The Wolfman
written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self (2010)
directed by Joe Johnston (2010)
By the end of this review I may convince you, Lon Chaney Jr is responsible for gericurls. It's unbelievable that it has been almost seventy years ago since Mr. Chaney sported a funny looking beard and afro, roaming through the mist in search of his next victim. Believably these were the first true horror films I watched as a kid. My mom was awesome about that. Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature of the Black Lagoon, or even The Incredible Shrinking Man could be on the menu; in between lunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and dinner of Critters 1, 2, 3, 4. Whatever the case, I have a great respect for these relics, inspiring genre classics for the last seventy years.
Of course, with demand of something new and spectacular on the screen the young ego's that control Hollywood have remade them all...cept' Creature and Incredible (unless you count Honey I shrunk the Kids...please don't) and make a profit and maybe get some make up academies in the process. The Wolfman is an old hat now, a story told so many times, great and bad, American Werewolf in London to Wolf, its been done as drama, horror and comedy, even branching into action, if you count Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers. Now with the tween's hounding the public eye with the Twilight series, werewolves are getting makeovers and the faces are getting younger, and so aren't the age restrictions.
Now it seems and R-rated remake of Wolfman has been in development hell for three to four years now. I remember reading about Benicio getting the title role and being uber excited. Anthony Hopkins joined the list, hell I didn't even know Hugo Weaving was in it, a fantastic surprise. It had a great music video director attached (Mark Romanek who left the film, reportedly halfway through production...it'd be great to see the alternate cut) and then comes the word Andrew Kevin Walker reworked the script.... Could it be so wrong? Did it fail? Read on dear reader...
Now as dated as the original film is, it is a divine classic of showcase acting, a sympathetic Lon Chaney and a great cameo from Dracula himself (Bela Lugosi muthafunkers!), the film itself is very nostalgic and masterfully framed. So what we got with Joe Johnston's version?
Well, we got a gore soaked, reference filled remake with lots of spunk, with some home run hits and some fair ball misses.
First off, the acting is a little stale, Benicio Del Toro does his usual, Anthony Hopkin's plays a good John Talbot with a diabolical secret, as I said Hugo Weaving is great as Scotland Yard detective Abberline. But a lot of the acting, or maybe its the editing style, during the quieter scenes is sped up and dry. Without characters really searching for answers, just kind coloring by numbers and waiting for the next full moon.
The violence, is, YES, oh god yes awesome. Strewn intestines, torn off heads, and limbs ripped apart, oh its bloody my dear brothers and its wonderful. In that respect. However, there are a few more flaws.
I'll admit first, the style, is good, looks like possibly there is a balance of Mark Romanek's style left in the movie, but Joe Johnston's bombastic approach is great for the action scenes. However it is my complaint that Joe Johnston maybe the wrong man for this R-Rated fare.
Who is Joe Johnston, well kiddies if you know anything about movies, you'd recognize his name, first off he did the excellent October Sky, he's also responsible for Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, and Pagemaster, also the aforementioned Honey I shrunk the Kids. He's like a semi-conductor of blockbusters under the watchful eye of Spielberg. And as you can see, its mostly kiddie, PG flicks from Mr Johnston.
Add that too the resume of Andrew Kevin Walker... oh, whose he? Andrew Kevin Walker is responsible the harrowing Se7en, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and also 8MM. The man is dark, his worlds are infested with depressing visuals and serial killer linguistics of human nature. His world is effed.
So how' did the polar opposites do? Caspar paired with Jack the Ripper? well they managed a fine looking film with pacing issues but made up with some exquisite action scenes and classic set pieces. My favorite scenes of course involved Benicio being tortured to cure of him of his delusions in an insane asylum. I did however, like some of the departures from the original, it seems A.K.Walker really went off the deep end with the Talbot family being cursed for the last hundred years. But what I also like, is that the film tries to stay as true to its source material as much as it can. It is too bad there isn't enough character empathy as in the original flick for us to fall back on when it is necessary.
My main issue is I felt nobody had motivation other than Hugo Weaving's character, everybody walks around with their head down waiting for the next person to say something. It's stagey, if I can use that kind of expression, the actors are fine in their roles, its the dialogue that is atrocious. Personally the juxtaposition of the writer and director may have detracted from what could have been the best of the Universal Horror remakes, its a shame Mark Romanek quit, it'd be particularly interesting what the director of One Hour Photo would have done differently.
I gave it thought as I left the cinema, initially unimpressed with what I had just saw, I am a man of preconceived notions, I like to over think things before I experience them. This was on par with my expectation. A visually excellent movie with no life, worth the ride, maybe once or twice, but no more...doesn't hurt Danny Elfman's got the music duties.
