For those of us on the web, today isn’t just about Avatar, it is also about the rise of one of Universal’s classic monsters. From director Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) comes the remake of one of the scariest, most beastly tales ever committed to film — The Wolfman.

Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother… and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.

In the trailer, which can be seen below or in HD over at Yahoo Movies, we see some advanced footage of the transformation from Benicio Del Toro to the big hairy monster, which looks cool from certain angles, and less-than-cool from others. The rest of the trailer looks solid visually, but the delivery of the story feels a bit forced and a bit campy. Then again, we are working off of a classic monster movie here — I don’t remember the original being a masterwork of story, but more of a masterwork of practical effects. Which brings me to what bothers me most — the apparent lack of practical effects being employed. The Wolfman himself looks a little silly, but then again we don’t get much of a close-up post-transformation in this trailer. I’m interested to see more, but I’m not holding my breath.

As for the rest of it, I’m still digging the cast — Anthony Hopkins is always great, Hugo Weaving is a good fit for an intense, somewhat creepy cop and Emily Blunt, well who doesn’t like seeing her on screen for extended period of time. As well, Del Toro is a quality actor who could bring depth to the role of Lawrence Talbot. So there’s hope yet, assuming they get the actual Wolfman character right — and deliver the scares. But that’s just one man’s opinion. I’m interested in hearing what the RejectNation thinks in the comment section below.

The Wolfman hits theaters on February 10, 2010.