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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  /  The Wolfman (2010)
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), July 25th, 2010, 8:00pm
Surprised not to see a thread for this BIG budget flop.  $150 Million budget, a whopping $62 Million in NA, and another $78 Million over seas, drudges up a return of $140 Million, and another disaster on Universal's hands.

What went wrong?  How could a gory, R rated remake of a classic monster movie, with Benicio Del Torro, Anthony Hopkins, and a strong supporting cast, and effects from master Rick Baker turn out looking like this?

Argh...what a load of crap this is.  Thoroughly hated it.  And I'm literally shocked to say this.

The effects were pretty much crap, IMO.  The transformation itself was well done, but the end result look of the Wolfman was pretty poor.  The violence was indeed bloody, gory, and over the top.  I think that's what made it come off as cartoonish, almost.  It didn't work at all like Universal hoped.

SPOILERS     SPOILERS     SPOILERS     SPOILERS     SPOILERS

For me, this didn't work on any level.  It was painfully dull and slow.  I didn't buy the characters or their actions at all.  Benecio turned in one of the poorest performances I've ever seen out of him.  And Hopkins...well, Hopkins was Hopkins, and his character turned out to be the biggest joke of all, culminating in a laugh out loud werewolf on werewolf throw down.

I hate to hate on movies.  I really do.  I was looking so forward to this one, and ended up missing its theatrical run, but now I know better and all is fine and good.

$150 Million!  $150 Million!!  WTF?  C'mon guys, you can do better than this crap.  And if you can't, give it up, cause this is just a complete waste of talent, money, and the moviegoer's time.

Bottom line - D+
Posted by: stebrown, July 27th, 2010, 2:30am; Reply: 1
Watched this last night Jeff and can see where you're coming from. I didn't think it was all that bad though.

Pacing was a problem throughout. The first act was way too slow and the film was really dragging - later it was rushing through scenes that should have been slower.

Agree about Benecio Del Torro. The cast was the main reason I was looking forward to this so much but I was really dissapointed with his performance. Hopkins is one of my favourite actors and, as you say, it was a typical good performance by him but his character arc was a bit stupid really.

***SPOILERS****

The main problem for me was the predictability though. If someone asked me to write a list of scenes for the film before watching it, apart from the asylum stuff, it would have been pretty much spot on. I also wouldn't have guessed the werewolf fight haha, what a crappy idea that was!

Overall though, a little worse than I expected but a load worse than I hoped. Just an average werewolf film when it should have been much better. Can you really better An American Werewolf in London though anyway? haha
Posted by: MacDuff, July 27th, 2010, 8:44pm; Reply: 2
Huge werewolf fan. Was disappointed with this movie for all the reasons stated above.

$150 million budget. Wow.

SPOILERS

One scene confused me - the train scene when our protagonist gets the walking cane... or does he... and then it resurfaces in the end???? How contrived....

My rating: **/5
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), July 27th, 2010, 10:33pm; Reply: 3
Yeah, not sure about that walking stick/sword thing.  Maybe I fell asleep when it came into play?  It's also prominently displayed in the menu area.

What did I miss here?  Anyone?

Wonder if anyone else caught this...I watched the deleted scenes and was literally shocked to see the HUGE Opera scene that didn't make the final cut.  First of all, it was horrible, and I can see why it was axed, but it was also a very, VERY expensive, and it's appalling how much money was just thrown away here.

The more I think about this movie, the more upset I get.
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