The Wolfman

I remember watching "The Wolfman" in theaters and being blown away by how well done this film was and then years later seeing on IMDB that it only scored a 5.8 rating and just scratching my head wondering if I missed something. Now I'm 2021 I Just rewatched it on Netflix and it's still a phenomenal movie! Absolutely incredible! I can't imagine how this movie could have been any better! I believe this movie should be rated along the same lines as "Sleepy Hallow!" I give it a 9/10!

All the actors are great but a huge surprise is Hugo Weaving in the Sherlock Holmes style detective hot on the case of whether or not Lawrence(Benicio Del Toro) is a werewolf or not! I'd love to give spoilers but I won't! It's just a must watch film!

Upon his return to his ancestral homeland, an American man (Benicio del Toro) is bitten, and subsequently cursed by, a werewolf.

A remake of this sort is caught in a no-win trap. If it tries to reinvent the story entirely, it will make some fans upset for deserting the source material. But, on the other hand, coming too close to the original will have people saying there is no way to top the original (which may be true).

Benicio del Toro was the obvious choice for the wolf man, and he plays the part well. The cinematography and atmosphere are gorgeous, and the Elfman music is appreciated (and much more subdued than many of his scores). Rick Baker won another Oscar for his makeup here, and who can argue with that?

The reviews tended to be negative. Roger Ebert, no fan of horror, gave a lukewarm review of 2.5 stars, but then had to find a flaw regardless of any praise he had: "The film has one flaw, and faithful readers will not be surprised to find it involves the CGI special effects. No doubt there are whole scenes done so well in CGI that I didn't even spot them, but when the werewolf bounds through the forest, he does so with too much speed. He would be more convincing if he moved like a creature of considerable weight."

Granted, he is spot on. When you have Baker on your crew, there is no need for CGI (or at least not very much of it). There is no shame in using it when it honestly helps, but when it stands out like a sore thumb, maybe it is time to do a few reshoots.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along with what many people would call perfect casting. I remember when Jack Nicholson was first cast as the Joker for Tim Burton's Batman. Nicholson's portrayal was just what was expected from such a great actor in a signature role. But it was NO MORE than we expected from him. In a way, one could say it fell a little flat. Well, I feel that way about The Wolfman. First, Anthony Hopkins, one of the consistently best actors out there, gave the exact performance I would expect from him, commanding respect both as an actor and as the character he played. But it was nothing we haven't seen already. Reminiscent of Meet Joe Black or Fracture or Instinct. I'm also a fan of Benicio Del Toro, but his brooding and emotional performance was exactly what I went to the theater to see. I didn't see anything more. The same could be said for the script, a very straightforward storyline that was a bit predictable and sort of tired. On one hand, I commend the film makers for not overdoing the story with convoluted twists in an effort to be "original." But again, I wasn't surprised by anything in the storyline at all.

I was anxious to see this film, and overall I was very pleased with the cinematography, the performances of the cast and of course the special effects. But I did not leave the theater saying "WOW, that was even better than I expected!" like I had hoped I would.

I watched the Unrated Director's Cut and I can say that it is pretty bloody (which is a good thing). There are some questionable CGI moments, but I am glad that they also used practical effects for the makeup and kept him close to the original Wolfman's looks and not just some crazy wolf creature. Better than I expected, but I am a sucker for werewolf stories.

When this movie was released in 2010 it was a box office and critical disaster and I've been waiting for the best 12 years for it to get the recognition it deserves. Judging by the rating here that day is still to come. The Wolfman is what you might call a remake of a classic and it fills the role in the best way. Retaining the orginal core structure but adding something on top of it: here mainly the visual and special effects. The werewolf is a convincingly dangerous beast here and gives you the closest feeling of what an actual one would be like of any film. Though it takes the gore a step too far and wraps all the way around past shocking to almost comical.

While the atmosphere of the film is right, the pacing might be a bit off. The movie wastes no time and leaps to plot points with one tight scene to the next which means it isn't boring. However, this action movie pace is a little too rapid for a horror movie and could have shown down at parts.

With a strong cast, an atmospheric style, a good creature The Wolfman is about all you can ask a horror movie to be. And its completely undeserving of the rating it has here-ignore it.