wayzim
28-Feb-2010, 07:30 PM
I finally went to see the new Wolfman movie, though the making of specials I'd seen on Reelz and HBO did more to discourage than encourage me.
It was more at the urging of a coworker ( who likes film almost as much as I do. ) who suggested I give it a chance. Fortunately I did it on a movie gift card, but what was up on the screen ...
Ok, firstly it isn't a horrible film. The Curt Siodmak story is there, somewhere, as an American reared prodigal son (Del Toro) returns to his ancestral home in Blackmoor, England. The source of a dark family tragedy (is there any other kind? ) Lawrence Talbot is coaxed back by the death of his brother, at the urgings of the younger Talbot's betrothed (Emily Blunt )
An aside. The story is transfered from the twentieth century to the late nineteenth. For no particular reason ...
With little help from his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins ) Lawrence investigates the mystery which is his brother's murder, only to find that even a man who's pure in heart ...
This is an often beautiful to look at bit of movie making which unfortunately pays frequent deliberate homage to earlier and often more memorable films. I counted not only the original Wolfman, but an earlier Werewolf of London, American Werewolf in London, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Sleepy Hollow and (in wink and a nod to Sir Anthony ) The Elephant Man.
While the three principals did their jobs well enough (Emily in particular was quite nice as scenery ) the narrative didn't really gain any momentum until a familiar Historic figure pops up, Francis Aberline (yes, the chief investigator behind the 1888 Ripper murders ) played with gleeful cool by Mr. Smith himself, Hugo Weaving.
Sadly, he isn't on screen near enough to offset the oddly tedious bloodletting and moments( initially effective, later ... not so much ) of familial fatalism. The inclusion of Geraldine Chaplin as a less than helpful gypsy woman ("The path you walk is thorny, my son, through no fault of your own .. " oops, wrong gypsy woman ) only confirmed the muddled moor of a mess The Wolfman is.
Still, as a popcorn flick, there are worst ways to spend a Sunday morning.
Wayne Z
"When the Moon rises, I become a wolf. "
"Yah, you and twenty million other guys. "
Lon Chaney Jr and Lou Costello, from Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein
It was more at the urging of a coworker ( who likes film almost as much as I do. ) who suggested I give it a chance. Fortunately I did it on a movie gift card, but what was up on the screen ...
Ok, firstly it isn't a horrible film. The Curt Siodmak story is there, somewhere, as an American reared prodigal son (Del Toro) returns to his ancestral home in Blackmoor, England. The source of a dark family tragedy (is there any other kind? ) Lawrence Talbot is coaxed back by the death of his brother, at the urgings of the younger Talbot's betrothed (Emily Blunt )
An aside. The story is transfered from the twentieth century to the late nineteenth. For no particular reason ...
With little help from his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins ) Lawrence investigates the mystery which is his brother's murder, only to find that even a man who's pure in heart ...
This is an often beautiful to look at bit of movie making which unfortunately pays frequent deliberate homage to earlier and often more memorable films. I counted not only the original Wolfman, but an earlier Werewolf of London, American Werewolf in London, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Sleepy Hollow and (in wink and a nod to Sir Anthony ) The Elephant Man.
While the three principals did their jobs well enough (Emily in particular was quite nice as scenery ) the narrative didn't really gain any momentum until a familiar Historic figure pops up, Francis Aberline (yes, the chief investigator behind the 1888 Ripper murders ) played with gleeful cool by Mr. Smith himself, Hugo Weaving.
Sadly, he isn't on screen near enough to offset the oddly tedious bloodletting and moments( initially effective, later ... not so much ) of familial fatalism. The inclusion of Geraldine Chaplin as a less than helpful gypsy woman ("The path you walk is thorny, my son, through no fault of your own .. " oops, wrong gypsy woman ) only confirmed the muddled moor of a mess The Wolfman is.
Still, as a popcorn flick, there are worst ways to spend a Sunday morning.
Wayne Z
"When the Moon rises, I become a wolf. "
"Yah, you and twenty million other guys. "
Lon Chaney Jr and Lou Costello, from Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein