The Wolfman Warner Bros

This film has a number of things going for it. It has a damn fine cast, lead by Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot, the film's unfortunate creature of the night, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as his father. (Not to mention Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving in supporting roles.)

It has very well filmed horror sequences - the attack on the gypsy encampment being particularly well filmed. Add in the great visuals, the use of the dark forest is wonderfully eerie and the Talbot family home suitably dark and foreboding, a decently realised 1880s England and a nice nod to history with the inclusion of Inspector Abeline (newly taken off the Jack the Ripper investigation).

But it's all let down by the plot. To be blunt - it's ponderous. For all the action and great visuals it just doesn't go anywhere, and when it does it's so predictable you see each "twist" a mile off.

Talbot is a well-known, London stage-actor. When his brother goes missing near his family home, he is persuaded to return and help in the search by the missing man's fiancée. And, yes, when he gets there he is attacked by a mysterious beast but survives - only to become the beast. Told you it was predictable.

This is a "remake" of the 1941 film starring Lon Chaney, one of the classic Universal Monsters pictures. Unfortunately it pales in comparison to Chaney's Wolfman - done decades before CGI was even a pipe dream. True, it's not a total disaster - but compared to what horror fans hopes would have been when this was announced, this is a great disappointment.

Page updated 18 July, 2010