Red Riding Hood is the modern day adaptation of the classic childrens story, “Little Red Riding Hood” and is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, most notably of Twilight and Thirteen.  Carrying on in the spirit of Twilight, Red Riding Hood surrounds it’s storyline in a love story which falls dramatically short of being memorable.

The girl (Amanda Seyfried) loves the bad boy (Shiloh Fernandez) that “isn’t right” for her and she has been arranged to marry another man (Max Irons).  This love story has been played out since seemingly the beginning of time or at least since Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; which happens to be oldest story I could think of with a similar plot line.

Although the film had a great opportunity to take full advantage of the sinister nature of the mood that was set, it failed at hitting it’s mark in almost every scene that the Wolf appeared.  As in every movie with a scary villain or beast I’m always excited for the reveal but this one did not live up to expectations.  The action scenes were a bit lackluster and the “interaction” of the Wolf with Valerie (Red Riding Hood) were underwhelming

Amidst the mediocre love story is a truly dark mystery which aptly holds the viewers attention throughout the entire film.  Who is the Wolf?  With a multitude of characters, both main and secondary, the film does an excellent job of keeping the viewer guessing.  The mystery paired with the dark undertones were the only saving graces of the film.

So who is the Wolf?  I won’t spoil that for you, but I will say that the revealing of the identity of the Wolf, although a surprise, was executed rather poorly.  Unfortunately this lead into a seemingly uninspired ending to the film.

There is no doubt that this film had many shortcomings but at the end of the day it held my attention so that at least counts for something.