Oh the disappointment. Where do I even start?! One thing for sure, this movie had crap marketing because I haven't even heard of this movie until recently. A classic 1941 werewolf movie, remade in 2010. Great cast: Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins, HUGO WEAVING. I gotta see this. My friend told me that it was somewhat crap, but I went to see it anyway.

So sad. This movie has so much potential. Here are where I think they went wrong...

1. BENICIO DEL TORO
Seriously, why did they cast him? Because he looks sad and kinda evil all the time? ...and kinda looks like an actual werewolf? The whole movie, I keep thinking, WHY DIDN'T THEY CAST A HOTTER MALE LEAD like say... uh... well, the only person I could think off the top of my head is Hugh Jackman somehow (must be the strong association to wolf element). And he's a Shakespearean actor in the movie too, but one with an American accent. Again, what the frak? Come on, it's a 19th century England setting, perfect for what could potentially be a tale of tragic romance (only if it's with a hot wolfman), which brings me to my 2nd complaint...

2. LAWRENCE & GWEN: BAD BUILDUP
I just don't feel it. I DON'T FEEL THE ATTRACTION OR LOVE AT ALL. A romance between a man and his dead brother's fiancee could be epic, just look at Legends Of The Fall. This is a matter of bad buildup, that's all. Even with Benicio Del Toro, if they had written a really great buildup between Lawrence and Gwen, it could've worked.

3. AN OUTDATED STORYTELLING STYLE
I've never watched the 1941 original, and I'm now wondering if they just copy pasted the entire thing verbatim? Because it almost felt like they did. The linear storytelling, the editing between the scenes, they all just seemed so... passé.

4. WEREWOLVES THAT LOOK LIKE... CHEWBACCA
Chewbacca didn't even occur to me until my friend mentioned this bit. But the whole movie I was sitting there thinking, these werewolves/wolfmen look really BAD. For God's sakes, this is frakking 2010, can't they do something better with the effects? A completely CGI wolfman maybe? They seriously look like Chewbacca had contracted rabies and is on steroids. They can't even make Anthony Hopkins' and Benicio Del Toro's respective wolfman look distinctly different from one another than they had to make Hopkins' Chewbacca rip off his shirt so the audience could tell which is which. And I keep thinking, wow, does this mean I'm watching a shirtless Sir Anthony Hopkins? Disturbing.

This is all very sad. To think that this movie has so much potential. Yet it wasted the beautiful cinematography, great production design, and the perfect Gothic style it already has. Very Tim Burton-esque, like Sleepy Hollow and Sweeney Todd meets The Prestige. And not to mention the huge, huge waste of two great talents: Hugo Weaving, who is brilliant as Scotland Yard's Inspector Abberline, even if he sounded too much like Agent Smith ---well, a 19th century English Agent Smith; and Emily Blunt, who plays the fiancee in mourning so delightfully tormented and sad. She is such a beautiful Englishwoman too, except that I just don't see it... her and Benicio Del Toro. Hmph.

Sigh. When bad movies happen to good people. Sad, sad, sad.