Fast Forward - Red Riding Hood Trailer Breakdown

Looking ahead...

Release Date: March 11, 2011

The classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood is coming to the big screen in a couple of months in a brand spanking new adaptation from the director Catherine Hardwicke and a new trailer for it has just hit. She is the same person that gave the amazing first part to the annoying itch of a film series known as Twilight. After completely destroying the myth and coolness of Vampires she now has her sights set on the werewolf mythology. This is one of the strangest (tonally) trailers I have seen in quite some time. It is really difficult to discern what this is supposed to be, it looks like a standard horror film at first with the spooky atmosphere and quick clips of people running for their lives during some kind of attack on their village. Then we get this really out of place montage played against disco rock music that is completely ridiculous and doesn't match any of the imagery.

And what is going on with the cast? Everyone here looks like they are straight off the set of the O.C. or something. This is supposed to be a village in the middle of the woods right? So why does everyone look like they just stepped out of a GAP ad? I got the feeling while watching the trailer that Ms. Hardwicke brought over all the people that didn't make the cut for her Twilight movie. Everything looks extremely clean in this regard, the woods and the village look miraculously free of anything associated with living on dirt surrounded by trees. I suppose the argument could be made that this is a fairy tale and that is why everything looks so surreal and I hope that is what they are going for because otherwise this thing just looks so derivative of Twilight which isn't a good thing in case you are wondering. It at least looks as though they are putting some effort into getting the known staples of the fairy tale in there though. They kind of threw in some lines about her getting to her grandmother's house and what big eyes the wolf has, but that is all window dressing at the moment compared to many of the problems this trailer hints at.

Poor Amanda Seyfried though, she is just starting to get a leg up as a leading actress. I liked both films of hers that I saw last year and thought she was the best thing about that horrible Megan Fox film Jennifer's Body. Now is the time for her to pick projects that will get her name noticed and I am not so sure this was one of the best ones she had to pick from. Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea of her playing Red Riding Hood and think she looks great in the film with that saturated red cape, but I fear for her based on what I saw in that trailer. Then there is Gary Oldman playing the Van Helsing role which has the strong possibility to be amazing. He is generally good, if not awesome, in everything he is in and has the ability to elevate some of the worst films out there simply with his presence. If nothing else we should get a good performance out of him when all is said and done. I truly do hope this film is better than what this trailer makes it out to be and that we get to see all those perfect looking village folk die in a horrible manner by that big bad wolf. And when that when the moonlight hits that werewolf it better not start to glitter or I may have to hurt someone.

Red Riding Hood Trailer:

Posted in: Fast forward previews