film reviews

Every one loves a good monster movie, and none or more popular then the Universal monsters. Those would be Dracula, Frankenstein, and of course the Wolfman. All of these movies were popular in the thirty’s and forty’s and all have been remade at some point, except the Wolfman. Well the wait is over and I can tell you that after seeing this movie, you will wish they had waited longer. Written by Andre Kevin Walker and David Self, the newest version doesn’t add much fear in the story. The Talbot family has a nice estate in rural England, but things start to change when Ben Talbot (Simon Merrells) is killed in the forest by a mysterious beast. Ben’s fiancée Gwen Conliffe(Emily Blunt) then writes a letter to Ben’s brother Lawrence Talbot ( Benicio Del Toro), to inform him of his brother’s death. Lawrence hasn’t been home in years because of a riff with his father, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins). Once back home Lawrence finds out that something strange is happening, and that the town thinks that the devil has unleashed a beast on their town. He starts to investigate and the path leads him to a group of Gypsies, who may have the answers to what is happening. Lawrence does find the answer, when they are all attacked by the beast and Lawrence is bitten, only to be saved at the last moment. While on the mend he has nightmares or a wolfman attacking him, and somehow heals unusually quickly. After following his father to his mother’s burial spot, hit father tells him the story of being bitten by a strange boy and that every full moon brings out the beast in him. He also tells that he him that he will carry on the family tradition and to be ready for the night, which bears a full moon. The film tries to give a story to the creature, and does its best to mix it with a fair amount of action. Director Joe Johnston does a good job directing, he just doesn’t have a good story to go on, but does he best to try and make a decent picture. The story just isn’t very good, even the fight scene that you know is coming between father and son lacks any excitement. The movie seemed to have all the right ingredients, but instead of forming the perfect dish, they end up coming up with something that you wouldn’t feed your dog. I was excited that they were again trying to bring back one of the classic monsters, but that excitement turned into disappointment rather quickly. So once again Hollywood found a way to turn something with promise into something that once again fails to live up to it. I am hoping one day they will get it right, and take a story like this and make it what it can be, instead of just settling for the usual.

Brian Taylor