http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780653/

This is a remake that I was really looking forward to. The original film is a classic, but I think a remake could have added a lot. The werewolf has been very underrused recently. Which is understandable because you can't really do much with werewolves. They are a bit crap overall and they don't have any of the emotional themes that vampires have. With werewolf movies you are either a human and boring or a werewolf who kills people. We all watch these fims to either see the slow agonizing process of a man becoming a beast, or just to see people get torn apart. Some werewolf movies have tried to add more emotion and complexity like Ginger snaps, and In the company of wolves. If you are seeing a movie called The Wolfman you pretty much know what to expect. If you want to see some good werewolf action then this film has moments, but a lot of it feels rushed. I heard rumors about this film being re cut and edited so a lot of scenes are missing. If that is true then it kinda makes sense because story and setting wise this film is very poorly made. Important events happen and the main characters accept them almost instantly. The characters also had some pretty cheesy dialogue which made some parts of the film much cheesier than intended. The character development is pretty much nonexistant so I never gave a crap when anything plot wise happened. Let's talk about the good parts though. The acting is mostly good, Anthony Hopkins is particular is great.The werewolf also looks very good since the legendary makeup artist Rick Baker created him. The werewolf attack scenes are all very well done and create a convincing sense of fear and dread that somebody is going to get killed in a very gruesome and painful way.

There was a CGI bear that looked pretty bad though. That was a very odd thing to put in the film. Also the big werewolf on werewolf fight at the end was really cheesy looking. The biggest problem is still the awful pacing of the film. You never really know when or where things take place. There are some important settings, but I never got a sense of where they were in relation to each other. There is also a poorly done dark family history drama that could have added a lot of emotion to the film, but that too is rushed and never gets very interesting. The film hints at some bad things that happened to Benicio del toro's character as a kid, but you are never really given enough reason to really care. Emily Blunt is pretty good as Gwen, but her romance with Del toro is just as rushed as everything else in the film. One moment they meet and the next they have fallen in love and this creates problems because he is the wolfman and he loves her but doesn't want to hurt her. It is all very melodramatic to the point where it almost becomes a parody of itself near the end. This film had tons of potential to make werwolves vaguely interesting again, but it fails for the most part. It has a nice tribute to An American Werewolf in London that I appreciated but overall it just feels like an empty soulless film. The action is good at times and the effects are fun to look at but other than that it is nothing special. With a better director who can handle dark themes like Terry Gilliam, or David Cronenberg it could have been great. Unfortunately this film turned out to be a campy melodramatic werewolf movie with some of the worst character development I have seen in a while. I do not recommend this to anyone unless you are desperate to see werewolves. All this has is some good action, and you can get that in other werewolf movies that actually know what plot and character development is. Personally I would rather sacrifice good action for well developed story and characters. This film just felt flat, dull, and lifeless.

Overalll I give it a 5 out of 10.