Its rare these days for a monster movie to go for scares. Most either take the route of becoming action movies, or descend into campiness. The reason for this is simple: old school monster movies have lost their effect due to a desensitized audience. Todays viewers are well aware of the stuff movies can do, so effects alone can't convince. The wolfman, a semi-remake of one of the original classic monster movies, certainly doesn't bring the scares, but it has enough campy fun to be worth watching.
The Wolfman certainly seems to be taking itself seriously at first. After his brother is found mutilated, estranged son Lawrence Talbot returns home to find the best that did it. Of course he finds the beast, and it bit by it, and inherits the curse. The scenes leading up to this are treated relatively seriously, with Lawrence's father waxing sentimental and his brother's fiancée being appreciative enough that we know the two will engage in some kinky inter-species nasty later on (spoilers: doesn't happen, though I'm sure it would have been a great moment for film).
Then it all gets gleefully tossed aside when the werewolf attacks a gypsy camp, full earning its 18A rating in the most ludicrous showering of gibs since, well, Daybreakers. Backs are ripped off, heads are swiped clean, and organs are strewn about in all sorts of pretty ways. Its all well in fun, but its never scary. Indeed, camp is the natural replacement of scares in horror movies. In general, if one cannot frighten, throw in as much gore as humanly possible to get laughter and maybe the odd squick. The Wolfman does this in spades, but if thats the mood you're in it works splendidly.
The editing nearly kills it though. While the camera is always steady and clear, its still difficult to comprehend what is going on because things just seem to happen. Its like the scenes were longer, and then essential bits just got thrown out to make the film shorter. The climactic wolf battle is a particularly egregious example, which resulted in plenty of "wtf's" from me.
The plot is somewhat serviceable, though the lack of a strong villain is glaring. Not that Man VS Himself wouldn't work in this situation, just that they attempt to include a weak villain that never really grabs attention. A lot of the fault is on the characters. Del Toro plays it straight, which may have been the wrong choice for this film. Blunt is plenty ladylike, but forgettable. Hopkins is horribly disappointing as Lawrence's father, spouting off wannabe-epic dialogue that mostly falls flat or seems random. The bad guy (I'll keep it a secret) has one scene where he ineffectly lists off his bad deeds with the calm of someone reading groceries, seeming more lazy than evil. If he had said he kicked puppies and spat on the Pope I wouldn't be surprised. The only good performance comes from Hugo Weaving as Detective Freddy Aberline, inexplicably based on the real-life investigator of the Ripper murders. He has one particular crowning moment of awesome in a bar, but otherwise is underutilized.
The Wolfman is no classic, but there's worse matinees to see. Its a complete and utter mess by some standards, but has enough campy charm to be more than enjoyable to laugh along with. Werewolves may be down and out for scares, but at least they can be relied on to maul things in brutally hilarious ways.
The Wolfman certainly seems to be taking itself seriously at first. After his brother is found mutilated, estranged son Lawrence Talbot returns home to find the best that did it. Of course he finds the beast, and it bit by it, and inherits the curse. The scenes leading up to this are treated relatively seriously, with Lawrence's father waxing sentimental and his brother's fiancée being appreciative enough that we know the two will engage in some kinky inter-species nasty later on (spoilers: doesn't happen, though I'm sure it would have been a great moment for film).
Then it all gets gleefully tossed aside when the werewolf attacks a gypsy camp, full earning its 18A rating in the most ludicrous showering of gibs since, well, Daybreakers. Backs are ripped off, heads are swiped clean, and organs are strewn about in all sorts of pretty ways. Its all well in fun, but its never scary. Indeed, camp is the natural replacement of scares in horror movies. In general, if one cannot frighten, throw in as much gore as humanly possible to get laughter and maybe the odd squick. The Wolfman does this in spades, but if thats the mood you're in it works splendidly.
The editing nearly kills it though. While the camera is always steady and clear, its still difficult to comprehend what is going on because things just seem to happen. Its like the scenes were longer, and then essential bits just got thrown out to make the film shorter. The climactic wolf battle is a particularly egregious example, which resulted in plenty of "wtf's" from me.
The plot is somewhat serviceable, though the lack of a strong villain is glaring. Not that Man VS Himself wouldn't work in this situation, just that they attempt to include a weak villain that never really grabs attention. A lot of the fault is on the characters. Del Toro plays it straight, which may have been the wrong choice for this film. Blunt is plenty ladylike, but forgettable. Hopkins is horribly disappointing as Lawrence's father, spouting off wannabe-epic dialogue that mostly falls flat or seems random. The bad guy (I'll keep it a secret) has one scene where he ineffectly lists off his bad deeds with the calm of someone reading groceries, seeming more lazy than evil. If he had said he kicked puppies and spat on the Pope I wouldn't be surprised. The only good performance comes from Hugo Weaving as Detective Freddy Aberline, inexplicably based on the real-life investigator of the Ripper murders. He has one particular crowning moment of awesome in a bar, but otherwise is underutilized.
The Wolfman is no classic, but there's worse matinees to see. Its a complete and utter mess by some standards, but has enough campy charm to be more than enjoyable to laugh along with. Werewolves may be down and out for scares, but at least they can be relied on to maul things in brutally hilarious ways.