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Is it worth $10? No
With visual effects as advanced as they are today, making a cool werewolf movie is incredibly difficult. Simply put, we’ve seen all this before, and we’ve seen it with animals/monsters that are more badass and intimidating than a werewolf. And so the challenge is to bring originality and intrigue to the story, but there’s nothing interesting about “The Wolfman,” which is dark and gloomy and sad.
Upon hearing the news that his brother (Simon Merrells) was murdered, actor Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro with a terrible haircut) returns to his dreary English home and meets his brother’s ex-fiancé (Emily Blunt). His father (Anthony Hopkins) warns him to stay inside, but he doesn’t listen and is soon bitten by a werewolf. Bad things happen.
The story is set in 1891 England, and there’s a clever throwaway line that taunts Inspector Abberline (Hugo Weaving) about how he botched the “Ripper” case, but otherwise there’s no need for the story to be set in the 1890s. That is, unless director Joe Johnston was specifically trying to exclude electricity, in which case he has succeeded.
Watching the film, you can’t help but think some sunshine would brighten everyone’s spirits. Alas, with a script (by Andrew Kevin Walker & David Seif) this convoluted there is little chance of happiness. The story is all over the place, and while the action/effects are serviceable, they’re not impressive. Fierce growling isn’t fearsome enough for anyone these days, and the transformation (human to werewolf) scenes will never top what makeup designer Rick Baker (who also worked on this film) did in “American Werewolf in London” (1981). Baker’s makeup in that movie was so impressive that the Academy Awards created a new category for makeup design so it could honor Baker’s work.
Something tells me “The Wolfman” will not share such a legacy.
Did you know?
According to imdb.com, the film was slated for release in February 2009, then November 2009, and then finally February 2010. It’s never good when a movie is on the shelf for this long.
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