The path the 2010 remake of the classic horror film The Wolf Man (now, The Wolfman) was a twisted one.  Numerous rewrites, a change in directors and rumors of editing being done until the zero hour conspire to color the perceptions of the too-informed viewer.  I only mention the problems with production because they did exist, they did reach the public consciousness, and now we will acknowledge them and move on.  The film should and must stand on its own merits - no excuses, no preconceptions.  It is in that spirit that we look at The Wolfman.

Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) has received the shocking news that his younger brother has gone missing.  Though estranged from his family, Talbot is compelled to return to the family estate at the behest of his brother's fiancé to search for his missing sibling.  Upon his arrival at the ill-kept manor, Talbot finds his father, John (Anthony Hopkins), on the stairs, ready with the news that Lawrence's brother has been found, mauled and quite dead.  His lady love, Gwen (Emily Blunt), has been rooming at the estate and charges Lawrence with a single task - solve the mystery of her once-to-be-husband's grisly death.

In pursuit of that goal, Talbot is attacked by a beast that decimates most of a gypsy camp and several villagers who have come to kill a CGI circus bear, mistakenly identified as the assailant.  He survives, but not before we overhear the gypsies discuss a curse that has befallen Lawrence, one that gives rise to the question of whether or not he should be allowed to live.  He does, of course, and is nursed to health with the aid of Gwen and his father.  His suspicions about his attacker and the potential curse haunt Lawrence, exacerbated by the arrival of Inspector Abberline (Hugo Weaving), disgraced by his failure to solve the Jack the Ripper murders and driven to find the culprit terrorizing the hamlet of Blackmoor.  

villagers who have come to kill a CGI circus bear, mistakenly identified as the assailant.  He survives, but not before we overhear the gypsies discuss a curse that has befallen Lawrence, one that gives rise to the question of whether or not he should be allowed to live.  He does, of course, and is nursed to health with the aid of Gwen and his father.  His suspicions about his attacker and the potential curse haunt Lawrence, exacerbated by the arrival of Inspector Abberline (Hugo Weaving), disgraced by his failure to solve the Jack the Ripper murders and driven to find the culprit terrorizing the hamlet of Blackmoor.  

We wouldn't have a movie with this title if the curse weren't true, and Lawrence undergoes the lycanthropic transformation into the titular wolfman after a mysterious encounter with his father, and proceeds to disembowel and decapitate several citizens come to rid their town of the beast.  When he awakes, he is sent away to an institution where he can be observed and treated for his delusion that he will become a monster

and kill again with the rise of the next full moon.

I am dancing at the precipice of spoilers, so I shall cease summation and offer one simple piece of advice - under no circumstances should you see this film.  It pains me to say that when a big budget horror film enters theaters with a sterling cast, but this is a godawful mess of a movie.  Where to begin?  Let's start with theme.  What makes the werewolf such a frightening and pitiable character is that, quite simply, he is us.  He is a figure cursed by his animal nature, set free and compounded by his transformation into the beast.  When the moon is waning and the sun shines, he is an ordinary man, albeit a tortured one.  Unable to stop the curse, he must live with his sins or commit the greatest sin of all by taking his own life.  In this new version of the story, the question of what makes a man and what makes a beast is raised, but left lying there as an unfulfilled idea,

a concept in search of a discussion.  This movie is nowhere near smart enough to have that discussion.  And Lawrence's tortured soul?  Kept hidden by ridiculous plot mechanics and a heavy focus on the werewolf's antics.  

The latter half of this movie lets loose of all reason, generating a conflict between father and son that plays out in one of the most laughable scenes in recent movie memory.  Del Toro, an actor who has done some excellent work, is bland as watery paste in this role, and Emily Blunt's character seems to fall in love with him thanks to his expertise at skipping rocks and because the script tells her to.  I can think of no other reason.  Hopkins' leering performance is the stuff of self-parody, and an additional disappointment.  Worst of all, the transformation sequences are astoundingly underwhelming, a surprise given the current state of effects and Rick Baker's contributions, which do shine in the moments when practical effects are allowed to take center stage.  The images of the wolfman bounding across rooftops in London is so clearly animated, any suspension of disbelief is whisked away and leaves the viewer contemplating how much more of the run time of this clunker awaits.

The mood generated by the opening twenty minutes had me encouraged that, perhaps, this film was going to mine the still-rich veins of classic horror, embracing the swirling mists of the moors and the tragedy at the heart of the story.  Instead, it careens into a sub-par action film weighted by the performances, poor story and obvious effects work.  The only reason I will see this film again on home video is the obvious opportunities for ridicule by the good people at Rifftrax.  Now that's going to be a howl.