Day Late, Eight Dollars Short - X-Men Origins: Wolverine

NewClassic_v1legacy

Bringer of Words
Jul 30, 2008
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http://www.collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/X_Men_Origins_Wolverine/xmen_origins_wolverine_movie_poster_international.jpg
Ever since The Dark Knight, it has seemed to me that every comic book movie has had some shoes to fill. Which, I'll admit, seems completely unfair to the comic-book-movie genre to begin with. Not every movie will have such a high budget and high quality cast, and not every film will need such depth to it. Which is the mindset I walked into Wolverine with, and exactly the mindset that got me through it.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a story focused on the background of the featured character, Wolverine. Deviating slightly from the comic book storyline, the story deals with Wolverine's early mutant powers, and how he comes to gain his iconoclastic metal claws and metal skeleton. The story follows the original storyline for the most part, and covers all of the necessary information without taking any wrong turns with the liberties of the story.

The cast includes series of performers which fit into their roles as comfortably as gloves, with Hugh Jackman playing an incredibly convincing and personable lead role. I was also impressed by Taylor Kitsch's (Gambit) dedication to the New Orleans accent, and reproducing it incredibly accurately. Despite the cast fitting the roles perfectly, the script itself left a lot to be desired, and ending up dragging down the stellar job the actors and actresses were doing.

Despite that, the story itself made for a capable (though certainly not stellar) movie, threading one fight and action sequence to the next in a simple and relaxed pace, making the movie's progress quite comfortable for both the audience and the plot. The only part where the story hiccuped is the dialogue, which felt stiff at best and completely forced at worst.

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/x-men-origins-wolverine-image1.jpg
The action and fight sequences were really the cost of the movie ticket, and it lived up to its cost very well. The action was "energetic", and never really felt like it was being coreographed or filmed in a movie. The more feral aspect of Wolverine's and Sabertooth's characters made for a very convincing series of fights. Most of the individual fights were very well done. Although the individual versus machine fights felt much more unreasonable, and pumped a little too much Hollywood. Especially when Wolverine had to go against a helicopter.

Fans of the comic series are going to recognize a lot of familiar faces, but will probably be somewhat upset by their remarkably short screentime. No character aside from Wolverine and Sabertooth are primary features, and many of them see little action aside from very short sequences. Although for what little screen time they're given, the characters aren't misrepresented. This is certainly another shout of praise for the cast, which did very well with the faces many viewers already knew before stepping into the theater.

Sadly, direction in the film managed to detract quite a bit from the overall experience. Looking up at the poster, you'll have a good idea of how dramatic the entire film tried to be. Every bit of drama was wrung dry, shot dramatically, and then had special effects added to make the scene more dramatic and emotive. The end result seemed to jump the gun on an already overly dramatic film.

Oh, and fan service. Lots of fan service.

Bottom Line: Even if you're not into comic books, it's a good movie that does a lot right, including a very likable cast of actors and characters.

Recommendation: Go see it. Just expect lots of Hugh Jackman in various states of undress.
 

pantsoffdanceoff

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Jun 14, 2008
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" Not [b/]every[/b] movie will have such a high budget and high quality cast, and not every film will need such depth to it"

hur hur hur. I was planning to watch this Movie but it's nice to know that they seemed to get the characters right. Was it "this rack in this outfit" as Movie Bob suggested?
 

Labyrinth

Escapist Points: 9001
Oct 14, 2007
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"...reproducing it incredibly accurately."

Blah to adverbs! Blah!

Aside from that, very good work.

This was always going to me a movie weighed down by the pressures of Hollywood. It's a blockbuster. They want to wank their special effects and drama as much as possible. God knows that's the only way they sell movies these days.
 

ultimatechance

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Dec 24, 2008
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Great review as always, but lately I haven't actually seen you recommend passing on the said movie/game. Seeing all the hate surrounding this movie, I thought that this would be it.

Grow a pair and go hate something Nuke jklolololololololol.
 

NewClassic_v1legacy

Bringer of Words
Jul 30, 2008
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pantsoffdanceoff said:
" Not every movie will have such a high budget and high quality cast, and not every film will need such depth to it"

hur hur hur. I was planning to watch this Movie but it's nice to know that they seemed to get the characters right. Was it "this rack in this outfit" as Movie Bob suggested?
Fixed, thanks for the heads up.

And she wasn't just to fill up a cleavage quota, though she really didn't have much of a part at all.

Labyrinth said:
This was always going to me a movie weighed down by the pressures of Hollywood. It's a blockbuster. They want to wank their special effects and drama as much as possible. God knows that's the only way they sell movies these days.
It's more about doing things more dramatically than entirely necessary, not so much with explosions as it is with CGed stormy skies and super-dramatic camera angles, dramatic chords in music, etc.

ultimatechance said:
Great review as always, but lately I haven't actually seen you recommend passing on the said movie/game. Seeing all the hate surrounding this movie, I thought that this would be it.
Actually, I've only written one negative review, and it was fairly recently. The reason is I don't have a lot of money, and tend to only buy and play games I know will be good. If it turns out being one of those unhappy accidents (high marks, I didn't enjoy it), I either didn't play it enough to be able to review it or put it aside long ago and don't remember enough to review.

If I did it professionally, it'd be a different story. If you really want to see a negative review, I can always do one on Indigo Prophecy.

Wouldukindly said:
I just came back from seeing it, and I greatly enjoyed it. The only downside was that Deadpool's incredibly fun and interesting personality was barely revealed, and then later
completely removed. I mean, turning a Ryan Reynolds' character into a mouthless automaton? Realistically, you could have had Deadpool retain his personality but still work for Stryker. The fight on Three Mile Island would have been far more jazzed up if you had Reynolds spewing dozens of sarcastic comments. I mean, who wouldn't want to see Deadpool slowly dying, only to turn to the camera, break the fourth wall and say 'That's all, folks!'
The thing about it is I went into this movie expecting some changes. Although Deadpool wasn't the same character as the comics, but he had a part to play and did so fairly well. It wasn't the worst I'd ever seen, and aside from not being his comic counterpart, wasn't at all bad.

If it was an original character, people wouldn't have made a big deal. I went into the movie with that expectation for every character, and it made the entire experience that much better. Comic book movies need to stop being their comic book movies, and start being movies. The fact that these are faces we've seen before doesn't mean we have to expect these to be comics transposed to film. Why can't they be their own films?

If you want the original comic, read the comic. If you're going to a movie, expect something other than the comic. It'll make everything better.

xmetatr0nx said:
Thank you, you actually review things unlike that movie bob guy.
Sure thing, as I don't really like Movie Bob's style. I've been told I have a really dry and formal style, which I agree with. I plan on cleaning it up to make it less dry and a little more entertaining, but I'm working on making it better.

Though, I don't think I'll ever be like Movie Bob.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Well, I wanna see. Never read the comics, so canon and shit don't matter. Deadpool was cool in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and I know nothing other than what was in that game. Looks like the first time I'm going to the movies in over a year.
 

Pimppeter2

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Dec 31, 2008
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Wouldukindly said:
I just came back from seeing it, and I greatly enjoyed it. The only downside was that Deadpool's incredibly fun and interesting personality was barely revealed, and then later
completely removed. I mean, turning a Ryan Reynolds' character into a mouthless automaton? Realistically, you could have had Deadpool retain his personality but still work for Stryker. The fight on Three Mile Island would have been far more jazzed up if you had Reynolds spewing dozens of sarcastic comments. I mean, who wouldn't want to see Deadpool slowly dying, only to turn to the camera, break the fourth wall and say 'That's all, folks!'
I know! *Cries*
 

OneHP

Optimist Laureate
Jan 31, 2008
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I thought Liev Schreiber was great in this as well, and the Sabretooth character much better overall than the one in X Men.
 

scotth266

Wait when did I get a sub
Jan 10, 2009
5,202
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Oi... I liked Indigo Prophecy (up till the last quarter, which shouldn't have been in that game). As far as this movie goes... I don't care. The X-Man franchise has been sort of awkward in film format. It just didn't take to it as well as Spider-Man, Iron Man, or the Batman franchises did.
 

cobra_ky

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Nov 20, 2008
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NewClassic said:
If I did it professionally, it'd be a different story. If you really want to see a negative review, I can always do one on Indigo Prophecy.
yes plz!

NewClassic said:
Wouldukindly said:
I just came back from seeing it, and I greatly enjoyed it. The only downside was that Deadpool's incredibly fun and interesting personality was barely revealed, and then later
completely removed. I mean, turning a Ryan Reynolds' character into a mouthless automaton? Realistically, you could have had Deadpool retain his personality but still work for Stryker. The fight on Three Mile Island would have been far more jazzed up if you had Reynolds spewing dozens of sarcastic comments. I mean, who wouldn't want to see Deadpool slowly dying, only to turn to the camera, break the fourth wall and say 'That's all, folks!'
The thing about it is I went into this movie expecting some changes. Although Deadpool wasn't the same character as the comics, but he had a part to play and did so fairly well. It wasn't the worst I'd ever seen, and aside from not being his comic counterpart, wasn't at all bad.

If it was an original character, people wouldn't have made a big deal. I went into the movie with that expectation for every character, and it made the entire experience that much better. Comic book movies need to stop being their comic book movies, and start being movies. The fact that these are faces we've seen before doesn't mean we have to expect these to be comics transposed to film. Why can't they be their own films?
i disagree. i was actually pretty impressed with ryan reynolds but i think
weapon XI was ridiculous regardless of whether he was deadpool or not. hell, you never would have known it was deadpool if the other characters hadn't kept bringing it up. but i don't see how anyone could like a personality-less deus ex machina who despite having literally EVERY MUTANT POWER EVER somehow fails to use more than one at a time. and why didn't he have an adamantium skeleton? or turn into diamond, since emma frost was there? and don't even get me started on Stryker typing commands into his brain while watching through his eyes somehow. Weapon XI could have just as easily been a robot and it would've made a hell of a lot more sense.

excuse the rant. other than and some minor issues about silverfox's character i actually thought it was a surprisingly decent movie. i was expecting it to be even worse than X3.
 

duchaked

New member
Dec 25, 2008
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I thought the movie was pretty great. I mean, for me personally, the "feel" of it was just right (I did have worries about it before, but the events were laid out in a respectable way).
 

KittywifaMohawk

New member
Aug 17, 2008
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Great review I have to say.
I saw this movie last night, and the actors did hit the characters very accurately. I'm not a big fan of the comic book though.
I, all and all, thought it was a good movie. Worth the $8 I spent on it.
If you're into action movies, I'd say go and watch this, and if you're into the comic book, once again, I'd say go and watch it.
 

PurpleRain

New member
Dec 2, 2007
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I haven't seen it yet, but may do it soon just for a bit of action. I will never see it as a good movie though, but I would like to throw this out there, something I tell everyone.

This guy: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1737850/ taught me sound in college.

Oh and no one will ever do justice to Sabertooth. He is way too cool, too hairy and too savage for mere men. I will pout in my little nerdy way until they eventually make him haw he should be.
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
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I thought they failed at the whole "fan service" aspect myself...

If you're going to throw in characters purely as "fan nods" you may as well do it right, which this film most certainly did not.

I also very much disliked the excess of characters with "Action Movie" super powers like Wade (Deadpool) or Agent Zero, it always strikes me as exceedingly lazy on the part of the film makers. One of the things that makes X-men and X2 so good is seeing all these individuals with unique super powers fight in different ways.