Wolfman leaves audiences unsatisfied

Remakes of old horror movies usually have bite, but Joe Johnston's rendition of The Wolfman lacks teeth.

The film, set in 1890's England, follows the path of Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) who is heading to England to attend his brother's funeral. Upon his arrival he finds out from his father (Anthony Hopkins) that his brother was brutally mauled. Following the initial encounter between the father and son, Talbot visits his brother's fiancée (Emily Blunt) who he makes a promise to find out what killed his brother. This sets the tone for the rest of the movie, which turns it essentially into a horror mystery.

The major flaw with the movie is its lack of action. There is way too much time between wolfman sightings. The film has a fairly in depth plot, so the lack of attacks and action is needed, but it runs the speed of the film into the ground. The last half-hour of the film does pick up, but by that point audiences are likely to be to far gone in boredom to care.

Special effects are one area this film both excels and fails in. It does a wonderful job paying homage to the original film The Wolfman, but for some the makeup may seem cheesy. The beast is a nice mix of wolf and man, which as it should be, but sadly this mix makes the monster look more goofy than scary.

This film is also one of the goriest to come out in recent years, but the gore is computer generated and therefore looks fake. There are several times people are disemboweled by The Wolfman leaving the victims cradling their intestines. At first this graphic violence adds an extra scare factor to the film. After about the fifth intestinal loss though the stomach wounds start to look like spaghetti and lose their impact.

Despite the hit-and-miss special effects, this film's acting is relatively good.

Hopkins is amazing which is nothing new for him. He portrays his character as a man torn between good and evil which gives a wonderful dynamic to his character which could have other wise been one note. Blunt, who usually plays someone confident, excels as the scared lover. She conveys her affection for Talbot perfectly without making her attraction seemed forced or shallow. By far the best performance in the movie is Hugo Weaving who plays detective Abberline. Weaving's talents are usually overshadowed by other actors in his films, but in The Wolfman his performance overpowers the rest of the cast.

The only weak portrayal in the movie is Del Toro's, who seems like he is trying too hard to be dark.

All in all The Wolfman is a decent film, but fails to achieve the success it could have.