Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Wolfman

You Wouldn't Like Me When The Full Moon Is Up


A remake of the 1941 werewolf classic, The Wolfman stars Benecio Del Toro in the titular role of a man who's unlucky enough to be bitten by a wolf like creature, and come full moon, will turn into a howling half man half wolf, with powers so strong he can only be put down by silver bullets. And this updated version comes complete with an Incredible Hulk like transformation from man to beast, making painstaking details on how that's done thanks to advancement in CG effects and hairy facial makeup with mean looking fangs put to good use, especially when it conforms to contemporary horror / torture porn territory in the bloodier and gorier, the better. Prepare for bloodbaths and spilled innards when the werewolf goes on a rampage in the film's limited, but well designed set action sequences.

With thespians like Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving, one would have thought that they'd bring some gravitas to their roles. Unfortunately the storyline's pretty lightweight, and more so for Weaving's Scotland Yard inspector character hell bent on tracking down the mystery of the beast. Don't expect Hopkin's role to be that memorable, though he shared some of the best dramatic scenes in the film opposite Del Toro. Much cannot be said of Emily Blunt's romantic interest role, which had far too little to do to make it believable that her character and the Wolfman had fallen for each other. In fact, the romance between King Kong and Ann Darrow emote more feelings than this beast-human one.

Still, this glossy remake is highly atmospheric and with Danny Elfman's dark score, makes it enjoyable as a B-film homage, but don't expect this to become anything definitive. It comes close, but not quite.

You can read my review of The Wolfman at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.

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