The climactic fight is only about 8 minutes long and it pretty much triples the amount of action in the movie. Yes, yes, developing character is more important, fine, but come on, throw us a bone here. But since they had the suit I’m not sure why they used it so sparingly - the movie’s over 2 hrs long (and has an R rating) but there is precious little action. It’s not the best costume, but it still looks better than CGI, and it was nice to see some 90s style morphing again. I have to give Mennie and crew props for not using a CGI wolf, opting for a guy in a costume. After more “could have easily been avoided” arguing, Mulkey smacks her on the other side of the face! What the hell? But rather than say “No, it was this other guy” or whatever, she just protests that she loves the guy, which sounds like an admittance more than anything else (“he only hits me because he loves me!”). “Did HE do this to you?” he yells, as its already been established he doesn’t like the dude. After she is attacked by some punks in a scene I can’t quite figure out the point of, her dad asks how she got the big bruise/cut on her face. Mulkey and his daughter engage in one of the stupider scenes I can recall in recent memory. The dad, by the way, is Chris Mulkey, in the largest role I’ve seen him play in years, so I had to like that. Plus he’s not a very good actor, making his casting all the more puzzling. I wouldn’t want my teenager dating a 28 year old either, regardless of whether or not he was a damned werewolf. Some of the casting is a bit wonky though - the Edward Cullen standin looks about 10 years older than Bella (called Amy here), which makes the father’s concerns actually sound logical. See, they actually have character motivations and stuff! You don’t see that in Reborn. And Sid Haig plays the local hothead who is angry about the wolf killing his dog and horses. He still Dragos out every now and then, but at least I could understand what the fuck he was talking about more often than not. Billy Drago (again!) is actually somewhat of a normal person for once, playing a guy who is hunting the wolves after one killed his wife. The film’s rather punishing length (124 minutes) at least pays off with the fact that the characters are well rounded and the name actors actually have real roles, as opposed to the glorified cameos that they usually have in these sort of things (that being DTV movies from Lionsgate). Either way, it was the most blatant knockoff of another property that I’ve seen in years I think I’d have to go back to the slasher era to find something so obviously copying another story ( Halloweenand Final Exam, maybe?). The main difference, of course, is that he’s a werewolf instead of a vampire, so writer/director/producer/casting director/music supervisor/co-star Dana Mennie either only read the first book and replaced “Vampire” with “Werewolf”, or he is combining elements of the others, where the wolves show up. He makes fun of her driving, and it’s all cute, but then folks start getting killed. He also saves her from a would-be rape (being nearby due to the fact that he’s basically stalking her), and they begin a deep romance, which is not approved of by her father, who is trying his best to raise her without her mom being around. See if this sounds familiar - a shy girl meets a bad boy type who at first doesn’t want anything to do with her, but then decides to give her a chance. A die hard twi-fan will either be insulted, or ecstatic that they have another sort of sequel. But Wolf Moon (formerly Dark Moon Rising - guess they were determined to use a generic title*), on the other hand, is largely stolen directly from the "Twilight" novels (the film was shot in early 2008), something even I, a man who has only seen the first two movies (and fine, read the 1st book to see what the big deal was) was aware of almost instantly. In other words, for the most part, they don’t seem to be specifically ripping off Meyer’s series, just sort of jumping on the bandwagon. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a lot more werewolf and vampire movies, thanks to the success of the "Twilight" books (and subsequent movies), so stuff like Transylmaniagets a theatrical release, or long-shelved nonsense like Neowolfgets a nice DVD cover.
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