Wolfman Media tie in...missing...something
Oh, Wolfman. I was so excited to see your movie last winter. It was technically perfect. Good cast, good effects, great moody shots of Talbot Hall and the moors. A really bitchin’ scene where Lawrence changes in the face of a hall full of doctors who are determined to prove that he isn’t a werewolf. The subplots: the Talbot family secrets and the Scotland Yard inspector sound great. But there wasn’t enough…something to carry it through. The picture changed directors at the last minute, there were re-shoots, re-edits, rewrites…I blamed the movie’s shortcomings on those facts.
Surely the awesome Jonathan Maberry could fix all that in his media tie in novel, right? Right? Nope. I think part of the lacking was in Sir John’s character. Neither Anthony Hopkins or Maberry sold me on him. His motivations didn’t seem real or genuine. Yeah, I get that he was throwing Larry under the bus to divert suspicion from him, but I guess I didn’t care. The scene in the movie when the two fought was laughable, at least Maberry made it into something other than a joke (I liked his distinction between “Werewolf” and “Wolf Man”. That spoke nicely to their respective humanities). I thought Lawrence was fleshed out pretty well, but neither Gwen, John, or Aberline was developed as well as they could have been. The book was pretty much in Lawrence’s POV with some erratic side-trips into other POVs. Breaking up the POV to other characters might have made me care about them more. The character I wanted more of-in fact, I could have done without the entire Talbot clan-was Singh. I would like the book written solely from his POV…having to deal with Sir John and watching him get crazier and crazier over the years. His off-screen (and off-page) death was a raw deal
The monster in The Wolfman struck me as pretty generic. Whenever it arrived, a bloodbath ensued. I much prefer the blind thirst killing machine werewolf to the thinking-feeling-Twilight werewolf. I like the idea that as the wolf, the person’s humanity is stripped away. But this one just didn’t do it for me. It wasn’t scary like an Alien, it wasn’t delightful in its gore providing like piranhas can be. It killed people I only felt neutral about, there was no fear for characters I cared about (a la Alien) or devouring people I found obnoxious (a la Piranha 3-D). I felt like I should have been rooting for Lawrence-The-Wolfman when he was nomming MacQueen and his peeps, but they never felt like a real threat. They felt like 2-D bumbling townsfolk monster fodder. I felt a little bit bad for the gypsies as Sir-John-The-Werewolf was devouring them, but they were only there for exposition.
So what was up with the dude in the train giving Lawrence the wolf’s head cane? Who was he? How did he know what was to come? He kind of annoyed me, as he seemed to come from nowhere.
I am much more excited to read Patient Zero. Maberry is a good writer.
I think this is my favorite werewolf: Name the movie and win the satisfaction of naming the movie!
Surely the awesome Jonathan Maberry could fix all that in his media tie in novel, right? Right? Nope. I think part of the lacking was in Sir John’s character. Neither Anthony Hopkins or Maberry sold me on him. His motivations didn’t seem real or genuine. Yeah, I get that he was throwing Larry under the bus to divert suspicion from him, but I guess I didn’t care. The scene in the movie when the two fought was laughable, at least Maberry made it into something other than a joke (I liked his distinction between “Werewolf” and “Wolf Man”. That spoke nicely to their respective humanities). I thought Lawrence was fleshed out pretty well, but neither Gwen, John, or Aberline was developed as well as they could have been. The book was pretty much in Lawrence’s POV with some erratic side-trips into other POVs. Breaking up the POV to other characters might have made me care about them more. The character I wanted more of-in fact, I could have done without the entire Talbot clan-was Singh. I would like the book written solely from his POV…having to deal with Sir John and watching him get crazier and crazier over the years. His off-screen (and off-page) death was a raw deal
The monster in The Wolfman struck me as pretty generic. Whenever it arrived, a bloodbath ensued. I much prefer the blind thirst killing machine werewolf to the thinking-feeling-Twilight werewolf. I like the idea that as the wolf, the person’s humanity is stripped away. But this one just didn’t do it for me. It wasn’t scary like an Alien, it wasn’t delightful in its gore providing like piranhas can be. It killed people I only felt neutral about, there was no fear for characters I cared about (a la Alien) or devouring people I found obnoxious (a la Piranha 3-D). I felt like I should have been rooting for Lawrence-The-Wolfman when he was nomming MacQueen and his peeps, but they never felt like a real threat. They felt like 2-D bumbling townsfolk monster fodder. I felt a little bit bad for the gypsies as Sir-John-The-Werewolf was devouring them, but they were only there for exposition.
So what was up with the dude in the train giving Lawrence the wolf’s head cane? Who was he? How did he know what was to come? He kind of annoyed me, as he seemed to come from nowhere.
I am much more excited to read Patient Zero. Maberry is a good writer.
I think this is my favorite werewolf: Name the movie and win the satisfaction of naming the movie!