[cheebacheeba]

It was a reinvention, yknow?
They didn't kill the original ideas, they just gave us a new perspective on them.
It's funny that you should say all that, and ALSO say that you had issues with Frankensteins monster "yappin all the time like he was a genius"...In the original literature, he talked plenty, and had quiet an excellent outlook and a very realistic take on man, and what it is to be one - If you haven't read the original, or at least seen the deniro movie, you should.
As for walking like he needed to take a crap...I'd assume that's something to do with the mechanical crap you mentioned...
Agreed that they did over-do the wolf-men in terms of size, as for the thing about the whole dracula only being able to be killed by a werewolf, I found it quiet interesting - there's only so many ways they can re-use an old idea anyway, isn't there?
BTW - I liked how they didn't use very much colour at all in the movie...kinda made the atmosphere work, I also liked that FOR ONCE a female character had a good reason to be there.
It's not the best movie out there, no...but I've seen a LOT more horror-based films that were a LOT worse come out over the past few years.