The Wolfman

Tagline: When the moon is full the legend comes to life.

So, this was our first Movie Mondays movie and I expected this movie to either be totally badass or be completely terrible. I think it's very important to note for anyone going in to this movie that this is a remake of a 1941 classic horror movie. The story follows Benicio Del Toro as he returns home following the death of his brother to console his widow, Emily Blunt, and to help find the killer and reunite with their father, Anthony Hopkins. Soon, we realize that the killer is a superhuman wolfman and his family has dark secrets to uncover. That being said, unfortunately this movie fell into the terrible category. The screenplay was terrible and left very little for any type of character development. The lines were so cliche' and at times laughable. Again, this was a remake but a lot of filler and subplot was begging to be added in this 1.5 hour blockbuster movie. The performances were static to say the least, with the exception of Emily Blunt. Del Toro and Hopkins brought nothing to the plate but I thought Blunt did a nice job with her character. The cinematography was nicely done, as should be expected with a movie with this high of a budget. The blue filter was fitting and the camera work was smooth and effortless. The editing was a little elementary with obvious cuts and sequences, but I don't think most people will mind that part. Which brings us to the CGI. So there was a business decision that had to be made by Universal; whether to show the wolfman or not. The wrong choice was made. They could have spent the CGI budget on parts that needed it (i.e. the score and screenplay) and possibly saved part of the movie. While the CGI was obviously detailed and expensive, it was almost painful to watch, especially the close ups. There is a certain fight scene near the end which produced more laughs than intended. This also leads into the score. The score was so over the top ominous, it belonged on a TV show and not a movie of this stature. The music was distracting and tried to produce artificial suspense. I'm not going to even mention the howls, which by the way were apparently recorded by Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth. Overall, I would only recommend this movie to lovers, and I stress the word lovers, of the original wolfman. This was an epic fail and not surpisingly, the first rated R film from the director Joe Johnston who directed such movies as Jumanji and Hidalgo. I think if they had decided to make this a PG13 movie and tone it down for kids, it might have worked since it was over-the-top and cliche'. Quote; 'They say its not a sin to kill a beast, but is a sin to kill a man. Where does one begin and the other end''.