Open Thread: ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’

These ain't right.

Lower your expectations… a lot.

Ugh. I was afraid of that. At least the woman in there is gorgeous though.

Just got back from the Wolverine movie and on my personal scale of how good it was, I have to say that I am not upset that I spent the money to see it, but I would not have missed out on any thing waiting for the DVD to come out.

Like all "hero action films" , especially those that give you back round info and the genesis of the good guy and bad guy, there tends to be a lot of story and slow paced action. Child hood story, war montages, tails of romantic love, mild twists and turns, equals lots of dialog, and for any one wondering if Hugh Jackman could carry a blockbuster on his own, the answer is still; not really, but he isn't Ben Aflac in Dare Devil or anything.

Like many cool sounding films with too many familiar characters, their story line is underdeveloped and the B actors they get to fill in make them even more cheesy, Will I Am, WTF?

So like Spider Man 1, Fantastic Four, Transformers, too much action was sacrificed on the Alter of Storyline, and the cast is not strong enough to carry the lines. The action is decent there is a lot of "pseudo action" and a less amount of "kick ass" action, but there is action, please don't get me wrong, just not the quality we expect from the X-Men series, and in that aspect this is far from those solid hero action films.

And did they photo shop Professor X? Can't wait for Terminator….

Long Time Reader, First Time Poster

Well, did Wolvie work for me or not? Kind-of. My first thought was: Except for some Lumberjack co-works and some people in the club gambling and drinking where were the PEOPLE? You know the folks as background? Not just the core players. I was also thinking how hollywood it was that Wolvie's home was parked on a cliff!

THe actions scenes were fine but that's all we really got. Not enough of Ryan either. He was the best thing in Blade 3 as well. He has a snarky way and is fun in action movies. Jackman was fine in the role but was actually to pretty this time. He should have been more scruffy, heck he was in the first X-Men flick.

I could go on about the script but why? I can say this film was better than both F4 movies. I also had two other scenes that bothered me… There is a shot of all the destruction on 3 mile island and correct me if I'm wrong but in the final shot there is still 3, count'em 3 stacks!

THe 2nd scene is really the two during the credits. THe Wolvie one is ok but lackluster and the General one was a headscratcher on so many levels.

I know this is a comic book movie but still… logic is logic right?

NOTHING I can say about this would pass the profanity filter, which is why I'm glad I said it here:
http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2009/05/x-men-origin...

This could well end up being the worst film of the summer, even with "Transformers 2" on the horizon. I can't remember the last time I saw a bigger waste of time.

Got to disagree with you on Transformers, I didn't think any action was sacrificed there. My only objections to that movie were shaky cam and the transformers not looking unique enough which made telling them apart in a battle hard. Also I could have done with some more of Megan Fox under the hood of the muscle car…yuuuuummmmy.

I love the X Men movies, but in the extras on the DVD, they gave the impression that republicans were the hate-mongers that were biased to all mutants and the Democrats were all the open-minded politicians.

Dude, Wolvie did walk outta the room. Then he heard a scream and you know….

Your right about the sister act. as for bros well… they were similar. Kind-of.

Deadpool was a nifty idea poorly used. I do agree though give Kitsch his own Gambit movie now.

I saw the movie last night at a midnight screening… trying to get a review video shot for a website I work on (http://filmmakeriq.com). These kind of movies are a joy for midnight screenings… the audience gets into it.

Did I like it, yes! Popcorn flick through and through. Kinda had a clunky and long winded setup with all that backstory, but once the action got going it was pretty fun.

Here's my Video review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rqlln-GfHQ)

RIght on re. producers buying a property then ignoring it. Especially when it clearly hurts the commercial prospects–even to the extent of TITLING in the best example of all time: They buy the rights to a hit series of books with over 100 "volumes" out there in print in umpteen languages that have sold millions and millions of copies and are known in ever corner by the name "The Destroyer" and what do they call the movie (which wasn't bad except for an amazingly weak and pointless villian)??

"Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" …now THERE's a name sure to sell tickets, right? And make all those people who knew the source material recognize it on a marquee? Oy…

Saw it today and basically its a good popcorn movie; it told a straightforward story with solid acting that incorporated most of the major points of the various Wolverine stories over the years without turning into a convoluted mess. This movie isn't going to win any awards or answer any deep philosophical questions; its just a fun way to spend a couple hours at the movies.

As I recall there were some rights issues to the Destroyer name. Which is why they couldn't use it.

It also didn't help that Joel Grey played his Korean mentor. Shades of Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffanies.

Be fair now: Stan Lee and Marvel in general have always been VERY upfront that the initial 60s iteration of the X-Men was framed in part as a parable about societal minorities and differing approaches to Civil Rights struggles – in the original context the main paralell was race, with Xavier as MLK and Magneto as Malcom X, but it's hardly a major stretch to reapply it to the gay equal-rights issue in a modern interpretation. (Frankly, I think it's a much BETTER paralell since for the most part the Mutants are otherwise "normal" looking and thus the question involves the additional wrinkle of whether or not they ought simply "keep their difference to themselves" and blend in.)

I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from the movie, but it was a serious let down at times. The biggest problem bar none was, as a commentator said above, the complete evisceration of Deadpool. Complete.

That said, Liev Scrieber (sp?) was excellent. You got the impression he was more badass than Wolverine. I never felt much emotional connection to Wolverine. It wasn't necessarily Hugh Jackman, the film's overall portrayal of Wolverine felt weak. Doing Wolverine stand alone can't be as campy and the rest of the X-Men (I mean that in a good way), it needs to be darker, somehow grittier.

Oh, and I loved how the opening montage with all the wars portrayed Vietnam as the "bad" war.

For those unfamiliar with the character of Wolverine in the comics: He's really 5'3 hence the name Wolverine and not good looking. Sabertooth and Wolverine aren't brothers. Silver Fox and Emma Frost aka the White Queen aren't sisters. Sabertooth killed Silver Fox in the comics. Adamantium bullets can't pierce Adamantium(dumb way to explain his memory loss). Weapon X program was a Canadian gov't program.

Wade Wilson aka Deadpool aka the "Merc with a Mouth" is a nonmutant mercenary with terminal cancer who volunteers for the Weapon X program. Using Wolverine's DNA for his healing factor, it heals Wilson's cancer but disfigures and makes him mentally unstable. He wisecracks, wears a costume and occasionally breaks the "fourth wall";admitting that he is a comic book character. The movie butchered the character which is why fans are upset. He doesn't have swords coming out of his hands or optic blast abilities.

Corny as hell. Slightly entertaining. Didn't wait for the last scene after the credits though.

Amen to that.

It is not as terribly liberal as you might think since it is based on India.

It is more an everyman film.

What on earth are you talking about? "Too much story"? Wolverine was action from the beginning to the end. They didn't bother explaining the things that you see, like a lot of movies do. It wasn't like they had to say "He originally had bone claws, then they got broken off, then they got replaced with adamantium", blah blah blah…they just told the story visually, quickly and effectively. Sure it wasn't brilliant like Dark Knight or anything, but it was a good movie.

Will see it soon, thanks for the tip.

I enjoyed the film. Kind of a downer for a ending, but will watch again on DVD.

He is Wolverine and he's O.K.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

Nothing new, just more of the same silly special effect action genre tripe most of these films are. That said it was a decent popcorn flick that the kids seem to enjoy and I suppose the purpose for them. Thinking and looking back at the film I was surprise this film is rated PG-13 and not R. I suppose it was because they didn't show any blood.

I just saw it and I think one's opinion of it follows 2 camps – those who have really followed the comics and Wolverine are a bit disappointed at worst and a bit ambivalent at best.

I have seen at least one other X Man movie with Patrick Steward – but know next to nothing about Wolverine.

Personally I liked the movie. My friend Larry the Movie Nut (LTMN) told me there are at least "several" stories of the originis of Wolverine – he seemed to enjoy the movie.

One thing for certain – you don't want to piss off Wolverine

I have certainly seen worse movies this year – Crank 2 among them. I considered it to be an entertaining 2 hours.

How cool would Wolverine had been if Zack Snyder had directed the movie?

Id say a good peice of entairtainment. Lots of cool action and it retells a familiar vigilantee storyline over again quite well. It definutly could have been alot better had it devoloped its characters and not added some confulluted storylines (Deadpool anyone) but at the same time it could have been alot worse. Its far superior to the basterdized Fantastic Four movies and maybe even a bit better then X-Men The Last Stand. Still it doesn't meet the high standards X2 X-men United set for the franchise. Its succeeds in being fun summer entairtainment but its a shame it isn't anything more

Nolte's problem in the jibe of "those who have never felt the touch of a woman" about the fidelity to Comic Book characters is a total misreading of what comics at least were:

Beloved by twelve year old boys (of course they never felt the "touch of a woman" that way) for decades.

People are upset at Deadpool's treatment because it's akin to making Superman a "tortured freak with a glass stomach," ignoring about 75 years of proven success with the concept of Superman in the comics, and all the memories ages of little boys have decades later for the character as he was.

Deadpool is not Superman, but fans loved him for decades. He's sort of the unstable Spider-Man, always wisecracking, never ever trying to be altruistic, able to heal but not really well, and as noted mentally unstable and disfigured. He's unpredictable and not even he knows what he'll do next.

The X-Men are an extended family of Super-heroes with thinly disguised allegories of the Civil Rights movement (Professor X is Dr. King with superpowers, Magneto Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan). It's enough to create legions of fans. Including many who loved the macho toughness of Logan/Wolverine.

All the original stuff WORKED. For Decades. There's no reason to think it can be improved. It's a turn-off to millions of former ten year old boys who loved the characters decades ago. Screenwriter and producer and director arrogance at it's worst.

The bone claws grew back. He heals. They weren't replaced with adamantium–the bone claws(all of them) got the same treatment as the rest of Logan's skeleton.

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