The beast will have its day. The beast will out.
The greatest success that a movie can achieve is when its story, characters, or dialogue are written indelibly into popular culture. The 1941 Universal Pictures film, The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., certainly achieved that. It shares that honor with three other monster movies: Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy. The four have spawned thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of movies featuring similar monsters. Vampires are a virtual industry in contemporary Hollywood. In the case of the latter three, there are scores of versions of the original movies. Indeed, Boris Karloff's Mummy was itself largely a remade version of Bela Legosi's Dracula.
I haven't done a lot of research, but I believe that Joe Johnston's The Wolfman is first time that the original 1941 story has been retold on film. I doubt that there is anything in the new film that will make a lasting mark on the genre, but it is a rocking good monster movie and a nice tribute to its famous predecessor.
The movie has its flaws. If you are allergic to cheap romance, you will be sneezing more than a few times. The love story is pedestrian. Anthony Hopkins, the big money actor is, well, Anthony Hopkins. He's a one trick dog, but the trick works well enough if you don't mind his accent shifting in and out of character. Benicio Del Toro was well-cast if you wanted someone who looks like Lon Chaney Jr., sort of, and even more if you wanted someone with the discipline to maintain exactly the same haunted (or is it slightly stupefied?) look throughout the picture. Emily Blunt looks good in dark corridors or with the moors behind her, but Hell I could do that. On the other hand, Hugo Weaving (Elrond in LOTR) is marvelous.
What saves the movie is its story and graphic texture. In the original film, Lawrence Talbot is an American engineer returned to his birthplace in England. That fits into the Dracula story line of new world reason meets old world hocus pocus. Young Talbot meets Gypsies, gets smitten and bitten, and things get hairy after that.
In the new version, Talbot is an actor who comes back at news that his brother has disappeared. He arrives to learn that his brother has been killed by some mysterious animal. He is smitten by his brother's fiancée, bitten by his brother's killer and, you guessed it.
SPOILER WARNING!
The story is basically an oedipal conflict between father and a son haunted by a memory of his mother's murder. Not to be too explicit, it culminates in a battle between two werewolves, one of whom is tortured by what he has become while the other has learned to love it. There is also a nice little story explaining the origin of the lycanthropic infection that borrows somewhat from the current zombie genre.
The actions scenes include a lot of villagers with torches and shotguns, and a monster run amok scene in London. There is one great scene which I will not describe, but it is delicious precisely because you can see exactly what is going to happen and you pretty much want it to happen.
The texture is almost black and white, with a constant back lit, approaching storm sort of lighting. I found it delicious to watch. If you like werewolf movies, don't miss this one.
Thank you for reviewing !! The movie is looking to be interesting one. If i am not wrong it is horror movie. I love to watch horror movie.Horror movies are all time my favorite one. I will surely go for it.
Posted by: The Wolfman | Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 01:38 AM