X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Movie Discussion and Grading (SPOILERS)

[Dick Whitman]

The beginning felt rushed to me. It didn't seem like the movie starting going at a "reasonable pace" until the story fast-forwarded to Lumberjack-Logan. The opening credits were pretty good, but I was hoping to see more of the war stuff.

I think the movie should have started with Logan as a Lumberjack. With the information in those earlier scenes shown in heavily edited flashbacks through out the film. All that stuff was episodic and random anyways.

They present Logan before Weapon X as a normal guy with secrets. Well that would have been far more effective if that past is kind of vague. As it is there is no sense of what his life is at all. Just a guy who willingly fights in war after war for a century THEN he finally tires of being a solider....

That credit montage was very similar to the one in Watchmen. While showing back story from the comics, its not relevant to the actual story being told. It would have been far more effective to have an extended opening action sequence showing Logan and Creed as government agents on their last mission together. Similar to Goldeneye.

 

[Trekker4747]

C

Stupid plot.

"Brothers stick together"....but Sabretooth betrays Logan. Hmm

Editing gaffes......Logan knocks out Gambit right next to him, next we see Gambit jumping rooftops and coming back to Logan.WTF

Yeah I caught that and during the final battle Sabertooth just appears on top of the cooling tower to save Wolverine from being de-capped. Because, he just climbed an entire cooling tower and came up right next to Wolvie and Weapon XI withou them noticing? Right.

 

[DarthPipes]

C-. I was not impressed with this film. It wasn't bad at parts but I thought the story was a mess. When we learn Kayla was working with Stryker, I thought the whole story came crashing down. It was Sabertooth murdering her that was the genesis of their intense hatred and rivalry and learning that it was just a ruse really undercut that rivalry.

Nope, it was Creed being second fiddle to Wolverine, and Wolverine leaving the group that was the genesis of the hatred. The rivalry has always been fueled by Sabretooth, even in the comics. He's the one always hunting Wolverine down every year to lay the smack-down on him just to show that he can.

Another problem I had was with the character of Wolverine itself. He's way too soft. The comic character is moodier and won't hold back from killing someone unless he has a valid reason.

This is Wolverine's past, before his memory loss. The comic character first appeared when all of this had already happened, all of this had already changed. You can't compare the two, people change, him most of all, that was the point of the movie. Where his untrusting moody nature comes from (or at least, some of the reasons for it)

Also, if you're going to introduce Emma Frost, do it the correct way. Introduce her as a major villain and then make her turn good. Also, Emma Frost is a telepath. Plain and simple. Her turning her body into metal was a secondary mutation that occured years later.

Emma Frost in the comics, yes. Emma Frost in a movie universe where Gambit is 20 years older than Cyclops, or Stryker is a military general, and not a pastor, no. TOTALLY different ballgame.


I'm not meaning to center you out at all, I just find a lot of "criticisms" silly and out of context. Especially the "But the comics..." ones, when the first scene of the first movie shows that it's a different universe following its own rules and timelines. And then the other "But the comics..." complaints that are based on an incomplete knowledge of the source material.

REALLY liked the movie, by the way. Was very surprised by it, especially since all I had been reading before was that this movie made Elektra look Oscar worthy.

Well, I feel that the comics are the better version of the story and I think that movie adaptation often make crappier versions of established stories and characters. Emma Frost is a great example. One of the truely big and interesting characters in X-Men is reduced to a five-minute, useless character when she's far more compelling.

As for the story, I felt it was a complete mess. It didn't seem like it knew where to go and I thought fell apart when we learn that Silver Fox was in on the whole thing. I didn't feel the rivalry at all with Logan and Creed. It wasn't life-or-death it was just petty sibling rivalry shit. Although at least Creed was better than the one-dimensional bore he was in the original movie.

I stand by the assertion that Wolverine is too soft. He holds back on killing, which is something he wouldn't do in the movies. He's too Hollywood, coming across as a generic good guy and Jackman is way too much of a pretty boy to be playing him. Scenes with him as Wolverine howling in fury were absolutely embarrassing.

 

[Fedaykin]

As for the story, I felt it was a complete mess. It didn't seem like it knew where to go and I thought fell apart when we learn that Silver Fox was in on the whole thing. I didn't feel the rivalry at all with Logan and Creed. It wasn't life-or-death it was just petty sibling rivalry shit. Although at least Creed was better than the one-dimensional bore he was in the original movie.

I stand by the assertion that Wolverine is too soft. He holds back on killing, which is something he wouldn't do in the movies. He's too Hollywood, coming across as a generic good guy and Jackman is way too much of a pretty boy to be playing him. Scenes with him as Wolverine howling in fury were absolutely embarrassing.

Yeah, they definitely pump up the heroic aspects of Wolverine without really delving into his ugly beserker side, but I think Jackman is a pretty good choice for a hollywood version, although before X1 I always though Kurt Russel would have been a good choice, mucta really been into Snake Plissken at the time.

The problem with this movie is that there was really interesting stuff in it, but it was given short shrift. Logan and Creed fighting in all those wars? Cooll! They gloss over it in the credits, which were interesting and told a nice story.

Not much emotion in this film, you don't care that Wolvie's girl is "dead", you don't care she's alive, and since that was the driving force of Wolverine going to Weapon X, it made the movie lose some gas for me.

That, and laugh out loud bad effects and editing...those phoney-baloney metal claws in the bathroom scene, ugh, is there some reason these claws had to be CGI most if not all of this movie? They looked pretty unconvincing.
Even my 9 year old son laughed at the meat puppet Professor X...simply awful. The reason they pulled it off well in X3 is that is was lit somewhat moodily, you could hide the flaws. They just kinda plopped him in the scene.

The other thing that got a luagh in my theatre was the "adamantium bullet" scene. Is Wolverine the wolf man now? Why would it erase his memory? Why not the part of the brain that controls breathing or bowel control? The X-Men trilogy could have been about Wolverine trying to remember how not to piss himself.

Grade D, they took the most interesting character in the X universe and made hime lame and ordinary.

 

[Ethros]

A lot of people have mentioned the Sabretooth problem of connecting this with the X-Trilogy, but has anyone got any thoughts on the Alkali Lake thing?
I thought in X2 it implied that was where Wolverine had his upgrade, but that didn't look like Alkali Lake in this movie

 

[Captain Craig]

A film that was leaked in its entirity before launch and downloaded by a large, large number of people having one of the top 20 highest openings ever isnt "stellar"?

No, cause it should've been in the top 10. No doubt the leak cost it anywhere from $7-15m due to the downloads.

I saw it this afternoon and will write something up later.

Economy isnt that great either remember. Some people could be holding off.

Economy is a non factor. Movie business is up same time over last year and no significant ticket hikes account for that. People are going to the movies cause its more affordable than concerts, stage theater, amusement parks or trips(hotel,air,rental car etc).
The online leak is a valid complaint the studio could make, the economy is not.
You can read the whole thing, and its a Regal Theater shareholder meeting but this quote states industry as a whole.

On a calendar basis, industry Box Office showed growth in 10 of the first 13 weeks of 2009, and benefited from both high grossing films with five films grossing more than $100 million, compared to just two films last year and from depth in the films slate with 17 films grossing more than $50 million, compared to only 15 films in the first quarter of 2008.

Wolverine made $87m, estimated, over its opening three-day weekend.
It'll be over $100m by the time Trek opens so on its $150m budget FOX can claim success already.

A lot of people have mentioned the Sabretooth problem of connecting this with the X-Trilogy, but has anyone got any thoughts on the Alkali Lake thing?
I thought in X2 it implied that was where Wolverine had his upgrade, but that didn't look like Alkali Lake in this movie

There was one shot, a long distance shot from a tree line as you come off the waterfall scene, that does show the damn holding back the lake that is seen in X:2. Is on the left side of the screen. If I hadn't been on the 3rd row and so close I might have missed that staging shot as well. Just because we didn't see the waterfalls in X:2 and many haven't seen the damn apparently people are calling foul.


My grade for this was a B

I was going to write something up but instead will just say I don't think Ryan Reynolds Slade Wilson is dead. Just cause Stryker said so doesn't make it so(pun intended). The Weapon XI/Deadpool character is played by another actor entirely.

Thought the CGI deaged Patrick Stewart wasn't done as well as in X:3. How is that? Did Gavin Hood not get to use the same program?

A few other minor personal quibbles that don't affect the story told. It was entertaining and served its purpose as a popcorn action flick with enough consistency to make it engaging.

Looking forward to Madripoor!! At least I hope that is the impmlication post-credits.

 

[RoJoHen]

I did notice the dam in this movie, and I assumed that was meant to imply that it was indeed Alkali Lake. I did think it was kind of weird that they didn't mention the name, though.

 

[Hoshi's sis]

Saw it on Saturday with my two sons and we really enjoyed it.

Freaking awsome was the result from both of them.

Not having read any of the comics before, we were a bit confused at the end as to why Professor Xavior was not in his wheelchair. When did he loose the ability to walk?

 

[Endymion]

I just finished my review.

http://moveitmoveit.wordpress.com

 

[captcalhoun]

considering Xavier's looked different in X-3 to X-1, having Alkali Lake look different between XMOW and X-2 is nothing.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

Wow.

That was bad.

I mean really bad.

Bad acting - from some very good actors. Horrible dialog. Poor Jackman looked embarrassed half the time to have to be saying that shit. Logan's character progression was ridiculous. They seemed to be trying for some kind of tension between his good and bad side, but his good side was cornball and his bad side was contrived. Stryker was laughable as a villain, not that I blame the actor for that one. The plot made no sense whatsoever. What were there - five or six acts? And not a single one fully developed. Even the action sequences were lackluster and uninspired.

I am stunned at the badness of it all. I mean, when I heard about the massive reshoots I figured things had gone pretty far wrong, but who knew they could go so far wrong that the flick comes off like a fan fiction shot for $150 mil?

Ironically, I think this movie may be one of the more faithful superhero movies out there though. It struck me as capturing everything that has bogged down superhero comics - five second characterization, twisting a story so as to make it fit continuity rather than letting what happens be dictated by the internal logic of the story, emotional beats that are delivered in one line and have no impact on the characters other than to drive the next plot checkpoint. Wolverine needs a reason to be pissed. Hey, that's easy, go for the old standby - kill his girlfriend. We'll establish their passionate love by having them embrace for two seconds on a mountainside - that will carry a ton of emotional impact!

And people said X3 sucked. This reminds me of nothing so much as those old Steve Reeves Hercules movies and makes X3 look like a serious take on the conflicts of war a la Bridge on the River Kwai in comparison.

It's been a while since I've seen a movie that utterly inept.

 

[Trekker4747]

CGI PS looked odd.

I'd almost dare say he looked too perfect and clean and almost... Asian.

 

[DarthPipes]

Jackman is Broadway Wolverine. He seemed to show more energy giving Barbara Walters a lap dance on one of her specials.

Not much emotion in this film, you don't care that Wolvie's girl is "dead", you don't care she's alive, and since that was the driving force of Wolverine going to Weapon X, it made the movie lose some gas for me.

Exactly. Did anyone really care about this relationship with Fox when it was proven to be a total fraud? It gutted the story.

$87 million. That seems about right. They had lowered expectations to as low as $70 million, stating it was a spin-off film of a movie that had two sequels. I think it's going to take a massive drop next year and I'd be surprised if it grossed $40 million in week 2. Star Trek is definitely taking the top spot.

 

[Sagart]

Just saw it tonight.

Boy, did it suck!!

 

[BenRoethig]

Got back from it. The film is pretty solid. There's plenty of action and it's never dull. Just don't read too much into the plot. However I have one really really huge problem with the film: Deadpool.

I am a massive fan of the character Deadpool in the comics, and Ryan Reynold is great as him.....for the whole five minutes he's in the film. When he comes back later, Deadpool is some stupid abomination that bears absolutely no resemblance to the Deadpool I know and love. WHAT THE FUCK?????? Why do they take a beloved character and turn him into something absolutely unrelated to the source? I just have to tell myself that wasn't Deadpool. That was some wierd ass experiment and the real Wade Wilson is alive and well and still mouthing off.

Spoiler: very spoiler laden response

I think you're going to hear a lot more of Ryan in the dead pool movie (he's not dead as he's seen reaching for his head in an after credit scene.) Also this does offer an explanation for the mask.

Secondly, this version of Sabertooth is irreconcillable with the version from the first X-men film. I'm just going to have to think of them as seperate characters. There's absolutely no way they can be the same person.

The only way I can explain Sabertooth in the first film is that he had to be the subject of a later mind control experiment by Striker and was later liberated by Magneto who didn't mind using victor in that state to futher his own ends. Hopefully will be explained in the Magneto movie.

 

[Trekker4747]

So do I understand correctly that Fox has to make an X-Men movie every couple years to keep the movie license?

 

[T'Baio]

That's why they called Wolverine "X-Men Origins." They need to set it up as an X-Men title to retain the rights so they don't revert back to Marvel. I was almost hoping Wolverine would bomb so that would happen, and then Marvel could do it right.

 

[Thrall]

That's why they called Wolverine "X-Men Origins." They need to set it up as an X-Men title to retain the rights so they don't revert back to Marvel. I was almost hoping Wolverine would bomb so that would happen, and then Marvel could do it right.

I'd rather they do the actual X-Men right.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

eventually Marvel will get the rights to the X Men franchise and we will get a full reboot. Give it 10 years.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Ironically, I think this movie may be one of the more faithful superhero movies out there though. It struck me as capturing everything that has bogged down superhero comics - five second characterization, twisting a story so as to make it fit continuity rather than letting what happens be dictated by the internal logic of the story, emotional beats that are delivered in one line and have no impact on the characters other than to drive the next plot checkpoint.

This is amazingly close to my thoughts as watching the film as well. This perfectly illustrates the problems with modern superhero comics. Also a lesson as to why it is necessary to ignore convoluted continuity and publishing history to make good movies.