X-Men Origin’s: Wolverine
Wolverine showing off his new claws
OK fanboys, enhance your calm. There will be some spoilers here, but I’ve kept them to a minimum, and they’re near the end. So those of you who prefer to live in a media blackout for geek flicks are somewhat safe.
In short, the movie was as enjoyable as the first X-Men movie. Jackman and Schrieber owned the movie, and by all rights, they deserved it. Ryan Reynolds IS Wade Wilson, and I wish he got more screen time. OK, if you’re on the fence about this movie, buy your tickets and watch it.
If you’re a nitpicking fanboy, who is still pissed that Jackman never wore the blue and gold tights, stay home and play with your action figures, you’ll be sorely upset.
Now. Spoilers to follow. You’ve been warned.
As a fanboy myself, I kept looking at things and saying to myself, “That’s out of continuity!” But I held it back.
The way I see it, when you translate a character to a film, you’re going to need to dump some canon. You can’t put 30+ years of continuity into 90 minutes without changing things up, otherwise it won’t be as fun. Wolverine is a walking retcon. His history has been mashed up by too many writers and artists to count.
The way I see it, if you’re watching this movie, with no knowledge of Wolverine at all, you can still figure out this complex character and appreciate his actions. Hell, you can figure that within the opening credits.
Wolverine is a bad ass, who’s good at killin’, but does it only when he has to.
Victor Creed is a bad ass, who’s almost as good as Wolverine at killin’, but likes it way too much.
Nuff Said.
They’ve tried to get as much of his history, at least the Weapon X part of things, into this story, while keeping it current and fresh. Considering the complexity of his origin, and all the variations, they did pretty good. Pacing was a problem for me, it seemed a bit too fast, but that could have just been me. There were a few moments where I think the continuity people missed some things, like a scene where he walks away wearing a leather jacket and is outside, then in the next scene he’s indoors, standing in front of a wall, without his jacket. Small stuff like that, which to me effected the flow just a bit, but not enough to be a problem.
Also, it seemed to me that many of the action sequences were a little too over the top, but again, comic action flicks probably need that to appeal to the fratboy demographic. I don’t remember Gambit being able to run up walls and defy gravity, but maybe that’s just the effect of all that jambalaya.
As much as I enjoyed the flick, I’ve got some real gripes.
Is it just me, or did they just throw darts at an X-men poster to see who would be in the movie? Like in X3, I didn’t care for the way they introduced or developed some of some of the characters.
Many of the mutants had no real place in the film, other than to stroke the fanboys. Guess they need a bit of stroking once in a while, so long as they don’t go blind.
Emma looking all Frosty. Yeah, you don't need to read my mind to know what I'm thinking!
Mainly I wasn’t pleased with Emma Frost, or her connection with Silverfox. However, I did somewhat enjoy Silverfox’s role. I know I should have seen it coming, but it actually caught me by surprise. Emma on the other hand, made total sense in her role, except for the aforementioned connection. It didn’t really take that much away, but it wasn’t really believable to me. I also didn’t care for her diamond mode. It looked like she was dipped into a rap album and came out all bling-tastic. Then again, I’m thinking they wanted it to be obvious, “Oh, she’s covered in diamonds” as opposed to looking like Iceman’s sister, or that she was made of glass.
It took me a while to figure out who Frank Dukes was, even after they said his name. For a moment I thought they were making a Bloodsport reference. The rest of his scenes made me want to fight King Hippo in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.
Scott Summers. I never liked the character until I read him in the more recent runs of the X-Men comics. Now, I’m more upset that they keep screwing around with him, ever since X3. When I first heard about him being in the movie, I was one of the more vocal against it, as well as Gambit. But I take it back based on how they pulled it off. I’ll leave the details for you to sort out, so watch the damned movie!
I do like how they included many younger mutants, even though in some cases they may have been out of context (Hard to believe Iceman would have been trapped in Weapon X without his middle class parents being slightly upset). It was nice to see them blend in the characters from X1 as kids, even those who didn’t appear in that one. Was it just me, or did I see a little Quicksilver throwing a tantrum in his cage?
I’m going to say one thing about Deadpool and Weapon XI, based on the backlash from this blog:
http://www.deadpoolbugle.com/2009/03/ryan-reynolds-confirms-scarred.html
Part of me says that fanboys need to get a life, and stop bitching. As a Deadpool fan, I say he got a raw deal. However, as a thinking person, I know that when transferring a character across mediums, the point is to get the essense and forget canon. Yes, we all know that Wade Wilson went through all this crap, and the cancer, and the healing factor and doesn’t have claws, or laser eyes, or shoot lightning out of his ass (one of these is false). However, I see what they were trying to do, and I am happy that they’re at least giving him a shot at the title. This will mean a possible Deadpool spin-off, so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Of course, that increases the chances of them screwing him up even more, but again, I’m willing to risk it. If you think it’s crap, write a letter and get your friends to do so too. If they know enough people won’t watch a movie that screws up the character, chances are they’ll fix things or not make the flick. But what do I know, I’m just a blogger.
Wade Wilson as Van Wilder
Anyhow, I think their intention was for this whole ordeal to make Wade Wilson into this…thing…and then he becomes the the Deadpool we know and love. Without saying too much, I know I’ve read somewhere that he can regrow his own head, so a few stitches and crazy glue won’t keep the “Merc with a Mouth” silent. Plus, as mentioned by Lab Tech #3, the bonding process didn’t finish, so it’s a very good chance he won’t keep them claws. However, based on the secret endings (what? you left right during the credits? give me back your fanboy card!) it seems that maybe this may not have been the same Deadpool. Hurm…
But, I do think it would be cool to see Deadpool with teleporting powers. I think if he had his own movie, and kept the ‘porting powers, we can expect some old fashion fun, a la Porky’s.!
yay yay fighty time fighty time blood blood blood
And finally, the memory loss….
I have mixed feelings about this one. It seemed too much like an afterthought and the importance of it seemed forgotten. It was as if they only realized after cutting the movie that he loses his memory, and tried to get that shot in one afternoon. I’ll leave you to make your own decision on that.
Oh, and wait till after the credits. You’ll see something for sure, but it depends on which theater you’re in.
