the scenery; the scenery was gorgeous. Read: Amanda Seyfried and her perfect blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes and rosy cheeks and lips against the white snow and her red riding hood was gorgeous. I think the camera just loves that woman, as it should, and when you've got a protagonist that's so easy on the eyes it makes it very easy to forget the film isn't that great.

I think my biggest problem was Peter; and the ending was kind of 'eh' as well. The twist was good and I did not expect the wolf to be who it was (I'm not spoiling it in case for some reason after this you still want to watch it) and Gary Oldman was also okay. His character was a bit dull and as a priest why the hell did he have kids? I assumed he was Catholic but maybe he wasn't. Or maybe he converted after his wife got killed; also, why did he bring his kids all the way into the town when there's a chance the wolf might kill them on the way back (the kids did not stay in the village with him)? Considering it took them a day to get to the village, and the wolf comes out at night. Just seems like an excuse for the audience to be like, 'Aw poor him he's got daughters and his wife got killed' so that we excuse him later for going bat shit and searching everyone in the village and roasting them alive (no really, he did).

Overall, not too bad. I think I'm just bitter I wanted to see something else. The music was fine as long as I can recall. I just like Seyfried very, very much. If I didn't, I would not have gone because I really don't like having to pay for a film I don't really want to see, because I don't get that much money to do that. She sings very well too, just to throw that in there.

Always,

Mel.