Wolfman (2010)
Dir: Joe Johnston
Review by: Dustin Hall
Dont look to the past, Lawrence. Its nothing but a wilderness of horrors.
I just got back from the first public screening of next years to-be-released The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. Ill try to be as in-depth and spoiler free as I can manage. The Wolfman wastes no time, and neither shall I. Lets dive right in.
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The Wolfman himself looks great, and I was very happy to see Rick Baker get a chance to use practical effects on the creation, rather than a CG monster stinking up the screen. Compared to the modern, sleek-looking film techniques of Wolfman, seeing a two-legged dog guy on the screen is a little odd. The design is definitely a throwback to the original film, and despite the better make-up effects now, still looks a little dated. This is advantageous in other regards, as the interesting design of the werewolves of Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps, or even Monster Squad, required a lot of rubber prosthetics, and virtually no movement capability for the creature. This is a fully animated wolfman, running and roaring all across the screen. And happily, his four-legged running style looks a lot better than Liev Schreiber in the Wolverine movie.
Despite Rick Bakers involvement with the film, and his insistence on practical effects, theres a surprising amount of computer imagery in the film. Most of it, as with the transformation sequences, blends well and looks good. The transformations are generally subtle until the last one that, in full lighting with virtually no cutaway, worked surprisingly well. You can tell a lot of time and care went into it.
However, a couple moments where the Gypsy pets a bear in particular were CGd into the film look awful, and even got laughs from the audience while they were on the screen. One can only hope Universal fixes this before the final release. Why cant we just get trained animals anymore?
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