Tech Blog

[#1]

It’s rare that you can actually point to a single element in a film and say “if this wasn’t here it would be a much better movie”. In the case of The Wolfman it’s Benicio Del Toro; I enjoyed everything else but I was so completely underwhelmed by the lead that it was an effort to look past him to see a movie I wanted to enjoy. Fortunately the Blu-ray version of The Wolfman has a great deal more to offer on top of the film, making it a pretty cool disc to have in your collection.

The plot.
The movie itself is good; the plot is intriguing and has a tasty twist that, while not telegraphed, is fairly predictable. Del Toro plays Lawrence Talbot, a boy raised in America and returning to his family’s home in England to investigate the disappearance of his brother, Ben. The patriarch of the family, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) plays host to Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) the wife his missing son. When Ben’s body is found, torn to pieces by something, Lawrence seeks out a local gypsy clan in search of answers. The camp is attacked by something, and Lawrence’s tribulations take on an entirely new dimension when he is bitten, beginning his transformation into a wolfman.

There are some great performances in the film: Hugo Weaving plays an agent of Scotland Yard who, while astonished to see the supernatural isn’t afraid to face it head-on. Tony Hopkins brings his customary blend of gravitas and jocularity to almost every scene he is in. Emily Blunt drowns out Benicio Del Toro throughout their scenes, but that’s not a failure on her part. Sadly Del Toro seems almost lifeless. We’re introduced to his Lawrence Talbot on the stage in London where he’s being lauded as a fine actor. We see a snippet of Hamlet that is possibly the worst I’ve ever endured; I’ve seen high school dramatists that can evoke more emotion than Del Toro did in that scene. He actively detracts from almost every scene that he’s in, until the lycanthropy takes hold. At that point it’s all makeup and mime and it’s fantastic. I’m torn here, because his work as The Wolfman is great.

Is it still worth seeing even with Del Toro’s Lawrence performance? Yes. In short, while he is the lead, it’s not really about him... It’s about the wolf inside. It may be that Del Toro was attempting to make his character as bland as possible in order to create a vivid dichotomy when he transformed. If so, it may be that it’s too subtle. The transformation itself is fantastic; instead of giving in to the urge to create a realistic wolf, Joe Johnston and co. have remained true to the 1941 classic.

Picture and sound.
From an audio and visual standpoint The Wolfman is excellent. It’s a dark film, so it’ll give your panel a workout; if you’re not properly calibrated you’re going to lose a lot of detail to the shadows. Daylight scenes are quite washed out, but it’s a stylistic choice. You’ll absolutely love the reds in this film, however, as they’ve given the blood a lot of love.

From an auditory standpoint, there are some real highlights. Chase scenes through the woods, the attack on the gypsy camp, and a romp through a certain metropolitan hub are all incredibly active. Dialogue is clear and and well centred.  If you’ve got a sub you’ll hear a few tasty booms when firearms are discharged.
Both picture and sound are of the high quality we’ve come to expect from Universal. I’m pleased with the results here.

The Extras.
With any big Universal Blu-ray release you’ll find that the studio spends a great deal of time bringing high quality extras to your home theatre. There’s the U-control feature where you can see picture-in-picture commentaries, assemble your favourite scenes, and generally exert more control over your Blu-ray watching experience. For the few out there who have D-BOX motion systems, you’ll be pleased to know that codes are included with this disc.

Universal has also included a full range of feature extras with The Wolfman:

Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes
There are two Alternate Endings included with the Blu-ray version. They’re not terribly different than the original ending. I could quite reasonably see any of the three in use, and to be honest I preferred Alternate Ending number two - it seems to make more sense to me.

The deleted scenes do offer some insight, but it’s clear why they were cut.


Return of The Wolfman (12:20, AVD-HD, Dolby Stereo)
This mini-doc consists of a series of short conversations with the principles. It offers some insight into the performances.  There’s nothing terribly revelatory, but it’s enjoyable in that it does make explicit some of the more subtle elements of the film.

The Beastmaker (12:05, AVC-HD, Dolby Stereo)
I love this documentary. Rick Baker, legendary creature effects artist, takes us through the process of creating The Wolfman. This is 12 minutes of crash course in creature effects, as well as the motivation for some of their decisions. It’s a great addition to the disc.

Transformational Secrets (15:15, AVC-HD, Dolby Stereo)
This mini-documentary is an interesting one; it shows the juxtaposition of digital effects with practical effects. The actual transformation process was a blend of the two, and the efforts taken to keep them as real as possible were extensive.

The Wolfman Unleashed (8:45, AVC-HD, Dolby Stereo)
The stunts in The Wolfman and the violence were both visceral and executed in an incredibly convincing way. The technical teams have used some fantastic technical tricks to produce Wolfmen that are believable. One of the film’s greatest secrets is how many of the stunts were actually practical effects and not CGI. This doc lets you in on how they were done.

Social Blu
While it may not appeal to everyone, technophiles might enjoy the ability to tie their Blu-ray watching into a Twitter account. You can turn it off altogether, but if you want to share what you’re doing with your tweeps you can do it manually or automatically with the Social Blu function. I set it to manual as I don’t mind sharing when I’m watching the feature, but I’d rather keep from spamming my list with every little extra.

The Wolfman 1941 on BD LIVE™
Okay, huge props to Universal on this: connect your Blu-ray player to the Internet and you can stream The Wolfman classic film from 1941 directly online. I watched it and the quality was excellent. This is the kind of feature that just completes the package and secures a buy-it recommendation from me. The new feature was good, the extras were great, and including a classic via streaming is awesome. Well done Universal!

The Lenticular “Cover”
The only thing I was disappointed in was that the lenticular “cover” wasn’t a cover at all, it’s a lenticular postcard. It’s still a pretty cool collectable and would be great for framing, but if you were expecting this to sit on the front of your Blu-ray disc, it’s not going to.

Conclusion
I liked The Wolfman as a movie. I enjoyed the action, and some of the performance were great. Benicio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot made me a bit sad, but he pulled it back with his performance as The Wolfman. At the end of the day there’s a huge quantity of great entertainment here to enjoy, so I think this is a disc worth owning.

Rating: Buy.