At long last, the official TOC review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
The biggest delay in writing this was simply knowing what to say. For one, I don’t feel well enough informed about the comic book origin of Wolverine to speak to the film’s accuracy. Second, I had trouble determining just what it was about the movie that didn’t feel right to me. While there’s been no change on the first point, just yesterday I realized the answer to the second.
Last year was a breakthrough year for comic book movies: Iron Man, Hancock, Incredible Hulk, Punisher: War Zone, The Dark Knight (which I don’t even think of as comic book). These movies raised the level of what can be expected from the genre and there was a lot of talk that we wouldn’t be going back to the old days. So, it wasn’t that Wolverine was bad, it just didn’t live up to this new level of comic book film. It was, however, on par with previous X-films.
CONS:
Like previous X-films, Wolverine tried too hard to fit too many characters into too short of a time frame. This meant that many character cameos were lost on the common viewer or left fans disappointed. Gambit didn’t even fake a Creole accent. As a movie watcher obsessed with continuity, I had trouble with Sabretooth and Striker bearing no resemblance to their previous incarnations. XI/Deadpool!?! What was that?
PROS:
It was wicked cool. The childhood and war scenes were great and did so much to create a rich history in a short time frame. It breathed new life into a struggling franchise (though I never understood the beef with X3). It created numerous new jumping off points including the previously discussed First Class as well as a rumored Wolverine sequel.
SUMMARY:
All in all, it’s a good, entertaining movie. Definitely worth catching on the big screen and own on DVD, but don’t hold your breath for any Academy Awards here.
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johnny thunders
ok, first of all? strikethrough on punisher war zone? seriously? that movie was super fun and so totally dead on with the comics. it was gloriously violent and just the right amount of ridiculousness. i had so much fun with that film. it actually succeeded in capturing what is great about the character. besides iron man, it was the best comic book film of last year.
wolverine was bland. it wasn’t all that offensive, it was just boring and safe. unlike you, i dreaded the chance that gambit might have a stupid accent on screen and was glad they didn’t even attempt it. mostly i just hated what they did to deadpool. they ruined the most fun character in the franchise.
liev schriber was amazing as sabretooth and actually gave depth to the character that tyler mane doesn’t have in his own life. (i actually met him last week, he’s boring)
as for x3, that’s a whole different discussion. it’s a train wreck on so many levels. from a script standpoint, it’s absolute crap. there is an A storyline and a B storyline and they never cross. you could break it up into two movies and it would work just as well. the dialog is amateurish, as well as the directing and most of the acting. the ending of the movie actually undoes all of the conflict of the film and makes the story useless. and the mysoginy throughout the film is pretty messed up. they took an amazing cosmic story from the comics and turned it into a case of a woman who can’t control her powers because she isn’t strong like a man is. but that’s the mistake marvel made years ago, letting fox and other companies get a hold of their properties and ruin them. i’m just glad they still have the avengers characters that they can do right by.
May 8, 2009 at 11:00 pm
My Wife is Cool | Tilling the Soil
[...] just wanted to say that my wife is cool. She watched Wolverine with me last night. She couldn’t go see it when it came out because we had a 6 week old. Note: [...]
September 16, 2009 at 10:28 am