The Wolfman: A Mini Spoiler Free Review
Was dragged off to see the remake of The Wolfman tonight. It’s…not really my favoured type of movie, but I did promise to take my eldest niece to see it. It was alright, but one has to wonder if it was worth remaking it at all.
The non-Werewolf bits were mostly pretty dull, and the Werewolf bits seemed to rely on gratuitous violence for shock value (I may be missing the point of the genre totally, mind you, but flying limbs, torture scenes, eviscerations and decapitations just ain’t my thang, yo).
Benicio Del Toro does a good enough, if entirely phoned-in job as Lawrence (and looks good in a waistcoat! Note to self; you have a waistcoat fetish, admit it!), Hugo Weaving steals the show as Inspector Aberline and the female lead does the Damsel In Distress thing well enough…yet Anthony Hopkins’ John Talbot is rather uninspired.
The musical score is brilliant at setting up for the tense moments, but when said tense moments actually happen they fell pretty flat. When it’s not being a monster-kill-gore-fest, it’s visually very stunning. I’d advise against eating meat before viewing, and possibly just a salad afterwards.
Oh, and there’s Gypsies. Everything’s better with Gypsies.
It wouldn’t be fair to criticise all of the Werewolf movie Tropes that arose, simply because the original Wolfman was the movie that gave birth to said Tropes.
However, the consensus from Rotten Tomatoes sums it up quite nicely: “Suitably grand and special effects-laden, The Wolfman suffers from a suspense-deficient script and a surprising lack of genuine chills.” I spook easily, and most of the time I was just shaking my head or even suppressing a chuckle at the so-called suspense.
So, uh, can't say I recommend it. Sorry. Maybe I'll give the original a view to make a proper comparison at some point, though.
The non-Werewolf bits were mostly pretty dull, and the Werewolf bits seemed to rely on gratuitous violence for shock value (I may be missing the point of the genre totally, mind you, but flying limbs, torture scenes, eviscerations and decapitations just ain’t my thang, yo).
Benicio Del Toro does a good enough, if entirely phoned-in job as Lawrence (and looks good in a waistcoat! Note to self; you have a waistcoat fetish, admit it!), Hugo Weaving steals the show as Inspector Aberline and the female lead does the Damsel In Distress thing well enough…yet Anthony Hopkins’ John Talbot is rather uninspired.
The musical score is brilliant at setting up for the tense moments, but when said tense moments actually happen they fell pretty flat. When it’s not being a monster-kill-gore-fest, it’s visually very stunning. I’d advise against eating meat before viewing, and possibly just a salad afterwards.
Oh, and there’s Gypsies. Everything’s better with Gypsies.
It wouldn’t be fair to criticise all of the Werewolf movie Tropes that arose, simply because the original Wolfman was the movie that gave birth to said Tropes.
However, the consensus from Rotten Tomatoes sums it up quite nicely: “Suitably grand and special effects-laden, The Wolfman suffers from a suspense-deficient script and a surprising lack of genuine chills.” I spook easily, and most of the time I was just shaking my head or even suppressing a chuckle at the so-called suspense.
So, uh, can't say I recommend it. Sorry. Maybe I'll give the original a view to make a proper comparison at some point, though.