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Good concept, poorly executed.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf has a lot to offer cinema lovers in the way of entertainment, but I digress this is a very cerebral film as well. There is excellent cinematography and atmosphere,suspense and intrigue, intense eroticism, mystery, terror and superb action and martial arts fight choreography. The performances are superb with a lead that resembles HHH, European love goddess Monica Bellucci and the much underrated B action star Mark Dacascos (who shines in the support role in this). Brotherhood Of The Wolf blends genres quite successfully in this period action hybrid film and is a very unique and well made film that is very visceral, but also will thrill the more intellectual, thinking viewers as well. Director Christopher Gans did a very good job putting this all together and this is a very original movie that should please fans of action, horror, suspense, as well as appeal to the art-house crowd as well. Overall, Brotherhood Of The Wolf is a very impressive film.

Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf, a fictional account of the beast that terrorised Gévaudan, France in the 1700s, is a feast for the eyes from start to finish: whether it be a dark forest caught in a blizzard, a rain drenched, mud-caked smack-down, the lavish banquet hall of a stately home, a mutilated corpse in a pond, or the delights of a French brothel, every frame is a carefully composed, beautifully lit work of art.Unfortunately, the film's narrative and pacing aren't quite as flawless as its visuals: the plot meanders aimlessly at times; at two and a half hours, the film is way too long for what is essentially a highly stylised slice of comic-book entertainment; and the flow of the film is not helped by frequent unnecessary use of slo-mo and freeze frame (Gans been watching too much John Woo?). The director also has a propensity to labour a point (seriously, how many pumpkins do I need to see explode before understanding that the characters are excellent marksmen).Worse still, Gans seriously under-uses his greatest asset, martial artist Mark Dacascos, who plays an American Indian with Asian fighting skills (don't ask!); Dacascos's action scenes are so poorly pieced together that they lack any real impact (Samuel Le Biha's fight scenes are much better; his revenge driven rampage is particularly bad-ass, and he isn't trained in kung fu and karate).Despite it's problems, however, I still rate The Brotherhood of the Wolf a reasonable 6/10—it's worth that for the marvellous cinematography alone, never mind the fact that it also stars the very lovely (and very naked) Monica Bellucci.

To explain fully what goes on and why in Brotherhood of the Wolf I'd need 2,000 words, even then I'd just end up confusing things, suffice to say it's pretty intricate.The basics of the story though, are that a French "problem solver" and his Native American (ish) assistant venture to a region of France beset by an unknown but very vicious and hungry beastie who is killing the locals in gruesome fashion.The Frenchman is Mr Fronsac who is cool in quite a poncy way, and his Indian companion is Manny. Once they arrive and speak to the locals they find that this is far more than a wild beast with a tendency for human flesh, but something that may in fact be directed by an unknown organization hellbent on terrorizing the town.Even though it is set in the 17 or 18 hundreds here is a film that tries to defy genres, therefore we get hyped up fight scenes, horror elements and even a part animal part beast, all set with a sumptuous backdrop of French nobility and heaving cleavages. One of the more notable cleavages belongs to Monica Belucci, who in a genius moment of casting works in a local brothel and early on "shares her wares" with Fronsac.As mentioned the plot is labyrinthine as the filmmakers obviously want to continually throw the viewer off the trail, so we have many red herrings and characters brought in to confuse the issue and muddy the waters.Many characters are introduced during the first hour and a half, special mention must go to Vincent Cassell as the one armed Jean-Francios, who is ugly, creepy and compelling all at once for some reason.After some unsuccessful hunts with little success, Fronsac and co are told to step aside and let someone else handle it, he hangs around in any case determined to see the situation through, (and to keep plowing Belucci I'd wager).When the "beast" finally arrives it is reasonably impressive, though the quality of the CGI fluctuates at times, shortly afterwards the truth is exposed, and we learn the origins of the beats, who is behind it and why.The Brotherhood of the Wolf is heavily stylized and at times pretentious filmmaking, I daresay if the movie was made in English (and not French) with a similarly important tone it wouldn't be as well known.It is an interesting film, and amid the confusion and long-winded scenes there are some memorable moments, more than anything I give credit for at least attempting to make a period epic with so many influences and a blending of genres, even if they did ultimately overreach.Paring down some of the elements and cutting perhaps up to 40 minutes of running time would do a lot of favours for the film.Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. If subtitled, 2 ½ hour, genre-crossing French period pieces about half mechanical animals terrorizing a small town is your thing look no further! If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com

One could easily address Brotherhood of the Wolf a genuine example of a weird and wonderful mess. It is a hybrid mix of a sort of mythological fantasy, a monster movie, a historical drama en Français, and even and a martial arts flick, all surrounding a plot which is somewhat convoluted but very ambitious, and it works.Brotherhood of the Wolf has a fair bit of money. Like all the biggest productions of the horror genre, the monster comes in two forms. There is the full sized animatronic beast, and there is the CG version. The movie requires a close inter cutting of both. It also requires a pretty good choreographer to design the plethora of fight sequences that make up the climax. Even though I feel that a few trims could have been made here or there, there isn't a boring scene in Brotherhood of the Wolf. It is progressive rather than repetitive and it gets bigger and bolder with each chapter. One could argue that the story kind of crumbles at the climax for the purpose of adrenaline, but one could also argue that it is a good pay off for anyone who finds enough to find the first hour and a half boring. (but it's not of course)For the most part, Brotherhood of the Wolf is a rare gem of a horror film and it is certainly not worth missing,