"The Wolfman" was as I expected, not a very good film. This has almost all to do with the formulated script, which I was able to follow along par to the simple and predictable plot structure: Man comes to town, Man gets bitten by werewolf, Man turns into werewolf, Man falls in love, Man and Woman are doomed to be. The End. A tale of Beauty and the Beast. Very easy.
The screenplay was written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self. Walker is famous for writing "Seven," and writer of another goth adaptation, "Sleepy Hollow" for Tim Burton in 1999, and I loved Self's script for "Road to Perdition," but he also wrote the adaptation for the remake "The Haunting of Hill House," "The Haunting," for director Jan De Bont. So, you can see why both writers were chosen to pen "The Wolfman," and in retrospect "The Haunting" and "Sleepy Hollow" were not bad films, or that badly written. Actually, they were very well written. "The Wolfman's" script, however, wasn't. So, I was surprised to sit through the first half-hour of "Wolfman" and follow through a cliche, Hollywood formula plot that didn't have many greats moments or dialogue (I didn't like the dialogue period. Too much Victorian dialect), and only meant to throw out surprising twists here and there. The rest of the story's surprises are all visual, though not to well served: The werewolf gruesomely killing hapless townsfolk. Director Joe Johnston (the last thing he did was "Hidalgo" and before that "Jurassic Park III") seems to think all he should offer is great looking goth/Victorian settings, with lots of fog and shadows and dim candle light, and each time the wolfman roams the craggy moors and city streets of London to have him maul to death as many people as possible, because it looks really awesome with enhanced CGI. Um, how about no? I would have preferred a PG-13 "Wolfman" that plays more on the suspense and terror, rather than the R-rated version we have here given it's due for lots of claws slashing into bellies, pilling intestine all over, into faces, pulling off arms, and dismembering heads, all with lots of blood-letting....
The other thing wrong with the movie could be the huge number of problems on the production, like treks to find a director, constant re-edits, different tones considered, and so forth. I doubt it. That's giving "The Wolfman" an excuse. Johnston should have studied the original 1941 "Wolf Man" more, and Walker and Self, too. Though, maybe it wasn't them, but Universal, who might have forgotten about their legacy of those really good, but campy, old monster movies and just wanted a techno action Wolfman. What? How else would you approach that? As a fast, quick European copout action flick like "Taken" or "From Russia With Love?" A classic horror tale, of beauty and the beast, of love and terror, is really only one thing, especially filmed the way it has been. German Expression. That's the only thing done right about this update, and let's be happy it honors old monster movies that way, and that it is what it is, and shouldn't be anything else.
