the wolfman

it's a bit too late to be writing reviews but i wanted to get this out while it's fresh in my head. however, i'm really tired so this may be a bit rambly. i watched the 2010 version of the wolfman and it was quite an odd film. parts of it were amazing; the casting for one. benicio del toro is awesome as laurence talbot, anthony hopkins and emily blunt are both on good form and hugo weaving is amazing as inspector abberline (a historical cameo - abberline was one of the lead investigators in the jack the ripper murders, like in real life, not just that johnny depp film where jack the ripper is played by bilbo baggins and depp's abberline has to team up with hagrid to stop him). it looks great, like if a hammer film was made today, all massive, spooky houses and fog-drenched woodlands. some of the effects were great too. but it didn't hold together all that well and i think that may be down to stealing it's plot from teen wolf ( the 1985 movie, not the tv series). i mean it's a less violent version of teen wolf but the moment (***spoiler***) when anthony hopkins tells del toro he is a werewolf is almost exactly the same as the bathroom scene in teen wolf where michael j fox's dad reveals himself. it's like teen wolf with more deaths, and without the riding on top of a truck scene. it was also really difficult to sympathise with anyone. del toro's character can't be held respsonsilbe for killing people as a wolfman but the violence is so extreme it's hard to really sympathise with him, which leaves abberline but our feelings towards him are mixed because we know he's out to get del toro. other films have got this right, like the original wolfman or an american werewolf in london, but it didn't work here for me. it was also way too long for a story which, in terms of plot points, could have been done in half an hour. that said, i'd still recommend checking it out. it's definitely interesting and there's enough that's good here to make it worthwhile. it does a good job of capturing the spirit of vintage horror movies, although it definitely feels more hammer than universal.