I agree. Walker's script may have been more nuanced than the finished product (though the alligator fight sounded beyond stupid, thank God that got axed). But his idea of werewolf fights, though in Werewolf of London, just didn't work here.
With that said, not that I'm trying to defend this movie too much, but I think I can explain the Abberline bit as it really does make sense to me. For better or worse, the relationship between Lawrence and Sir John in this movie is very Freudian. It is no secret there is a lot of Oedipus to it. That is why they work in Lawrence playing Hamlet, as that has often been read as an Oedipal tale (and apparently in the original draft the "To Be or Not to Be" speech about suicide played a major role for Lawrence that got trimmed).
Well Lawrence, as the forgotten and thrown away son, can now prove himself to his father in literally the only way his father would understand...savage brutality. But he is not fighting for the Freudian explanation to be with his mother, as his mother is dead. However, Gwen has become the surrogate mother to the Talbot family in a lot of ways. It is made very clear that she greatly resembles the wife Sir John lost and the mother Lawrence never really knew. So all three Talbots (including the brother) are drawn to her because their ids, which the werewolves are an expression of, see her as a sexualized maternal figure.
I don't think I'm reaching in using that as an explanation as to why the Wolfman decided to go after Gwen while he could. The reason that Sir John got drunk and subsequently was unable to chain up his wolf-self was because he was subconsciously jealous of his son for marrying and taking away the "mother" figure. So, as a werewolf his id lashed out and murdered his son. After Lawrence has proven his dominance by killing the father (very Oedipus), they show the picture of his mother on the wall. When he chases Gwen through the woods, Johnston goes out of his way to cut back to the portrait of Lawrence's mother on the wall. Lawrence has defeated his father and is now going after his "mother" to slate his psychological id. Even when he takes her, he leans into her in a ravishing position and his attack is far more sexualized in visuals than when he kills anybody else in the movie.
Look, I don't like the Oedipal angle. But in all honesty I think if you read it (as I think Johnston wants you to) like that, then him making her a higher priority to ravish than killing Abberline (who was protecting himself) makes sense. Now where the crap did Gwen's horse go when she ran out of the house? That's the real question.
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