Mister Sparta’s Creature Feature: Review of “The Wolfman”

by Mister Sparta, guest reviewer

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of Mister Sparta’s Creature Feature.  This time around I’m going to touch on a subject close to my heart: Werewolves.  I find the mythos of lycanthropy very fascinating, yet as far as media goes, I find only rare few werewolf movies that I find entertaining.  In my search I came across the 2010 remake of the classic The Wolfman.

Now, I know this is more mainstream than my past reviews, but anyone who’s anyone who’s a horror fan should have seen the original Wolfman with the late, great Lon Chaney Jr.  It was for that reason that I chose to watch this movie.  Frankly, it wasn’t bad. Benicio Del Toro is a pretty decent actor and while he doesn’t fill the shoes of Chaney, he does an admirable job.

My biggest criticism with this movie is the pacing.  The first half hour of this movie felt so goddamn slow to me.  Hugo Weaving, while he is a good actor, seemed like he phoned in most of his scenes, his dialogue sounding like a mix of Agent Smith and Megatron.  Emily Blunt was horrendous in this movie, showing the emotional range of a spoon in a jar of peanut butter.  The shining beacon amidst the mediocracy was Sir Anthony Hopkins, who has never had a bad performance in my eyes.

For once, I’ll give a thumbs up to the musical director of this film, as its score was incredible.  It helped to establish mood and timing and was among the good parts of this film.  The effects, especially during the transformation sequences, could have been better, but for CGI they weren’t all that bad and I have certainly seen much worse.  And just when I was starting to get my hopes up for the ending and the teased “werewolf fight” between Del Toro and Hopkins, I became greatly disheartened when it ended suddenly.

Seriously?  All that tension and build up for two minutes of half-assed dog fighting?  For shame.

Final Judgment?  This movie isn’t by any means terrible.  I wouldn’t even say it’s by any means bad.  It just didn’t try as hard as it should have and thus, it’s stuck in that mediocre zone.  If you have the time, go ahead and watch.  It’s certainly one of the better werewolf movies out there, and that’s only because there aren’t many good werewolf movies in the first place.

Until next time, this is Mister Sparta and, like Ozzy Osbourne, I enjoy barking at the moon.

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