Upon his return to his ancestral homeland, an American man (Benicio del Toro) is bitten, and subsequently cursed by, a werewolf.
A remake of this sort is caught in a no-win trap. If it tries to reinvent the story entirely, it will make some fans upset for deserting the source material. But, on the other hand, coming too close to the original will have people saying there is no way to top the original (which may be true).
Benicio del Toro was the obvious choice for the wolf man, and he plays the part well. The cinematography and atmosphere are gorgeous, and the Elfman music is appreciated (and much more subdued than many of his scores). Rick Baker won another Oscar for his makeup here, and who can argue with that?
The reviews tended to be negative. Roger Ebert, no fan of horror, gave a lukewarm review of 2.5 stars, but then had to find a flaw regardless of any praise he had: "The film has one flaw, and faithful readers will not be surprised to find it involves the CGI special effects. No doubt there are whole scenes done so well in CGI that I didn't even spot them, but when the werewolf bounds through the forest, he does so with too much speed. He would be more convincing if he moved like a creature of considerable weight."
Granted, he is spot on. When you have Baker on your crew, there is no need for CGI (or at least not very much of it). There is no shame in using it when it honestly helps, but when it stands out like a sore thumb, maybe it is time to do a few reshoots.
