Blood and Chocolate **

*Don't bother Rent it *Matinee material *Worth seeing **Exceptional

Werewolves are cool enough that it's fairly difficult to make a movie about them and have the outcome be, for lack of a better word, lame. Blood and Chocolate comes pretty damn close.

The movie centers around Vivian (Agnes Bruckner), a teenage werewolf who seems troubled with her place in the secret society of her race. After she falls in love with a young human by the name of Aiden (Hugh Dancy), she is torn between following her heart and following the wishes of her people and her family.

There are a lot of elements of this movie that are theoretically very appealing, such as werewolves, romance and teenage rebellion; however, the execution of this movie left it lacking in multiple departments.

Adapted from the novel by Annette Curtis Klause, the plot was apparently skewed rather significantly, and for the worse. The characters lost their dynamics and were left fairly plain and poorly developed. It was often difficult to side with the protagonists as they acted foolishly and sometimes coldheartedly.

In one scene, Aiden sprays silver powder in the faces of two werewolf henchmen, and as they are incapacitated and helpless, surrounded by highly flammable absinthe, he sets them aflame, gibing, "drink up." (It should be noted that these "henchmen" were basically men who believed that they were doing the right thing.)

Aside from the characters' ambiguous morals, the most important aspect of any movie with werewolves [HTML_REMOVED] the transformation [HTML_REMOVED] was very poorly done. Advertised as being from the producers of vampire-vs.-werewolf action flick Underworld, the wolfing out in this film was a terrible letdown.

The transformation was portrayed as the werewolf in human form leaping into the air in a diving position, glowing until covered in white light and landing as a regular looking wolf. While there may have been some good intention behind the way this was done [HTML_REMOVED] perhaps trying to display the beauty of transforming into a being which allowed a new level of freedom unattainable to ordinary men [HTML_REMOVED][HTML_REMOVED] the effect ended up simply looking cheesy and ridiculous.

Coupled with the fact that the wolf form was impractical in just about every way (werewolves apparently being much faster, stronger, more agile and smarter in their human form) made the werewolves in this movie generally pretty unsatisfying.

The one saving aspect of this film was perhaps the most overlooked and difficult to find, which was the message. Trampled by the butchered story, the movie whispered a theme of finding one's identity. It tells about pushing past what is expected and what is denied by others and realizing one's true self. This message was delivered much more prominently in its original format, but it is still there.

Blood and Chocolate is not an action movie. It's not even a horror movie as it was so inappropriately labeled. And overall, it's not really particularly good either. But if you've got an open mind and a soft spot for people who can turn into animals, you might find a little enjoyment in it.

[HTML_REMOVED] Brian Kim

arts@thedaily.washington.edu