MOVIE REVIEW: THE WOLFMAN

Joe Johnston is one of those directors who keeps getting break after break although his films turn out to be just average. As a kid I didn't know who Joe Johnston was, but I new his films well. He directed Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Pagemaster, Jumanji and The Rocketeer, all favorites of mine when I was younger. And for kids, they are good films. But then he started getting some bigger budget stuff, October Sky, Jurassic Park 3 and Hidalgo, which were all very average movies, JP 3 being borderline bad. In his latest film, he remakes the classic horror film The Wolfman.

Lets start with the cast. Benicio Del Toro in my opinion was dead on casting to play the part of Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolfman. The guy is an incredible actor who I feel is very underrated and has yet to find his "big break". Then we have Anthony Hopkins who plays the father. Yet again, another proven actor who fits the role perfectly. Then you have Emily Blunt who is a very good up-and-coming actress and Hugo Weaving who plays the detective. With a very strong cast I was hoping for a very strong film.

I don't want to say I knew the film would turn out badly, but after the film gets pushed back two different times, something had to be up. The problem was the story. It is very slow, very boring and the plot barely holds it all together.

In the film, Lawrence is called back to his home when his brother mysteriously goes missing. Upon arrival he is informed that his brother's body had been found and that it appeared he had been slaughtered by some kind of beast. Determined to kill the beast, he goes out to find it, gets attacked, and then he himself turns into one of the legendary wolfman. Then the hunt begins to find Lawrence and destroy him.

It moves to slow and the characters have little to no depth to them. It is really a shame because you have all this talent being clearly wasted on screen.

I did enjoy the "wolfman" scenes. The make-up was fantastic and the graphics were very good. But he doesn't turn till an hour into the film and the scenes were too far and few between.

I really believe if someone else was given the opportunity to take a crack at this film with this cast, they could have knocked it out of the park. Sadly, the make-up and effects do not do enough to save this film. I'm still pulling for Johnston because whether I like it or not he is directing Captain America so I might as well try and embrace him. I did not embrace The Wolfman and I give it a two out of five.