Brotherhood of the Wolf | 100 Movies Bucket List

 

This is another one that I was wary about. Not only does the title feel like a werewolf movie (which I was very glad to find out it wasn't) but it's also one of the longest bucket list movies, so I went in apprehensive. 

I didn't love this movie.

It does a good job of creating the beast with words before we get to see it. It feels more like a legend than a real creature, and the audience is on edge waiting to see it.

Which makes sense when you know that the movie is partly based on a French legend, and partly based on a true story.

The reason why the film is so long is because there are many plotlines outside of the main 'beast' one. Unfortunately none are as interesting as the beast plot, so I found myself just wanting to go back to that.

In all honesty, I didn't find the plot particularly interesting. Hearing about the beast and seeing the results of the attacks worked for a while, but this becomes a bit repetitive as most of the time is spent trying to catch the beast and failing.

The more fantastical elements of the film, mainly the design of the creature, are well done but almost feel out of place when compared to the rest of the movie.

I found it really hard to connect with the characters. Because the story is so focused on this one mission it can be hard to get to know them or to see the distinctions between them. It also makes it hard to care about the mission in the first place.

I also felt like it didn't need to be as long as it was. After watching it I saw that there have been different cuts for different countries, all of which had different lengths. Based on the timings, I feel like I ended up watching the director's cut - I probably should have watched a different one!

The fight scenes are done really well, and are some of the most entertaining. They also do a good job of showing character development.

But overall, there wasn't enough that I liked about the film to make me recommend it. It also didn't feel like a horror movie so much as an action thriller, which may be another reason why I didn't love it.