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Review - Wolf Man
13 Plays3 months ago
Werewolves, yay! But also maybe not. I was jazzed to go see the newest edition of The Wolf Man, but it left a lot to be desired. Some story elements just didn't make a lot of sense, and it wasn't very scary. The wolf man looked decent though.
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Transcript
Introduction to Bad Movie Debate
00:00:01
Speaker
um We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you some breaking news. There's been reports all over the area of something crazy going on, something big. People's homes, their minds even, are being taken over by something called... What is it they're calling it? They're calling it Bad Movie of Age!
Review of 2025 Wolfman Edition
00:00:19
Speaker
What up nerds, it's me, Jacob Babb with Bad Movie Debate, and we're here to do a Wolfman review episode, the 2025 edition of Wolfman, because there's been a bunch of them that have come out, and we have a fresh one for this new year.
00:00:32
Speaker
um so first Before we get to my thoughts, I'm going to go over tomato meter nine and IMDB and all that good stuff just because ah pretty interesting results on this
Mixed Reviews: Unusual Consensus?
00:00:43
Speaker
one actually. So 53% on the tomato meter. So the critics, 57% for the popcorn meter to the audience, which is pretty weird usually it's like critics are way up here and love it and audiences hate it or vice versa or sometimes they agree it's great or sometimes they agree it sucks but being mixed right like literally only four points away from each other is pretty weird that doesn't happen a lot IMDB 5.9 a little below average for them they're usually between like 6.4 and 6.8 whether it's good or bad so
00:01:19
Speaker
a little subpar on IMDB apparently and then Metacritic 51 for their critics, 5.2 for their users. So very strong mixed average mid if you will opinions about this movie and I can understand why.
Strengths: Acting and Visuals
00:01:35
Speaker
Um, so first and foremost, um, the acting was fine, the sets were beautiful, you know, it mostly takes place in the Oregon woods and like, so it's beautiful up there, uh, the Pacific Northwest, always beautiful to see on film, um, or in film rather, and and all that stuff is fine and dandy the costuming and like the hair and makeup and stuff like the wolf man men spoiler spoiler spoiler alert there's gonna be a bunch of spoilers in this review so if you haven't seen it maybe stop here and come back but there are two
00:02:09
Speaker
Wolfman in this movie actually um And it's fine. It's not as exciting as you want it to be but all the costuming look great like all that like transformation II like Between being a man between being the wolf man thing like all looks fine It's no American werewolf in London, but it's fine. We can't all be we can't literally all make Oscar categories because of how good we are every time because that's what happened with that but I That's it another story for another time. um I digress as usual. um Anyway, so all of that like surface level like filmmaking stuff is totally fine. It's exactly what you would expect from Blumhouse Blumhouse, whatever you want to say it. and They have the budget to do all of that stuff and the acting was fine. Everybody did what they needed to do.
Weaknesses: Werewolf Lore Reimagined
00:02:56
Speaker
The main issue with this one for me is the story. I
00:03:02
Speaker
As a fan of like the Universal movie monsters and like the classic werewolf, like I like did my whole Nosferatu thing. I love vampires. I also love werewolf lore and mythology and stuff. And it was just kind of not disappointing. I thought it was an interesting concept to go in and be like,
00:03:25
Speaker
doesn't it It's not about a curse, it's not about like the like the full moon or anything like that. It's straight up just like a disease that you can get and apparently it's in like, I don't know, they have this whole thing at the beginning about in the 90s some hikers and stuff and and like they don't know what to call it but then some the natives from the land called it a name i'm not going to try to pronounce because i will butcher it and i don't want to do that but then it's called the face of the wolf is what that translates to and i don't know i mean that didn't really seem to be super relevant to the story in any way they just kind of put that in there at the very beginning on text like before we get into the the movie and stuff so that just seemed kind of random and not really necessary to the story like they were trying to add i mean i guess you could argue like
00:04:17
Speaker
they're trying to let you know that this is a different kind of a werewolf lore it's not the like I guess traditional European ah thought of what a werewolf is where you get bit and then there's the full moon and it's like a curse and like you're fine besides that like you just become a like half wolf half man and you're there the entire time and you're stuck like that forever so I don't know, I just didn't want that. like That's not what I was looking for in this movie, especially calling it the Wolfman and Universal being one of the like producers and like distributors of it. um I like the lot the the old school one, you know, the with Lon.
00:04:59
Speaker
that's the shit that I was looking for and wanting to happen but alas that is not what happened so a little bummed about that but you know I was like okay whatever they let you know right off the bat that's not the case so you don't go in you know pretty soon so that's good that they do that at least but then the like actual story of like what so it's I'm trying to figure out the best way to phrase this I feel like it's like I don't want to use the word generational trauma because that doesn't seem what it is but it's mostly like this like the the father apparently has some kind of he had a shit dad you know shit dad who lived off the grid on his farm in Oregon and that's where they're going when all this starts to happen because he dies quote-unquote again spoilers blah blah blah blah blah and so really at the end of the day the entire movie is pretty much just about how
00:05:57
Speaker
The dad, Blake, is worried he's gonna be a bad dad or something, but they never really addressed
Critique of Family Dynamics
00:06:07
Speaker
that. Like, you see more problems with him and his wife. Like, his wife's working still. They're both writers. He's in between jobs, okay?
00:06:18
Speaker
and so he's staying home with the daughter and they're hanging out and the mom specifically says she's like something about how she's like not sure if she can be a good mom and stuff so it's more about her not being a good mom I don't know they just don't really like flesh out how the dad has been a bad dad or what he's done like he seems like the daughter loves him and everything like but the whole thing is about his dad was bad and he's worried about being a bad father and again spoiler alert his father is the wolf man who like scratches him at the beginning and that's what makes him turn into a wolf man
00:07:00
Speaker
and then but then he doesn't attack the mom or the daughter and stuff and he hates being a part of it like I don't know it just doesn't make a lot of sense in that regard like if that's what the movie is about shouldn't he have been the one that was working and bad a bad parent like why did they do it that way like i'm I'm missing something there, and if somebody could let me know, I'd love to know why they did that, because it just really doesn't make any sense. He seems like a perfectly fine, competent father, because he's the one that's at home being a dad, and they he specifically says that when they meet ah that dude who like takes them up to where his dad's farm is, because they get lost for a second near the beginning. He's like,
00:07:41
Speaker
He's like, oh, well, I'm a writer, but I'm in between jobs. So right now I'm a dad and he looks back at his daughter and she's all smiling and happy. And the mom's the one who's like kind of rolling her eyes about it. So like, what? Like, and so yeah, so it turns out the Wolfman, the original one that turns Blake into a Wolfman at the beginning is his own dad and he has to kill him to save his wife and his kid and then the mom shoots him because the daughter and him can communicate through their minds somehow it's like a cute little thing that how close they are which again does not make sense to me like if they can communicate like because he's such a good father to her then why is that what the whole point of the movie felt like like that's what it felt like the entire thing was truly about like not just surface level and stuff and
00:08:33
Speaker
I have nothing against, like, sympathetic monster movies. They're just really not... they're really usually not
Failed Attempt at Deeper Narrative
00:08:41
Speaker
my bag. You can do them right. This one I felt just, like, didn't flesh out the issues and the fears and the worries that ah Blake was having about his father and, like, about why he ran away from his father and, like,
00:08:57
Speaker
never talk to him again and stuff like all all that stuff just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me because he just never i don't know he just doesn't ever do anything with it he just like he just mentions like that his father's finally dead apparently of his officially his father went to the woods never came back so organ officially said he was dead here's the keys get all the shit out of the house and that's why they go but like and they're like yeah he sucked and stuff and then like there's a specific line he says to his daughter at one point where he says something along the lines of like oh sometimes you try to protect your kid from scars so much you're the thing that ends up scarring them in the end or something which is what happened with his dad and now that he's a father he understands that and then he gets turned into a wolfman and that obviously is gonna scar his daughter one way or another literally or just like emotionally and
00:09:54
Speaker
But she literally clings to him the entire time until he turns into a wolfman. He goes to like turn the lights on and she's like with the mom and then he comes back up and she comes running to him and is like, daddy, like keep me safe. And the mom, again, is rolling her eyes like, why doesn't she trust me to do that? so i just don't like she was like The mom was the one being feeling like she wasn't being a good mother or wasn't good enough for her daughter or whatever. And like the daughter and the dad were like totally copacetic.
00:10:24
Speaker
I don't really understand why he's the one that turned. It should have been her. Or he should have been the one that was still working and she was the one that was being the stay-at-home mom. And then like just flip those elements of the characters and stuff. like I don't really get why that was obviously what the movie was about and like the message they were trying to do. and like is It's like it's trying to write on this whole thing of like the fear of like your past trauma and your like sickness like they literally call it like oh daddy's sick why is daddy sick he's like oh well his dad was sick and it made him sick and stuff and it's just like so very obvious like
00:11:11
Speaker
the whole thing but like they didn't have a bad relationship so I don't I just don't really fucking understand why it went like that in any way at all so I mean, it is what it is. um They were trying to get deep with it, and I just think they missed the mark on it. There's nothing wrong with trying to get deep with a werewolf story. It's a literary monster. you know like it's There's literary source material of that kind of like thing. So I totally understand why they were trying to go for it. I just don't think they did it because just the writing just did not piece together in a way that made
00:11:48
Speaker
a whole lot of sense unfortunately uh... yeah i don't know i just uh... uh... i mean if i had to get i would say five is fine cuz it looks good and like it was fine watch i did get kinda bored and was uh... i'm pretty sleepy today so i did kinda like there is some drags where i was kinda like whoa wake back up which is not what you want in a monster movie uh... so that wasn't great but like Oh, and then this arm scene that I keep seeing people push and stuff, like, that was so crazy? No. Pretty standard, typical stuff. Like, it's gross, obviously, but and like that's the point, but like it wasn't just wasn't that brutal or that intense. And I don't know why everybody was freaking out about that. If you've seen any horror movie in the past 20 or 30 years, shit, the last 40 years now, it's nothing you haven't seen before and nothing you can't handle today. ah So...
00:12:45
Speaker
points off for that, for sure, because I was excited to like be like, okay, something crazy is going to happen with that.
Creative Visuals: Impactful or Not?
00:12:51
Speaker
No, very, very disappointing. um I guess it was kind of cool the way that they like They would like shift the perspective from like the mom and the daughter to him and then it's like you could see the world how he was seeing it because like and like we couldn't you could understand them but you could understand him now and stuff because like when he started to transform like you can't understand what he's saying but then you shift and like everything's brighter because he's got wolf eyes and you can hear shit like crazy and
00:13:23
Speaker
all that stuff and like so they can't understand each other and like again that's like the sympathetic monster thing and I don't think that's a bad route to take about going to other like actually getting some of his perspective instead of just relying on like oh yeah obviously he doesn't want to kill his kid and his wife and stuff that sucks like why would he want to do that even though he's like going crazy and like has like this wolfman disease or whatever like but it was cool to like see that like actually see that like played out like visually and stuff and like narratively so like that was okay but
00:13:58
Speaker
I don't know there's this thing with like this telepathic communication like him and his daughter play a thing where like they like touch each other for heads and it's like oh what am I thinking and she's like oh that you love your little girl and he's like that's exactly it word for word and it's like okay a cute thing he does with his kid right whatever he's she says that's the correct answer probably was thinking that at the time but regardless but then like he's like fully gone it's near the end of the movie and she does it to him and he's not attacking and she's like I love you so much and you can understand her all of a sudden like I again this I get it but it just kind of like oh come on like I don't know it just didn't again the sympathetic monster thing is just not really for me especially when it's Wolfman
00:14:44
Speaker
You know, like, if you name it a different thing, then maybe I'm a little more open to seeing it, like, don't make it Wolfman, because there was nothing about no full moons, nothing about no curses, nothing about no silver, nothing like that. There was a disease of some sort, which is like, again, I get that they were establishing, like, kind of their own lore for it and everything, but I just thought, I thought there was a lot to be desired in that regard, and the whole narrative of, like,
00:15:13
Speaker
him not wanting to scar his daughter the way his dad was scarred and his dad gave him the disease because he blah blah blah blah blah just it was just kind of a drag man to be honest I want if you're gonna make a horror movie that has ah a monster movie specifically that has like a sympathetic monster and is like a little bit deeper than just like a monster going crazy and killing a bunch of people and everything then it's got to make a little bit more sense unfortunately and this one just didn't make a whole lot of sense when you kind of think about it so just make a monster movie and just like like why even have him turn into a monster
00:15:58
Speaker
I don't know like again if you flip those certain things with the mom and the dad and like because she's the one that's being feeling neglected or not feeling like she's being a bad parent but there's nothing about her past in the movie at all and he's the one that's all worried about it but she loves him and everything's totally copacetic between them like everything's cool I don't understand I just it really just doesn't make any sense um See, it just also just- so just drop all that, cut all that, leave that all in the fucking, uh, editing- in the editing room, and just fucking make a scary movie where it's just a family and they're being attacked, and it is his dad, and instead of him turning into one, he fucking stops her, but then again, you still gotta flip that thing with the mom and the dad, though.
Sympathetic Monster Angle Mishandled?
00:16:40
Speaker
ah Like he stops him and he saves them because he doesn't succumb to it. He does succumb to it We had no reason to believe he would succumb to it because he was just a good father The mom comes in on the phone when they first come in She's on the phone and like yapping about like her job or whatever, and he's like, can you please take that to another room and stuff? like I'm making dinner for our daughter and stuff, and she's like, don't do that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She's the one who cares about work and is not paying attention to like the home life and stuff like that. It just doesn't make any fucking sense to me. I digress.
Conclusion and Rating
00:17:14
Speaker
Long story short, if you're gonna make a sympathetic monster movie, it needs to make sense.
00:17:19
Speaker
which it could have but this one didn't unfortunately or just take all the sympathy and the deeper meaning out and just make a werewolf movie where werewolves go crazy dog soldiers great werewolf movie not a whole lot deeper going on there there's just werewolves and they're just fucking shit up and killing people and it works and it's good and like the human drama that is there between the people who are in the situation is more than enough so Yeah, I guess I'll give this like a 4.5. I'll give it a straight 5. Watch it, but it's just not as good as it could have been, unfortunately.
00:17:57
Speaker
um Yeah, I guess that's a pretty much, those are my only, those are really my thoughts at the end of the day. There's not much more to talk about than that.
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Speaker
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00:18:20
Speaker
That was stupid, ah but regardless, not gonna talk about that too much. ah YouTube, ah just yeah follow me everywhere, Bad Movie Debate, Bad Movie Debate Pod. um Yeah, and let me know what you thought about this one.