I wasn't sure whether I wanted to see this movie. I am not a fan of the Twilight movies(the first of which Catherine Hardwicke also directed) and it didn't look like my kind of film. But I saw it for the wonderful Gary Oldman.

I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't get much. Red Riding Hood(not the fairytale by the way) does try hard to be a lot of things, including introducing a number of horror, fantasy and mystery elements. But due to the sluggish pace and disjointed story structure(that is full of overlong filler, particularly the celebration scene, and the dream sequence was very awkwardly placed) the film fails at pretty much all these elements.

The script is very clunky, underdeveloped and banal as well. A lot of it did not keep my attention and I found myself chuckling into my coke at any unintentionally funny bits. The CGI is quite poor here, with the wolf looking as though it was done in a hurry. Hardwicke's direction never rises above mediocre, the editing is unfocused and frenzied and the three titular characters are incredibly dull and uninteresting with the romantic elements between them poorly written and directed.

The acting doesn't fare much better. Amanda Seyfried is pretty but bland in the title role and shows little or no chemistry with her co-stars, while Max Irons(son of Jeremy),Lukas Haas and Shiloh Fernandez show good looks but awkward line delivery. Virginia Madsen and Billy Burke are both wasted, both over-doing it in a valiant attempt to elevate their weak material(these two actors probably had the worst of the dialogue next to the leads actually). And the climax is little more than a mangled mess and devoid of depth.

Despite these many cons, there are some decent assets. The score is atmospheric enough and the costume and set design are spot on. Plus there are two good performances, Gary Oldman and Julie Christie. Oldman does chew the scenery, but he looks as though he's having a ball, while Christie is very enchanting.

Overall, not terrible, but deeply flawed and over-ambitious. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Okay, so somebody had the great idea of turning the classic Red Riding Hood fairytale into a movie squarely aimed at the TWILIGHT crowd (the two movies even share a director). The resultant mess is a film that focuses on soppy romance and safe, PG-13 rated thrills and spills as the inhabitants of a medieval village find themselves at the mercy of a vicious werewolf.

Dearie me, this is woeful indeed and a film that just doesn't gel. It's apparent that the scriptwriter really struggled at turning a one-page tale into a feature-length screenplay; the actual Red Riding Hood story doesn't appear until twenty minutes before the end and when it does it feels like the whole preceding running time is entirely superfluous.

It doesn't help that the characters are twee and one-dimensional and that the film plays safe by Hollywood standards throughout. It's entirely sanitised, never too scary or nasty, instead trying to please everyone and pleasing nobody in the process. By the time the CGI werewolf shows up I was entirely bored, and the whole whodunit aspect of the narrative is a complete non-starter.

Cast-wise, the simpering Amanda Seyfried is fairly irritating in a goody-two-shoes performance (just like MAMMA MIA!),and Shiloh Fernandez's love interest is lacking. Max Irons gives an entirely wooden performance and reveals that he's inherited none of his father's talent, and veteran performers like Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie are relegated to nothing roles. The only one I liked was Luke Haas, and he's barely in it. At least Gary Oldman gets into the spirit of the thing, with flashes of his glory psycho days at times. Anyway, as expected, this is a mess and a film that only teenage girls are sure to enjoy.

Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) lives in a village in the deep dark forest. Her village is terrorized by a big bad wolf which the villagers appease by killing their best livestock. By one day, the wolf kills Valerie's sister. Even though she is in love with woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez),her parents arranged a marriage to the wealthy Henry (Max Irons). Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) arrives to kill the werewolf informing the villagers that the wolf can take human form by day.

Amanda Seyfried is amazing as usual, but the boys are just boys. They aren't up to the task of acting opposite to Amanda. That's one of the reason that the planned love triangle doesn't quite work. The boys are so 2 dimensional and forgettable, they might as well be cardboard. Gary Oldman does add a good menacing character. The artificial set looks interesting at first, but it does get tiresome especially so much of the action takes place in the dark. Even in the daylight, it feels dreary. The movie just never picked up the pace. It's all menace and atmosphere. The only two compelling actors are Seyfried and Oldman.