I was hoping to enjoy this remake as much as I did Universal's remake of THE MUMMY. While that movie successfully utilizes CGI effects to bring the monster to life it simply doesn't work for THE WOLFMAN. Yes, the Rick Baker created makeup is a good homage to the Lon Chaney Jr. beast but all that crazy stretching in order to get there had me laughing. It's the very same problem I had with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS.
The setup is faithful to the original movie, with Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro, who already looks like a werewolf) returning to his homestead in England to see his father (Anthony Hopkins). But rather than just concentrating on Lawrence and his transforming into a lycanthrope, they add a second monster that has very close ties to him. But doubling all this monster mayhem only diminishes the movie. It's simply not needed and poses a few logic problems. The best performance is probably from Emily Blunt, who portrays Talbot's almost sister-in-law who develops feelings for him. The best scene is when Lawrence is first attacked at the Gypsy camp, which is extremely vicious. Both Del Toro and Hopkins seem like they could not care less what was going on as all their lines are delivered exactly the same way. I could not believe I was so bored watching this movie--and I love werewolf films.
I was hoping to enjoy this remake as much as I did Universal's remake of THE MUMMY. While that movie successfully utilizes CGI effects to bring the monster to life it simply doesn't work for THE WOLFMAN. Yes, the Rick Baker created makeup is a good homage to the Lon Chaney Jr. beast but all that crazy stretching in order to get there had me laughing. It's the very same problem I had with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS.
