SYNOPSIS:
Inspired by the classic Universal film, "The
Wolfman" stars Benicio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot, a
haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his
brother's fiancee, Gwen Conlife begs him to help find her
missing love. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets
out to find his brother... and discovers that a beast with
an insatiable bloodlust has been killing villagers and that
a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come
to investigate. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast,
Talbot discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Over the years, the journey of bringing the
iconic Universal’s Wolfman back to the big screen is
besieged with more hairy problems than the creature himself.
First director Mark Romanek abruptly left the project over
budget issues then the release date was bumped a couple of
times in less than a year. This was followed by composer Danny
Elfman who exited without finishing the score due to scheduling
conflicts. At the end of the day despite all these unnecessary
trivia, what the audience wanted is nothing more than a good
old monster movie to indulge in.
A remake of the original black-and-white
1941’s The Wolf Man, this updated version stars Benicio
Del Toro (Traffic) as Lawrence Talbot, a stage actor who is
being summoned back to his sleepy hometown after his brother’s
fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt from The Devil
Wears Prada) persuade him to look for his missing brother.
Lawrence sets out to find his brother’s killer one night
but gets mauled by a mysterious, wolf-like creature. He survived
the attack after a gypsy woman saved him and with this chain
of events, Lawrence will find out later the dark secret that
has been haunting his family and his destiny.
The theatrical version which runs approximately
103 minutes lacks a deeper insight, some backstory and a cameo
by Max Von Sydow found in this 119 minutes director’s
cut version. Yet, it still can’t escape the fate of
being remarkably boring and hardly engaging on the whole.
When you have a prestigious actor liked Anthony Hopkins on
board as Sir John Talbot, it’s perhaps logical to fatten
up his role rather than leaving him on the sideline. No doubt,
both Del Toro and Blunt are capable performers as well but
the role of senior Talbot perhaps require more screentime
to flesh out his past and tumultuous relationship with his
son.
While the script by Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven)
and a rewrite by David Self paid homage to the original 1941
movie, it fails on the other hand to develop the protagonists
even it’s only liked four characters including Inspector
Abberline (Hugo Weaver) on the screen for the most of the
two hours running time.
Director
Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) who stepped in three
weeks before production has a keen eye for visual as compared
to anything else. The production design including the costumes,
sets and cinematography is lavish to say the least. To his
credit, the veteran ex-ILM effects artist knows how to stage
good old action sequences and blends contemporary CG effects
with Rick Baker’s old-school make up perfectly. Though
how much of the latter’s physical effects is left on
screen after post-production is questionable. Unless you mind
copious amount of gore and violence, the gypsy attack after
the first transformation will delight most horror fans with
its crazy beheading, throats slashing and de-limbing.
Creating a moody misty atmosphere might crank
up the thrill factor a little but unfortunately Johnston lacks
the flair to genuinely execute scares and tension and other
than looking at the ticking watch, the only time we are looking
for is the next action scene to satisfy our adrenalin.
The
Wolfman is definitely not as cheesy or bad as Stephen Sommers’
self-indulgent work, Van Helsing. It’s a B-horror with
A-class production, technical values. Pity the wasted cast
which includes Oscar winners Hopkins, Del Toro and Weaver.
If they are truly sincere in resurrecting their iconic property,
Universal should have just settled for Mark Romanek to revamp
the classic gothic story instead.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
There are 11 minutes of Deleted Scenes
including a laughable one involving the wolfman crashing a
party (and now you know why it’s deleted).
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
English Dolby Digital 5.1 is amazingly strong and the bass
rumbles effectively well especially during the action sequences.
The highly saturated colour visual seems unnatural which makes
it hard to really differentiate between what is the natural
colour that is shot on location and what’s not. But
overall, the DVD transfer is acceptable.
MOVIE RATING :
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted
on 10 August 2010 |
