Day 19 - Blood and Chocolate (2007)
Platform:
Borrowed from Hoopla.
Quote:
“I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth. The one as hateful as the other. Remember that? Steppenwolf. We are lost souls, Vivien. But at least we’re lost together.”
Synopsis:
The next in line to join the alpha of a werewolf pack as his mate must choose between her pack and this guy she just met a couple days ago.
Review:
Ok, maybe I tipped my hand on this one with that synopsis, but this is a pretty standard trope. In fact, it’s pretty much just the gender-flipped version of The Howling Reborn. I will say, that the overall storytelling and production of this film is head and shoulders above The Howling Reborn, but it’s still hard to sit through. I actually ran out of time on my loan for this film and had to borrow it three different times to finally get through it. I just couldn’t stay engaged. It’s very slow-paced. There’s action and intrigue, sure, but there’s also just a lot of plodding when they are taking the time to explain their universe’s werewolf lore, in the romantic build-up scenes between the two leads, and unfortunately, most of the action is just werewolf parkour. The werewolf transformations are horrible, too. This is like Twilight before Twilight. Whenever one of the pack, or as happens several times the entire pack, is about to shift, they leap into the air. Now odd as it might sound, that part actually looks pretty good. It’s what happens after that gets dumb. They GLOW WITH AN INNER LIGHT and then there’s just a wolf where the person was. It’s terrible. At least the wolf designs look good because they just USED ACTUAL WOLVES. This is a technique that could have been cool if the glow-transformation hadn’t made it look ridiculous. For studio production, this looks a lot like a CW show.
What works well for this film though, is the werewolf society. I love when they introduce this concept to the werewolf mythology because it reminds me of the World of Darkness TTRPG. The political intrigue here is pretty good with the next Alpha in line being jealous that the current Alpha is more interested in grooming his new mate than recognizing his second-in-command. The love triangle plays well also with the human stumbling into the werewolf mythology and finding himself way over his head. The leading lady also delivers a pretty good performance in being torn about being selected as the next mate.
Unfortunately, unlike yesterday’s entry, the good here just isn’t good enough, and the bad is more than I could really deal with. I have to say this is a mild negative recommendation.
Movie Count:
New = 14
Total = 19
Hoopla Breakdown: Hoopla is a digital borrowing service that many Ohio Libraries offer that allows patrons to borrow digital books, audiobooks, graphic novels, single issues of comic books, movies, and episodes of TV shows. You are provided with a set number of borrows each month. The amount varies by the library system. There are some limits on how many borrows that branch allows across its patrons each day, so it's better to try to get your borrows in early the morning of than it is the night before you plan to use them. This can also be an issue if you are looking to check out a TV Series because you have to borrow each episode individually. However, unlike other services, the items are always available. There is no hold system, waiting for other patrons to return their material before you get the title, or waiting for it to be delivered to your local branch for pick up. If you can find it, you can borrow it. Other benefits to this program are that you can stream directly over your data connection or wi-fi, or if you are concerned about saving data, you can download the material for offline access. The Hoopla app also has a casting feature so you can stream the title from your device to a larger screen using devices like Chromecast.
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