When I saw the trailer for this film months ago, I could have sword it was a Summit Entertainment feature. At that time, I thought a few specific things: Twilight's studio, Twilight's director, Twilight dad Billy Burke, and another wolf"¦really? Somehow Warner Bros. is the studio to blame for this incredible Twilight-connection, and that had me worried. But then I thought about Gary Oldman, who is always good, Shiloh Fernandez, who I enjoyed in Skateland, and Amanda Seyfried and her few good roles, at which point, I decided to give it a shot. After all, movies don't have to be great to be entertaining.
I was dead on with my last statement. This film was entertaining simply because it was impressively bad. The story of a young girl torn between the boy she loves and the one she is supposed to be with changes drastically when a werewolf puts the whole town in danger while seeking out our protagonist. I was one hundred percent aware that the storyline would be predictable as it is very loosely based on a well known fairy tale, and it is clearly another teen romance story, but I could never have prepared myself for the rest. Not only did Hardwicke decide to use what appeared to be winter shots of Forks, WA (yes, more Twilight) for her forest scenery, but she found a way to have our leading man and lady lay together in a flowery meadow and run together through the forest when they are not running from the unidentified, shape-shifting local killer. Sound familiar?
The cast possesses plenty of talent, but there is simply no helping this cheesy script set against an unbelievably fake background combined with overdone CGI effects (also reminiscent of "¦dare I say it?). I will say that the ending was not exactly what I expected, but that is not to say that it was good by any stretch of the imagination. I would like to say that there is no audience that will tolerate this film, but let's face facts; it draws too many similarities to another Summit production which gathered plenty of cult followers and plenty of money for it to fail. Teen girls everywhere will see this film. I simply do not recommend that you follow their lead or trust their judgment; you will be sorely disappointed.
