It's fair to say old
Wolf Man has had his troubles. I know it's an old thing to discuss but the loss of director
Mark Romanek just days before shooting was such a terrible blow, it's a miracle this project even managed to enter the shooting stage, let alone anything else. But that's all water under the early 20th century London bridge. Then there was the several release date set-backs which adds up to nearly two years now since it was originally intended to debut on our screens. Can you believe the cast of this film were promoting the movie at Comic Con 2008, when back then it was positioned to be a showcase for man-made effects over computer CGI? Oh how times have changed. A whole year of CGI post-production re-edits has resulted in an entirely different picture, one that isn't the modern day remake of a classic many of us hoped for. At this point I pretty much expected a disaster from the trailer, released for the first time today at
Yahoo Movies. The good news is, it's not a disaster. Far from it but it does have it's problems. The main one being what I mentioned above, which has now resulted in a film that blends the work of special effects legend
Rick Baker and the CGI monster, but both of which look entirely like different creatures. Sometimes the hairball is CGI, and not particularly convincing
Van Helsing/
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mould CGI and then sometimes it's clearly
Benicio Del Toro, or his stunt double in make-up. The result is two radically different
Wolf Man's, which is so frustrating because they don't do anything to hide this fact. Infact they almost try and promote the two different faces. There's two close-up's of
The Wolf Man in this trailer, one in CGI and one make-up. What on Earth are they thinking? I don't out and out hate it though. I kind of like the look of the setting and
Joe Johnston is adept with atmosphere and tone, and it seems to be all there. It looks sharp. Performance wise, Del Toro has the weight of the world on his shoulders which
Lon Chaney Jr so naturally embodied, though he doesn't particularly fit the time period.
Emily Blunt, a great actress but she seems to be trying extra hard to pronounce her words here and I'm not sure why
Anthony Hopkins -
The Wolf Man and Benicio del Toro's father would be laughing because he suspects his goes all murderously hairy on a full moon night. But that aside, I think Del Toro and Hopkins will have good chemistry together and those may end up being the most enjoyable scenes in the picture.
The Wolf Man (I refuse to call it The Wolfman becuase it doesn't look as cool) opens in February. Interesting to see if the cast do any press for the picture next year, because if they don't, they you know they aren't a bit happy with how the movie turned out.