10 Great Movie Monsters Trapped In Awful Horror Movies
7. The Wolfman -- The Wolfman (2010)
The Wolfman is a cornerstone character of Universal's catalogue of classic movie monsters. (Try saying that five times fast.) Thus, when the studio assembled monster movie master Anthony Hopkins, along with other big hitters like Benicio del Toro and Hugo Weaving for a remake of the old classic, most of us thought we were in for one hell of a ride.
Hopkins and del Toro play two generations of the titular character, tearing the small town of Blackmoor to pieces in a bestial rampage that is surprisingly visceral and unafraid of showing us all the blood guts and stringy bits in-between. And that's not to mention their transformations, in which director Joe Johnston takes great delight in mapping out every snapping bone and unhinging jaw.
Unfortunately, the magnificence of the monster is lost in a film that, while true to the gothic feel and broader narrative shape of its filmic roots, is frequently dull, rarely surprising, and often at war with the varied performances of its the cast. Above all else, Hopkins phones in at least 50% of his performance, perhaps having foreseen a critical disappointment in the making.