Wolvesbayne

Jeremy London is a greedy real estate developer who falls victim to the curse of the werewolf. A lot of vampire backstory is discussed before the story gets off to an interesting start, but then plunges downhill in a bunch of vampire clichés that would embarrass Anne Rice.

The script is a muddled mess, full of full-blooded action scenes with predatory vampires guzzling on blood when they aren't trying to slay each other over the quest for some amulets. Everyone seems intent on overacting which only emphasizes the bad dialog.

In the course of learning how humans fight vampires on their own turf, our hero undergoes a reformation of sorts. He leaves us with the departing words: "There are more important things than making money. I'm off on a higher calling." Most outrageously hammy performance is delivered by YANCY BUTLER as Lilith. Most understated is RHETT GILES as Von Helsing.

As for Jeremy London, I couldn't help think what a strong resemblance he bears to Brendan Fraser. He's okay and even manages to get some humor from his role, but the characters are all cardboard and not really worth caring about.

Despite it being SyFy, Wolvesbayne did have a decent premise going for it. But for me it fell well short. Wolvesbayne isn't completely terrible, the werewolf transformation is decent, Jeremy London does what he can with an uninvolving leading role(in terms of character that is) and Yancy Butler as the evil vampire queen is sexy and seems to be enjoying herself even if she does verge on hammy in places. However, the remainder of the acting is not great at all, Mark Damascos is badly used with his big scenes very poorly written and anti-climatic, while a lot of the female roles read of looking as sexy as possible but little else.

There are cheaper SyFy movies out there certainly, but the special effects are dire and some of the make-up is cheesy looking. The editing is choppy, even in the battle sequences. The battle sequences themselves are a disaster, there is no tension or anything compelling, there are too many characters on screen, the camera work is often incomprehensible and so fast in construction that it is difficult to make anything out and they also go on for far too long. The random shots of models are also very hokey and add absolutely nothing to the movie. The scenery is not necessarily bad, though they do lack atmosphere, but because of the rest of the visuals being so bad I couldn't enjoy it.

What also matters hugely into making a good film also fails utterly. That is especially true in the story. This story had a lot of potential as there are some good ideas here. What was frustrating however was the case with most SyFy movies that have good ideas, Wolvebayne does next to nothing with these ideas. Any important parts are rushed through, and a lot of not so important parts are ridiculously dragged out. I also struggled to see if there was a story at all, it took forever to get going and when anything did happen it just didn't make sense for me. The script is incredibly clunky, while the characters are cardboard cut-outs that we know nothing about by the end of the film. The lead role is no exception here, he had potential also but his progression goes nowhere.

Overall, fell well short despite its initial promise. 3/10 Bethany Cox

In the underground war between vampires, some othe vampires, werewolves and people, neophyte human guy must learn to harness his newfound wolf powers to stop the extra bad vampires. There are some decent variations on the theme here and it's cool to see Mark Dacascos back in some sort of werewolf-adjacent movie after his superlative performance in Brotherhood Of The Wolf; although this is certainly more of a vampire movie than a werewolf movie in the traditional sense. Regardless the production values and most of the supporting performances are CW-tier. The sometimes-incisive dialogue can't salvage a plot that's about as formulaic as it gets.

Several hundred years ago the vampire Lilith (Yancy Butler) was banished into six amulets by her own kin, who were too disgusted by her vision of total dominance and human subservience. The council of vampires agreed to dispose of her threat, but a small following existed led by von Griem (Mark Dacascos) and this grouping is set to release her back onto humanity. Keeping watch over the peace is vampire-slayer extraordinaire Jacob van Helsing (Rhett Giles). Meanwhile hidden among humanity are werewolves like Alex Layton (Christy Carlson Romano), who are fully in control of their powers and transformations. Into the midst of all this comes mild mannered industrialist Russell Bayne (Jeremy London), who is trying to buy up Alex's small novelty shop for his new building project...

Really needn't waste to much time on pointing out the weak spots in this movie, as almost everything is quite pathetic. This especially goes for nonsensical plot point or characters as well as some very rushed soap-opera style build-up. Some scenes are OKish, but in general a hack-job is in progress trying to mimic and home in on the success of Underworld. To no avail. The characters are not as 'cool' and the action sequences are mostly disappointing. Even Dacascos is severely misused and although he shows his potential in one or two scenes most of his fights are an anticlimax, as he has to cope with ultrabad screen partners.

Any good points? Most actors manage to pull off a decent performance with Dacascos and Butler showing real promise (even though the really clichéd the role). The werewolf transformation was rather good and one vampiress is really sexy...

And that's it folks... Really - if you have any say in the matter pass on this movie.

Which goes for the plot, but also for the fact, that guy like Marc Dacascos would sign up for something like this. Of course it might have sounded better on paper (script). Still, if this were your first movie to see with him, you'd be excused if you thought, he shouldn't ever act again. That he actually has something to say, and also is not that bad in fighting (in movies), would be a fact that you'd miss out on. Maybe you should rent "Drive" instead.

Apart from the thin characters and the very cliché story (no surprises here), there's also the weak FX and the poor production values. While everyone is of course trying to do there best, there is quite a few other films out there, that are worth to be noticed.