paul-888-783284 In an era where Hollywood dominates the action film industry, it frequently comes across as a breath of fresh air to see a European challenger. Brotherhood of the Wolf is no different, combining good special effects with a story convincing enough to remain an intrigue for the entire 142min runtime.Despite being shot on a relatively low budget for an action film ($29mn, compared to $63mn for The Matrix and $115mn for Star Wars Episode I), Brotherhood of the Wolf manages to deliver an excellent experience. A wise decision made by the director was to delay the reveal of the feral antagonist for as long as possible (even though the audience is cleverly allowed to witness its rampage off-screen), which adds to the build-up of suspense for the climactic confrontation with the Beast later on. Minor directing faults, such as excessive use of slow-motion, doesn't serve to detract overly-much from the thrilling ride.Brotherhood of the Wolf is not without its flaws. Personal criticisms of mine also include a relatively underwhelming ending and some confusion concerning other parts of the story. However, in terms of an overall experience, it's a thrilling and colorful ride. Well worth your money, by all accounts.

BA_Harrison 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.

Dan Mihai Really, where are the aliens? Aliens are the only ones missing from the movie. Almost everything else is present.This is a failure to copy the Hollywood action movie style. But from a french director. Why not stick to the original story and let out all the commercial crap while focusing on making something original? Because it had everything needed for this including a more than decent budget. More than this, I think the director wanted to make like 3 movies and in the end decided to put them together and voila: Le Pacte des Loups, a 2 hours and a half movie full of ... everything, martial arts, sex, ninja, wolves, history, fiction, mystery, drama tragedy and aliens. Ah, sorry, no aliens. As a conclusion, the movie is not that bad, I am just intrigued about how they destroyed the movie adding so much stupid and unnecessary things in it when they had the means to create something good or at least worth to watch for an adult.

samkan I ordered this film based on my discovery of its history (Wikipedia linked the film). I figured it was an interesting story and the makers would have an easy time making an interesting film. Boy was I in for a letdown! TBOTW does do a good job with the French "politics" involved. The scenery photography and costumes are top notch. The French culture of manners; e.g., dinner behavior, is also done well. But the subplots are overheated and obnoxious. Our Lone Ranger hero's Tonto is an American Indian who somehow learned kung fu and is the proverbial, stereotypical noble savage. Cheesecake, T&A, etc., is serviced by ridiculous and lengthy bordello episodes. I couldn't learn to like our hero, painted as "James Bond" cool. For that part, few actors seem to know what direction to take. If moody Vincent Cassal had taken the lead part TBOTW may have been better.