The Wolfman

For Valentine's Day, my Sweetheart took me to see The Wolfman. Reviewers have mostly panned this movie, wanting more depth to the characters, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I try to keep in mind that critics are just now coming off of Avatar/Pocahontas, and everything that isn't amazing 3D will suffer for it.

Before I give you my quick review, I have a confession to make, one that I've made before but really has relevance here.

A movie really has to be absolute shite for me not to like it. I'm not overly-analytical about nuances of the acting, character motivation and whatnot. I go to be entertained, not bored. I don't need explosions every seven minutes to wake me up. I resent when I'm being treated by the writers as an idiot who can't write her own name. I really resent rip-offs of other movies-like the trailer of Repo Men I saw while waiting for The Wolfman to start. It's a rip-off of Repo! The Genetic Opera and I am astounded that there really are no other scripts in Hollywood of original stories to make into films. But I digress.

The Wolfman was a fun movie. There. I said it. I didn't have one minute of saying in my head "Boring! Get on with it!" The whole look of the film was stunning-dark and brooding, as would be expected, but still gorgeous. I now have a new standard to work towards on my tombstones, that's for sure! I loved the interior of Talbot Manor and fully intend to buy a mansion just like that as soon as I win bazillions in the Lottery.

As expected both Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins turned in noteworthy performances. Hopkins plays the Lord of the Manor-cold and distant-to a t. During one speech, you can see a tiny bit of Hannibal Lecter peeking out, and that's wonderful. I did expect Del Toro's character to have more of a reaction to becoming a werewolf-outrage, torment, something, but his reaction was understated and I guess that worked, too. I would have been more drawn in had he shown more emotion about it.

There is gore, as one one would expect of a Wolfman movie. Limbs fly around quite a bit during the scenes where Larry Talbot is the monster. The visual effects are stunning, particularly the transformation scenes, and you can almost touch Victorian London. I'm sure my dad will be watching these for next year's Visual Effects Awards.

The bottom line is, I found this to be an entertaining movie. There are enough startles to make your loved one leap into your lap-Mr. ShellHawk actually jumped a few times-so make sure you take the opportunity to hold them close. And for goodness sakes-just have fun with it!