May 3, 2009

[Movies] X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

X-Men Origins: WolverineI don't claim to be an X-Men purist - I think I mentioned that in a prior review this weekend. However like any other comic book geek, I have read my fair share of X-Titles and dug into the background of various characters, so I think I know enough to have a decent basis for making an informed decision.

Now when it comes to the movies released by Marvel Comics, you have to admit it's been largely hit or miss. Some of their more recent releases like last year's Iron Man were amazing and definitely worthy of the original comics it was based upon. At the same time you get really scary endeavors like Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Or we can go all the way back to that horrible Captain America movie. *shudders*

You never really know what'll happen when the next Marvel Comics inspired film is set to come out. Just like this one.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the latest attempt by Fox Studios to milk every last cent out of the X-Men franchise without pulling the "reboot" button just yet, hehe. As if X-Men United wasn't bad enough, they decided to venture into the scary realm of prequels in order to somehow expand their horizons.

The classic elements of Wolverine's origin story were certainly here. Things like (1) he's Canadian, (2) he worked with the US government alongisde Sabertooth, (3) he eventually gained his adamantium claws and skeleton due to the Weapon X experiment. That all seemed well and good and given these key elements were present, you'd think things would be okay.

Now we enter the realms of Hollywood and market research derived plots and you get an amazing collection of characters alongside our little Wolverine. The movie featured the likes of Deadpool, Blob, Gambit and even a young Cyclops to name a few. You'd think having all these characters involved might make the movie "cooler" - if you do then you're precisely part of the demographic Fox Studio's marketing group hoped to reach. The only consequence is that they chose to ignore the back stories of these characters and even how their core powers should work and we ended up with a horrible distorted view of the X-Men universe where everyone is not quite who they should be.


TEMPE, AZ - APRIL 27:  (L-R) Actors Hugh Jackm...Image by Getty Images via Daylife
When it comes to superhero movies, movie studios always play around with the balance between tailoring the movie to the original fans or "tweaking" things such that it becomes more appealing to a wider audience. And thus you get a movie like this where Deadpool, better know as "The Merc with a Mouth" ends up to be a not so funny Ryan Reynolds (which was weird to me), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has a near infinite collection of wifebeaters and has an odd tendency to get naked and Sabertooth (Liev Schreiber) is hardly the huge, hulking arch enemy of our Candian friend. It was just weird.

Beyond the horrible rape of the origninal comic book characters (please don't claim that was supposed to be the White Queen!!!), there was the whole unimaginative nature of the plot with it's many leaps in logic. Agent Zero is a one-dimensional and strange reject from the Matrix series sans leather outfits. Characters are introduced for no other reason than to die - or given this is a Marvel film, to be brought back to life as needed. Fight scenes are large, kickass but have no valuable contribution to the furthering of the plot. Need I continue?

Many will probably argue that I didn't like the movie since I'm being a comic book purist, and maybe I am. But I'm also a guy who likes for his movies to have a logical plot - maybe it's the writer in me. Plus I also look for more in a film than just a parade of eye candy (and yes, I acknowledge we can add Taylor Kitsch to the eye candy list even though he ws the strangest Gambit I've ever seen).

I probably can't stop you from watching the film (hell, I watched 17 Again only for Zac Efron, so sue me), but I can try to get you to save theater ticket money. Wait for it on DVD. Or better yet on cable TV. Or even better still for some local network channel to air it dubbed in Filipino. Yeah, that just might work better.

Or you can get drunk, leave your brain at the door and just enjoy the movie for the pretty colors. Ooh, diamonds are sparkly!


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4 comments:

  1. Or watch it for the hawtness that is Hugh Jackman's body. Yummy yum yum yum.

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  2. @MisterHeuge oh you dog! haha, then again you have a point. Between Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds and the alternate guy who played Weapon XI...ugh, drooling again. LMAO

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  3. In retrospect, I would have been better off saving the money i spent on Wolverine Origins for Star Trek this weekend

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  4. @Coffee Maker:
    no truer statement could be said, hehe

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