“The Wolfman,” starring
Benecio Del Toro, Emily Blunt
and Anthony Hopkins clawed
its way into theaters Feb. 10.
With all the recent unexplainable
hype following the
latest vampire craze, I was
excited to finally see a new
direction with the remake of
“The Wolfman.” This movie
had all the ingredients for success,
with a large studio budget
and a cast featuring all- stars
such as Benecio Del Toro and
Anthony Hopkins as leads.
Also an experienced director
like Joe Johnson; who
although not widely known has
directed movies like “The
Rocketeer” and “October Sky.”
All signs pointed to a spectacular
opening.
In the film Benecio Del Toro
plays Lawrence Talbot, a touring
stage actor lured back
home to England by a letter
from his brother Ben’s fiance
explaining his Ben’s disappearance.
Lawrence hasn’t
returned home in years and
hasn’t had a relationship with
his father since his mother’s
passing. Once back in England
he is bitten by a beast of the
night when trying to solve his
brother’s death. Fueled by his
lust for his brother’s former
fiancé Gwen; played by Emily
Blunt.
Once bitten Lawrence goes
through a few painful yet pretty
boring transformations from
man to beast.
While transformed he goes
rampant and tears apart towns
and the townspeople leaving
only guts, heads, entrails, and
debris in his path. It seems that
even the pivotal moments that
revealed untold truths in the
movie seem to just drag on and
serve really no purpose and
would take back seat to the
massive killings.
The love story between
Lawrence and Gwen is unrealistic
and frustratingly unbelievable.
And it becomes very
hard to believe that Anthony
Hopkins could be Benecio Del
Toro’s father and they sure do a
bad job at trying to prove it.
The trailers that were
released prior to the film
showed a must see movie, but
when it came time to see it,
there was nothing but disappointment.
The original
Wolfman was groundbreaking
and brought the ancient myth
of the werewolf to modern life
on the silver screen. Even with
new CGI and groundbreaking
technologies, the new
Wolfman failed to recreate
any of the excitement
or thrill that previously
the original did.
In fact the new
Wolfman was just plain
out boring and filled with
many many plot holes.
The only scenes worth
paying any attention to
were the ones filled with
over exaggerated gore and
k i l l i n g .
This actually seemed to outnumber
the scenes with real
acting.
Overall the movie fails to
connect with any of its audience
ranging from kids being
first introduced to The
Wolfman to the elderly audiences
who have grown up with
the first film and fears of werewolves.
The movie has a long
list of plot holes, unenthusiastic
acting, and more unnecessary
scenes than ones that actually
pertain to the story.
The Wolfman is simply a
waste of money if seen in theaters.
It was bad to the point that its
title should be changed to
something like “Joe Johnson’s
The Wolfman” instead of just
The Wolfman, because it does
not deserve to be associated
with the timeless classic The
Wolfman without reminding
people that it is someone eles’s
awful take on it.
This is definitely a movie
that if seen should be on HBO,
because I felt unsatisfied and
honestly robbed after paying
$10.50 for a movie with so
much disappointment.