This film wasn't quite what I expected, but in a good way. It's kind of an odd amalgamation between action, horror, and period piece, with the story taking place mainly in the 1760's of "remote" France. It's done with impressive attention to detail, great cinematography, and nice modern editing techniques utilized to help pacing and look.
The story follows the devastation of a countryside that is being terrorized by a beast most believe to be a wolf of mythological proportions. The King's appointed Knight botanist and taxidermist Fronsac, along with his "brother" Mani (an Iroquois Indian), are sent to the region to help in the hunt and eventual capture of the beast so that it may be sent back to the king to assure that the terror has ended. Entwined in this is a love story and mystery of the true nature of the beast. The closest thing I would say this is like would be a cross between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sleepy Hollow, but with a bordello.
The main problem is I think it's just a little too long. I didn't mind the "lull" between the action sequences as it is a pretty interesting story, but I can't help think it could have been condensed just a tad, or even trim some of the action sequences a bit more. There's a strange bookend that starts off the film, not so strange in what happens, but it's only like 2 minutes long, so when it comes back around to it in the end, yer kinda like, "Huh? Oh, yeah." Because it deals a bit with the politics of the time, it helps to catch some of the nuances and meaning on a second viewing. Other than that, some of the action sequences seem a bit out of place considering the timeframe. But they're choreographed very well and help support the fact that this is more of an action movie than anything else (though it might not seem it at times), and is something the director Gans even mentions when talking about the final edit of the film.
Well, after listening to StyxHexenhammer go on about how much he loves this one, I figured I’d revisit it in Video form. I seemed to dig it enough back in Aught 3. And, yeah, original review pretty much covers it in general. I would say at this point though that it’s more of a political drama with flashes of action than vice versa, where I kinda glossed over that major plot point for the actiony parts in the first review. This really is more on the subversive politics of the time of 1764, leading to the French Revolution about 20 years later, putting the bookend scenes into better perspective. The King. The Pope. The Plebs trampled by both. Rather insidious, really. I wonder why it’s so familiar, yet different, in today’s day and age? Huh. Fear and propaganda are significant weapons to wield on your populations.
Sure, it has some prolonged fight scenes that coulda gotten tightened up some (the final “big” fight sequence? Cool, but, kinda seemed a bit unnecessary). Some courtings of m’lady that, ok, we get it. But it’s still a cool period piece with an interesting if not somewhat fantasized take on the nature of the American Indians that gets worked in (spiritual and otherwise), plus overall it just looks pretty damn fine. And, Monica Bellucci.
With that, I do actually downgrade the ratings a bit from my first assessment.
