“The Wolfman,” starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, is a weird mix of moody drama, grisly violence, a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ romance, and attempts by director Joe Johnston to scare the audience. Johnston seems to think that tension and suspense results from furry, fanged creatures suddenly leaping at the camera, but he does this so often that it becomes annoying. What Johnston gets right is the mood with ghostly clouds drifting across a moonlit sky, twigs snapping in a dark wood, the movement of a solitary traveler. What doesn’t work is the unnecessarily graphic depictions of violence: heads and limbs flying, claws eviscerating victims, organs being ripped out. There’s a hint at a romance with Emily Blunt’s character, Gwen and Benicio Del Toro’s Lawrence Talbot. Unfortunately, Blunt doesn’t have enough screen time and Del Toro seems to be going through the motions. And everyone appears to be waiting for the next CGI scenes where the werewolf can take over. Rick Baker does a fine job with make-up as does cinematographer Shelly Johnson. But you have to wonder whose idea it was to remake a movie that didn’t need remaking. 2/12/10
1 comment:
The moors, The full moon and the howling in the night were all great but the "cheap tricks" used to try and scare us were as corny and contrived as you can get. A good cast but a second rate set-up gives us not much to chew on. Lots of blood, though!!
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