The Wolfman (to say nothing of the dog)

I was looking forward to this film, for a bunch of reasons: 
   Firstly, I love all things werewolf. Especially now that I'm getting in the mood for Halloween.
   Secondly, the film has a great cast, I'm a big fan of Hugo Weaving, Anthony Hopkins is always a pleasure to watch, Emily Blunt is a great actress who understands timing in acting, and she's great both at comedy and drama, Benicio Del Toro is normally pretty good too, and there is also a brief but cool appearance of a monster of a stage actor: Antony Sher. 
   Thirdly, they shot much of the film near where I live in London. They filmed last summer on rather nice and sunny days, whilst the atmosphere of the film is gloomy and misty, so I was eager to see what the finished product would look like after they added the computer generated magic. 
   Lastly, the film claims to be the remake of the old Universal Studios hit film, which I love, so all great premises to enjoy a fantasy-horror movie.
   Now, the script I'm sure took a long time to write. I mean, lines like "have we got any silver bullets?" or "if you see Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro, the wolfman) do not engage in conversation, shoot on site" don't come easy. Not to mention the countless times that "lunatic" is used to describe Benicio Del Toro's character as a double meaning (Talbot was taken to an asylum as a child because his father was a sadic... or that's what I made of the reasons). All this creates a wondrous suspense that really makes you wonder... It really made me wonder. And I wonder what persuaded actors the calibre of Hopkins, Weaving and Del Toro to sign their contracts after reading that script. Money surely, a bit of an easy ride too, of course, but it makes me sad to see a wonderful actor like Hugo Weaving striking poses and running around uttering lines that are too daft to even be called daft. Anthony Hopkins too... man... he gets to call his on-screen son "my pup". Fail! 
   As for the dog (a Great Dane called Samson... or was it Scooby... no, no definitely Samson) he does quite alright, barks when he needs to, growls convincingly too and his entrances and exits are fairly smooth and to the point. But the actors... did they realise there was no dressing those lines? For as much as they can read something bad and still make it sound cool, because that cast can, those lines truly suck. Almost as much as the joke I am about to make. These werewolves suck more than any Twilight vampire. 
   And just when I thought that Wolverine, the X-men origins film had used every possible action film/comic book cliché ever invented (maybe it's the wolves theme that does it?), here's a film that tops it. I guess the broad audience likes clichés. maybe because they give a sense of stability to a situation, in the sense that they make you think you know where you stand. If you go to Italy, for example, you will discover that every Italian plays the mandolin, sings O' Sole Mio at least twice a day, eats pizza and pasta at every meal, zips around on a scooter all year round and has close relations with Mafia (now that's me slightly paraphrasing the definition of Italy according to Apple). 
   But because one can never really have too many clihés, fear not my friends, this films abounds with them. In fact almost every shot and every line in the Wolfman is a magical cliché. I don't mean to be overly sarcastic, honest, I myself do like a good cliché or two, but this film really doesn't leave one behind. 


   A lot of time, money and effort goes into film making, so why dwell too much on the flaws? What matters in the end is the story and the message it carries. This is a story about a dysfunctional family and how love can save the day (or die trying). 
   Did I enjoy it? ...It made me howl. 


Here's a clip with some interviews and moments from the film...