Review: The Wolfman

Grade: B

In the late 1880's, Lawrence Talbot, a nobleman with a haunted past, is lured back to his family estate, after being gone for most of his life, by his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe. She tracked him down because his brother has gone missing and she is worried and wants his help to find him. When he arrives, he discovers that he is too late, his brothers body has been discovered and it looks as though it had been brutally attacked by a vicious creature of some sort. When he goes out one night to try to get some answers as to what the creature was, a group of villagers are attacked by the beast and Talbot himself is bitten. He survives, but at what cost. His injuries heal at a supernatural pace and when the next full moon comes around, he discovers a grave mystery about his father and Talbot begins to transform into the beast himself.

Universal resurrects another classic monster movie. The writers and filmmakers decided to stick closer to the source material than 1999's The Mummy. The Wolfman looks eerily like the original 1941 Universal classic. The imagery throughout the movie is beautiful. The effects are fantastic, especially the transformation scenes, they are an absolute joy to watch. The story is pretty solid and the back story with Talbot's father is pretty interesting. However, the story is a bit slow at times and I really wish we could have seen a bit more of the Wolfman himself. I have a feeling that if this movie does well enough we could possibly see more Wolfman movies.

Benicio Del Toro (Sin City, Snatch) plays the main role of Lawrence Talbot, a nobleman who turns into the Wolfman. Del Toro is a great actor and he did a pretty good job with this role and it was a lot of fun watching him transform into the Wolfman. Anthony Hopkins (World's Fastest Indian, Silence of the Lambs) plays Sir John Talbot, Lawrence's father and the original Wolfman as well. Hopkins was amazing as always. His character was fascinating, you could always tell something wasn't right about him then suddenly you discover that he is a Wolfman. Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria, Sunshine Cleaning) plays Gwen Conlife, Talbot's brother's fiancée. Blunt did a pretty good job with her role, although I feel that she didn't do much. Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) plays the role of Abberline, an investigator from Scotland Yard looking into the mysterious deaths around the village. It was great to see Weaving in something again, I always liked him, but he doesn't seem to do much anymore. His character was great, if not a little heartless.

It was so much fun to see another classic Universal monster be redone and it now has me really excited to see the proposed remakes of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. If you love the classics, then you should definitely see this movie. If you are just a fan of action/horror/suspense movies, this is for you.

Great quote: "Look into my eyes Lawrence, you can see that I am quite dead."