Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Wolfman 2010


So i was pretty excited to see this movie. Benecio Del Toro seemed like a good fit as the wolfman and with a simple story, and so many classic images, it seemed hard for the grip of hollywood to fuck this one up. And I don't think they did.



First things first, this movie is waaay gorier than I expected, but it works. The over the top acting and atmosphere suit the source material. This is a great popcorn movie, zero pretention, and lots of action.


The film opens with lots of shots of the moon and a werewolf attack. There is full blown disembowelment, right out of the gate on this one. I think it might even have been before the title. I love pre-title violence. Think of all the great movies that have fucked up shit right from the get go. Braindead, Carrie, Day of the Dead, and more recently Zombieland. Credit sequences are generally boring, so I always appreciate it when the filmmakers take the time to make it spicey.


To add to the effect of the movie, me and my stoned counterpart had great seats, right under the projector. This cast pale blue light over our seats, emmersing us both directly into the foggy moores of victorian London countryside. It's these moments where the movie succeeds the most. The foggy moores where a trademark of the original, and they are utilized throughout this new version. Fog so thick you can't see where the wolfman's coming from make the audience tense, and me giddy with enjoyment at actually feeling some tension in a horror flick thats palpable, and not just some spooked woman reaching for a doorknob.


The violence in the flick is fierce and frenzied. Some sequences reminded me a lot of American Werewolf in London, just due to the mass level of carnage exacted in such public vicinities. The wolfman doesn't hide and strike in the dark, he charges into crowds, fucks up as many people as possible, and then runs off to fall asleep, so he can wake up naked somewhere the next morning.


Anthony hopkins plays the benicio's father, and he turns in a creepy (if slightly campy and over the top) performance. He's really a bit of glue that this movie needs in parts, where it might have been a little bland, Hopkins steps in and started entertaining people.


Make no mistake, this movie is entertaining as hell. It takes breaks between sequences of carnage for exposition and dialogue, and doesn't really flesh out all of the characters enough to consider this movie character driven though. It's really MONSTER driven. and MOON driven. All passage of time is shown through the cycle of the moon, raising tension as it becomes fuller and fuller.
Another thing people are talking about is the cgi used for the tranformation sequences. I'm usually staunchely against cgi, unless it manages to fool me. The lame as fuck cgi bear that accompanied the gypsy caravan did not bode well at the start of the film (honestly? bears exist, so why animate them and do a shit job? why couldn't they get bart the bears cub or something?(the bear from the great outdoors with john candy)). But luckily The transformation here looks great, and painful in parts. Just the way you want your wolf transformations to be. The jaw and teeth growth in particular where a nice touch.
But what this movie boils down to is expectations. It's a classic story, some people love it, some people just think they love it becasue they're supposed to, and some people could care less.
For those purists who knock it for it's flashyness and less than fluid plot i say fair enough. But what else did you expect? I expected an entertaining romp through the moores of victorian london, with a classic character played by an actor who is already half wolf, and hopefully some exciting gory bits and spooky atmosphere. I didn't expect it to revolutionize the genre, but I did expect it to also not shit all over the original wolf mythology and limit the use of overblown cgi effects.
I got exactly what i expected, only bloodier. I'll take that.




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