Movie Review! Xmen Origins: Wolverine.
I went and saw the Wolverine movie last night. It was pretty good overall, and its better to see it in theatres for the effects I guess, unless you have a super tv, then I'd probably suggest saving your money and renting it.
Going into it I was really excited for a few things, namely: Hugh Jackman's hotness (even with ridiculous sideburns), GAMBIT, and Ryan Reynolds snarkiness as the (insane) Deadpool. I knew there was also gonna be some tragic love story to explain why Wolverine is so angry all the time, but I didn't really care one way or the other for that.
Some of those things I wanted I got, but not in big enough doses to make me truly satisfied. yes Hugh Jackman was hot, but the other quality were sorely lacking. Ryan Reynolds really only had two or three scenes at the beginning of the film. They were awesome, but his talents were definitely needed elsewhere to lighten up the overall *drama* of the movie. And the ending they gave his character, not to ruin the whole thing, but suffice it to say it sucked. I think the actor they picked for Gambit (my FAV character from the old Xmen cartoons) was good. I didn' t recognise him so I IMDB's him when I got home. Apparently he's been in a couple other movies and the tv series Friday Night Lights and goes by the name Taylor Kitsch. I was quite satified with his look for the part. My only qualm is that they didn't really even try to give him a cajun accent, he just had something vaguely southern. And he didn't say "mon cherie" once :(
As for the love story, I pretty much got exactly what I expected. It was pretty damn cheesy, but they did throw in one plot twist:
*************SPOILER ALERT************ (for pretty much the rest of the post)
The time that Wolverine thinks she dies, she (Kayla) doesn't really die. She had been blackmailed into basically spying on him for Stryker. Her sister was beening held hostage and her mutant powers "studied." Kayla is also a mutant, with the power of "tactile hypnosis" kind of a cool power actually. Sort of like Rogue, only instead of stealing their powers on touch she can make them do whatever she wants. Apparently, however, this doesn't work on Wolverine or Sabertooth (Victor) or she was just really ethical and never used it on him, cause she of course "really loved him" despite her awkward and dangerous situation. Despite having escaped death once, she still dies at the end of the movie. Duh. And even more ridiculous, Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with two adamantium bullets, which don't kill him but conveniently wipe him memory. Oh and in case you were wondering what I meant about Deadpool earlier, Stryker turned him into a supermutant with the powers of all the other really cool mutants he's captured and/or killed over the years, including a very young Cyclops. (The captured mutants are set free by Wolverine and Kayla, and escape with the help of a cameo from Patrick Stweart :P) Deadpool is controlled through a computer by Stryker and set upon Wolverine and Victor. They defeat and behead him by cooperating one last time. Then Stryker wipes Logan's memory, but while Wolverine is down, Kayla sends Stryker walking mindlessly with her final breath. Awwww, lame. The End, or is it?
There are apparently 4 possible post-credit "endings" to the movie, to "prevent piracy" Riiiiiight... First off these little scenes are so short, they don't even really matter, you can recap them in one sentence and all they do is leave room for sequels. Second, nothing really prevents piracy, you would think they figured that out by now. Either way, the endings go as follows: The one I got was Wolverine in a bar in Japan "drinking to remember." There's also one in which you see Deadpool's body reach over and grab his head, which says "shh!" (lol a bit). There's also one about stryker, and some other crap, blahblahbalh no one cares. We're obviously going to be subjected to another one anyways.
Here's a few salient observations about faithfulness to the comics from my husband, who actually read them: They basically screwed Deadpool over. He was an experiment on giving Wolverine's healing factor to others, but not all those other mutant powers, and he was totally psycho, not controllable by anyone. Also, Stryker was not the one responsible for the Weapon X program, that was the Canadian government. Damn Canadians :P Stryker is the guy that created the Sentinals to kill mutants. Also, Wolverine and Sabertooth were not brothers. These are mere fanboy quibbles of course (no not really). Basically, as long as Marvel doesn't have creative control over these products, they're going to be shit plot-wise, just like Xmen 3. Whatevs.
So in summary: If you were expecting comic faithfulness: don't. If you were expecting great special effects plus Wolverine and Gambit hotness: do. Overall it was a good summer flick, but didn't leave me with that warm fuzzy feeling of a really good movie. And it could really have used more Ryan Reynolds humor and at least ONE "Mon Cherie" :P
Going into it I was really excited for a few things, namely: Hugh Jackman's hotness (even with ridiculous sideburns), GAMBIT, and Ryan Reynolds snarkiness as the (insane) Deadpool. I knew there was also gonna be some tragic love story to explain why Wolverine is so angry all the time, but I didn't really care one way or the other for that.
Some of those things I wanted I got, but not in big enough doses to make me truly satisfied. yes Hugh Jackman was hot, but the other quality were sorely lacking. Ryan Reynolds really only had two or three scenes at the beginning of the film. They were awesome, but his talents were definitely needed elsewhere to lighten up the overall *drama* of the movie. And the ending they gave his character, not to ruin the whole thing, but suffice it to say it sucked. I think the actor they picked for Gambit (my FAV character from the old Xmen cartoons) was good. I didn' t recognise him so I IMDB's him when I got home. Apparently he's been in a couple other movies and the tv series Friday Night Lights and goes by the name Taylor Kitsch. I was quite satified with his look for the part. My only qualm is that they didn't really even try to give him a cajun accent, he just had something vaguely southern. And he didn't say "mon cherie" once :(
As for the love story, I pretty much got exactly what I expected. It was pretty damn cheesy, but they did throw in one plot twist:
*************SPOILER ALERT************ (for pretty much the rest of the post)
The time that Wolverine thinks she dies, she (Kayla) doesn't really die. She had been blackmailed into basically spying on him for Stryker. Her sister was beening held hostage and her mutant powers "studied." Kayla is also a mutant, with the power of "tactile hypnosis" kind of a cool power actually. Sort of like Rogue, only instead of stealing their powers on touch she can make them do whatever she wants. Apparently, however, this doesn't work on Wolverine or Sabertooth (Victor) or she was just really ethical and never used it on him, cause she of course "really loved him" despite her awkward and dangerous situation. Despite having escaped death once, she still dies at the end of the movie. Duh. And even more ridiculous, Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with two adamantium bullets, which don't kill him but conveniently wipe him memory. Oh and in case you were wondering what I meant about Deadpool earlier, Stryker turned him into a supermutant with the powers of all the other really cool mutants he's captured and/or killed over the years, including a very young Cyclops. (The captured mutants are set free by Wolverine and Kayla, and escape with the help of a cameo from Patrick Stweart :P) Deadpool is controlled through a computer by Stryker and set upon Wolverine and Victor. They defeat and behead him by cooperating one last time. Then Stryker wipes Logan's memory, but while Wolverine is down, Kayla sends Stryker walking mindlessly with her final breath. Awwww, lame. The End, or is it?
There are apparently 4 possible post-credit "endings" to the movie, to "prevent piracy" Riiiiiight... First off these little scenes are so short, they don't even really matter, you can recap them in one sentence and all they do is leave room for sequels. Second, nothing really prevents piracy, you would think they figured that out by now. Either way, the endings go as follows: The one I got was Wolverine in a bar in Japan "drinking to remember." There's also one in which you see Deadpool's body reach over and grab his head, which says "shh!" (lol a bit). There's also one about stryker, and some other crap, blahblahbalh no one cares. We're obviously going to be subjected to another one anyways.
Here's a few salient observations about faithfulness to the comics from my husband, who actually read them: They basically screwed Deadpool over. He was an experiment on giving Wolverine's healing factor to others, but not all those other mutant powers, and he was totally psycho, not controllable by anyone. Also, Stryker was not the one responsible for the Weapon X program, that was the Canadian government. Damn Canadians :P Stryker is the guy that created the Sentinals to kill mutants. Also, Wolverine and Sabertooth were not brothers. These are mere fanboy quibbles of course (no not really). Basically, as long as Marvel doesn't have creative control over these products, they're going to be shit plot-wise, just like Xmen 3. Whatevs.
So in summary: If you were expecting comic faithfulness: don't. If you were expecting great special effects plus Wolverine and Gambit hotness: do. Overall it was a good summer flick, but didn't leave me with that warm fuzzy feeling of a really good movie. And it could really have used more Ryan Reynolds humor and at least ONE "Mon Cherie" :P