Nikola Gogic Whoever the director ,don't deserves to be mentioned , I read the book and it is perfect ,but movie from start shows that the story was revised,and now is average .. please don't change masterpiece with your stupid movie script !!!!!!!! why change such good book I don't know ,and why writer Мария Семенова allow such changes of her book to film ? this movie is a shame for one of the best epic fantasy book that I ever read !Only what i like in this movie is casting of actors . Aleksandr Bukharov is perfect for a role of Volkodav and beautiful Oksana Akinshina for a role Knesinka Elen . Evgeniya Sviridova is also very convincing as Niilit . I am shame to say that I wish one of Hollywood studios buy the rights to the film and make better remake ,or HBO make series like they make book Game of throne in such perfect adaptation !!!!

AbominableVermin Totally cliché'd.From the first scenes we see scarcely clad girls running over the cat-ways drawn up for some inconceivable reason... warlords... spell-casters. Well, city of Galiad looks impressive, but it cannot make this hotchpotch the authentic Russian fantasy, as it was presented.I couldn't hold back the smile seeing our protagonist acquiring his party of comic relief characters... But than... 'Twin Gods'!!! It made me literally ROFL! From that point I've been in state of bliss and happily didn't die from boredom as final boss scene was drawing near.But the question still remains, What Was This?

mavruda1977 The last years we could see that Russian cinema produced some really great movies - Night Watch is a great example of that. But this one killed my future times intentions to see another movie made in Russia. This movie awfully reminds me Conan the Barbarian - from the beginning, Lord of the rings with the Main Evil Hero - the guy with Sauron's mask (the skull)and of course the classic scene in the forest : the Wolfhound /Arnold Schwarzenegger/ is training his martial art until the beauty comes beside him and begs to be trained and to became a skilled warrior (Brigite Nielsen, aka Red Sonia and so many scenes in different Movies) SO Cliché !!!! Every movie got a long scene - this one has it too. But it was so funny and idiotic, so at a time i decided that Im seeing a Bulgarian movie - Bulgarian cinema is really SUCKS - Im a Bulgarian and I know that. That was the scene when with pictures and screaming somehow we have to understand how the main hero became Wolfhound and how he actually became a main personage in many folklore songs... Sooooo boring long scene. Well Im agree with the guy who said that the movie has a good part inside and that is the BAT :-) I cannot say that the actors are talented or not - the main heroine is pretty and sexy. Wolfhound looks like Brad Pitt from time to time and other faces are typically Russian and not suitable for that kind of movie. Im 30 yo and I've seen so many Russian movies before so when i saw so many fat faces suitable for chief of a communist party or milk-woman in cow factory from 1970 - 90 - I think Im about to puke (the scene with the drowning of a woman in the river)- so annoying and stupid. I saw some good CGI effects , some nice cadres - the one with falling arrows.I find the battle scenes well done - the movements are not typical for the other action movies - they are real and good. Blood is fake and not well done - orange blood ?! - I don't think so. Anyway - I give 2 out of 10 - because of these positive things and the BAT ! :-)

Kirill Galetski Russia's first proper foray into Tolkeinesque fantasy cinema, WOLFHOUND, based on the first novel of a tetralogy by Maria Semyonova about a last-of-his-tribe mighty warrior, is a mixed bag – on the one hand, it is formulaic, derivative and uneven in terms of acting and pacing; on the other, there is enough novelty in the film's distinctly Slavic demeanor, philosophical subtext and production design to make it play well internationally as a crossover curio.WOLFHOUND opens with the back-story of the main character, a mighty warrior from the Grey Hound tribe named Wolfhound (Bukharov). While still only a child, Wolfhound's family is killed by marauders led by the evil priest Zhadoba and his henchman the Man-Eater (Domogarov). Zhadoba steals a sword forged by Wolfhound's father and has Wolfhound enslaved. The boy grows up dreaming of revenge.Zhadoba is priest of Morana, a malevolent goddess that has been imprisoned by spell cast by the rulers of Galirad, one of whom, Princess Helen (Akinshina) is betrothed to the Man-Eater's son Vinitar (Bely) in an effort to keep the peace. Zhadoba is trying to free Morana to wreak havoc upon the world and subsequently dominate. He hopes to accomplish this by spilling the blood of Helen at the ancient shrine where Morana is imprisoned. Standing between him and his goal is Wolfhound, who, after saving Helen from an assassination attempt in Galirad, becomes her bodyguard.Contrary to many Russians' fatalistic attitudes towards life, the film presents a new and intriguing philosophical slant in terms of the free will versus determinism debate, which comes out in favor of free will. Wolfhound frees himself from slavery by killing one of his captors, thereby changing his fate. As a free man, he pursues revenge, but throughout the film, his conscience, in the form of visions of a female spirit, comes to question whether the seemingly fated cycle of killing is worth continuing when he encounters Vinitar, the last of his enemies, in battle.If the plot sounds formulaic and derivative, it is. Intentionally or not, the opening sequence is virtually a remake of John Milius's CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Masked in a sharp-toothed skull helmet, Zhadoba is vaguely reminiscent of Tolkein's dark lord Sauron. The predictability of the storyline and the pace, which lags in places, sometimes makes you wish they'd just get on with it. In terms of editing, the film could have been better served with a classic, chronological progression of the main character's life rather than its more trendy, non-linear, flashback tack, which dampens its philosophical message.The performances are uneven, with the supporting cast generally better than the leads. TV heartthrob Bukharov (Russian TV series MAROSEIKA 12) and internationally known Oksana Akinshina (LILJA4EVER, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) look appropriately wide-eyed in the right places, neither of them leaves much of an impression. The purported love story between them feels pat due to being underdeveloped plot-wise. Since this is Russia's first LOTR-style fantasy and the genre is very alien to Russian cinema, some sequences feel downright awkward in terms of acting. Also a bit gawky is the very noticeable use of facial close-ups, presumably in order for the film to subsequently play well on the small screen.One of the more memorable performances was that of the matronly Nina Usatova as the leader of the savage Kharyuk people, whose lands Helen's entourage has to cross to reach her betrothed. Usatova steals every scene in that sequence, which is somewhat obviously played for comic relief.Nevertheless, the film acquits itself well by stretching its comparatively shoestring budget to the limit. It looks similar to a $40 – $50 million Hollywood film. The cinematography is atmospheric, well lit and generally melds well with the computer-generated effects. CGI use is rather sparing compared with something like LOTR, but then this is not only because of budgetary constraints. The filmmakers didn't cut corners on things like extras and sets. The film features around 1800 costumed extras, and nine different "large" sets were built, the most spectacular of these being Galirad, which covered 5 kilometers square on a Mosfilm studio backlot. The film also makes use of numerous on-location forest sequences shot in Slovakia. CGI is used mostly in the background in establishing shots and the level of CGI use builds up slowly, until going full-bore in the closing magical battle sequence. The battle scenes of are varying quality – some are quite clear and easy to follow, while others are pretty sloppy and a blur of swords and grunts. The fighting is not very gory and would probably earn the film a PG-13 rating in the U.S.The film's unique and exotic look, which draws on an amalgam of some never-before-seen elements from Slavic archeology, makes it a novelty item. Wolfhound looks positively Scythian with his long hair, beard, scars and animal-hide costume. Helen's red beaded wedding dress was painstakingly created from 3000 individual parts. The bat sidekick is a first, and its CGI is very accomplished – nearly impossible to tell that the bat was not real. A healing process used by a white wizard to remedy some near-fatal wounds is also thus far one-of-kind. It uses heat provided from the campfires and the three healing sequences (one of them repairing the bat's wing) elicit a sense of wonder.Outside of Russia, the film should benefit from the post-Lord-of-the-Rings renewed interest in the fantasy genre and the general curiosity about Russians' take on the genre.