X-Men Origins: Wolverine is Wolverine's first solo movie, and it has
proven successful with it's great entertainment value. Hugh Jackman does for Wolverine what
Christopher Reeve did for
Superman.
He is Wolverine. Just the way he approaches the character is very
reminiscent of the way Hollywood's classic actors of days gone by
would have done the part. He's got a lot of
Clint Eastwood, some John Wayne, and a bit of
Cary
Grant thrown in there which works as far as Wolverine is a man
who was born in the 1800's. Even the way he swears sounds a lot more
John
Wayne than a modern day character. Jackman just has that classic
tough guy thing going on.
I loved the way he could go from this sort of
clumsy nice guy persona when he was taken in by the kindly farm couple to
the raging war machine anytime he was attacked. When he's on the
attack you might wonder if this guy is really a good guy, but it's
the lighter moments that show inside Logan only wants to be left
alone after he kills all the bad guys of course.
Sabretooth Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber plays
Sabretooth
to perfection. He's freakin scary. He's the perfect bad guy. You
never know what kind of evil he's capable of stooping too next
because he might be doing some good one moment and doing something
evil the next. Just a very ominous portrayal. Liev Schreiber
plays him as an intelligent scary guy you just don't want to cross.
The action was pretty much non-stop with crashing helicopters,
explosions, and fight sequences that were just plain outstanding.
Agent Zero's gun fighting ninja skills were nice, as well as
Deadpool's
ninja warrior fighting techniques. I love superhero movies for the
over the top fighting scenes. It gives film makers an excuse to
really cut lose with special effects and absolutely unbelievable
fight scenes. By contrast I hate it when movies that are supposed to
be based in the real world use cgi to accomplish something not
possible in the real world. But like I said that's not a problem for
superheroes. The rage Hugh Jackman shows during the movie really
sells the Wolverine fight scenes. Of course they did everything they
could to give Wolverine every reason in the world to be mad as
George S
Patton at a war protest march. Trust me on this if you were in
this movie and you were remotely nice to Logan, watch out because
the ax is about to fall on your head. I was also impressed
with how Gambit's powers were portrayed. Very awesome!
I also have to say, I appreciated the fact that
while we could enjoy massive amounts of destruction and action,
it
was always on to the next fight, and we weren't subjected to
lingering snapshots of bloody messes for 20 minutes at a time. Not
only would that have been a waste of time, but personally I like
action, but you can keep the blood and guts. Some might not like this,
but there was also missing a lot of blood from Wolverine's claws
which didn't bother me one bit. Who needs to see blood squirting out
everywhere to get he just clawed the bad guy.
Comedic Moments
There were a few light hearted moments thank goodness, and
really you know basically 90 percent of all movies that don't have
some kind of comedic relief flop or do poorly in the long haul. Kind
of like what happened to the first Hulk movie. Best laugh in
the whole movie happened when Wolverine gets into a boxing ring with
the Blob, Frederick J. Dukes, who was formerly a lot thinner when
Logan first knew him. It's hilarious watching Jackman box this
huge blob of a man, and then there's the dialogue. Funniest fight
humor since some of those old John Wayne movie fist fights.
This scene said to me this movie is a movie that men can watch and
enjoy. This movie wasn't afraid to have lots of testerosterone, and
of course there are critics out there that actually think that's a
bad thing.
The Critics
I've read some negative or so so reviews, and
I completely disagree. One said the movie wasn't brainy and socially
relevant like the first two X-men. Yeah, well this is about
Wolverine not
Professor X.
He's a man of war not somebody who sits around talking about the
state of the union and other such political matters. Besides
does every movie have to have social relevance to be enjoyable. It's
just my humble opinion, but movies that tend to be socially relevant
today are laughable ten years from now. Movies that stick to the
basics of entertainment have a lot greater staying power.
Other critics are fanboys that nitpick everything
they watch to death just to have something to talk about. Sometimes
you just got to enjoy life and go with it. I've read critiques of
mistakes you'd have to take a magnifying glass and practically
freeze the frame to find. Come on guys give it a rest.
Flaws - Small Spoiler Alert
Well just so you don't' think I'm on Fox's payroll. I did notice a
couple of things here and there that might could have been improved.
Charles Xavier's digital youth wasn't quite as realistic as X3's
version. Loved the bathroom scene where Logan first gets to know
his new
adamantium claws and destroys everything, but it did seem a
little off if you stare at the claws. I guess the brain can sense
cgi effects sometimes. Of course it's best if you don't know where
cgi is being applied. When
Stryker
says, he's going to shoot Wolverine and therefore he will not die,
but have will not have his memories intact, I thought it was just a
little off. Kind of like a Super Friends moment where they tell you
everything as they do it. Why not just have him go after Wolverine
with his adamantium bullets, shoot Wolverine, and let us be
surprised by the result instead of having him tell us ahead of time.
Bottom Line
It's a fun movie. The general movie goer is going to have to have a
great time. With a good ending you won't feel like you just wasted 2
hours of your life, and you won't feel depressed like some other
recent more dark superhero movies made me feel.
