[Skinwalkers]
Plot:A 12-year-old boy suddenly finds himself at the center of a battle between two warring groups of werewolves, with one group acting as his protector, and the other dedicated to his destruction. Can his mother uncover why her son plays such an important role in the conflict before it's too late?

Cast: Natassia Malthe, Shawn Roberts, Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Lyriq Bent, Kim Coates, Sarah Carter, Tom Jackson, Matthew Knight.

My Thoughts:Unique in it's storytelling.

Review:Werewolf films these days are pretty much by committee. Some people are happy with the new spins being put on the genre such as talking werewolves, and different backstories about the werewolf curse. Others are just waiting for the next "Underworld" movie to come out. "Skinwalkers" is another one of those films that puts a new spin on the werewolf genre, while dipping into some Native American Folklore along the way. The movie follows a 12 year old boy who is caught in the middle of a battle between two different groups of werewolves. Within this battle, each group has it's own edict's which makes them akin to their particular side of the spectrum.

The good guys, led by Jonas (Elias Koteas), are werewolves but don't embrace the violent side of their curse. They are basically anti killing. Then there are the bad werewolves led by Varek (Jason Behr), who's villainous personas are further emphasized by their biker outfits, tons of guns, and mean motorcycle gang mentality. They love killing and pretty much look at their curse as a gift, and see the 12 year old boy as a threat to their days as werewolves. This is because the kid holds a secret within him that can end the curse of lycanism, and upon the dawning of the red moon, which is the time period that this film is set in, this is when the bad wolves see him and those protecting him, the good wolves, to be at their most vulnerable.

"Skinwalkers" opens on a very good note, quickly establishing it's villains and hero's, which eventually leads up to a massive and exciting shootout scene in town later on down the road in the films early moments. It also makes sure to establish it's story which makes things alot easier to follow later on as the films story opens up a bit and gets to the root of things. "Skinwalkers" is held back by one obstacle though, it's cast. It seems obvious that the better casting in the film went to the villains side of things. Other than Sarah Carter (Final Destination 2) who plays Katherine, the somewhat perky daughter of Koteas character, there aren't many interesting or intriguing characters on the side of the good guys in the film.

And once the whole backstory involving the boy and why the bad wolves want him is explained, even his character becomes alot less interesting. Although as some of the good guys start to fall under the bullet of their enemies, Rhona Mitra's character Rachel, who's the mother of the young boy in the film, does emerge as an intriguing character study, as she has to mature and toughen up pretty quickly in order to protect her son from those who wish to kill him. Joining Jason Behr on the villains side of the fence is Natassia Malthe, and Kim Coates. Two good actors who are pretty much wasted in this film, and while their appearance in the film does give it a decent amount of merit, the fact that their characters are pointless hollow bad guys who just look mean and do very little (other than a pretty cool hospital room battle), was quite a disappointment in my view.

Other than alot of wild-west styled shootouts, "Skinwalkers" also fails to offer up anything good action wise. There's no really good hand-to-hand combat scenes in the film, which is kind of confusing considering we're dealing with werewolves here. The good guys spend most of their time retreating, and the bad guy spend a majority of the film pursuing them. This continues on and off through the 90 minute picture as both sides heards are thinned out until finally the film reaches it's climax which is less than stellar, and still fails to properly use Natassia Malthe's character Sonja, who comes off as a bad girl but is really watered down in this film for some reason.

James Isaac's directing style does give the movie a very intense and extreme feel, but the script penned by James DeManaco and Todd Harthan starts off on fire and quickly falls apart. Which is the key issue in this movie, and totally overshadows it's unique story blended with werewolf action and hardly any blood. "Skinwalkers" is another one of those films that succeed's in some very important areas, and fails in many other important areas. That in the end, makes it a decent entry into the werewolf genre which has a few severe flaws here and there.

Positives:Great first act, some decent action sequences.

Negatives:The films late first act, second, and third acts all fall short. Too many empty characters with no strong personality traits. Especially on the side of the villains. A lack of entertainment value for most of the movie beyond the early parts of act one.

Overall:Might wanna wait for dvd with this one.





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