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

Grade the movie, bud!


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I didn't mind Barry in the first X-Men film, but by the time the third one rolled around, her performance was painful to watch. An origins story for her? Seems unnecessary to me. I'd rather see an X-Men 4, or, perhaps, a movie that allows for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan to share some more screentime.
 
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.

Not to mention, Wolverine's character just drifted from one place to another in this film. The plot development was just plopped down. First he wants revenge on Creed, then he wants revenge on Stryker, then he learns his girlfriend, then he finds out it's a ruse, then he decided to go back and help her, then he decides to help out the other mutants.

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. They've really Hollywooded this character. Jackman's a fine actor but is way too much of a pretty boy for the character. Liev whatever his name is was fine though I think the character needed to be more deranged and sadistic.

There was a lot of silliness too. Wolverine in the bathroom with his claws and boxing with Blob. Wolverine can be quite humorous but isn't a character that lends itself to silliness. Then having Kayla spare Stryker for no other reason than to explain why he was in X-Men 2 might have been the dumbest scene in the movie.

Other points I didn't like...Logan agreeing to become Weapon X. A major part of his backstory was that it wasn't his choice. A reviewer thought it was too much of a coincidence that both characters has lost their memory by the time of the first movie. But if they had done it correctly, we would have seen they both lost their memory by being apart of something against their will. 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.

Like I said, there was some good here. The FX was incredible, especially at the end and with Scott's powers. It was very cool seeing Patrick Stewart appear at the end. I was not expecting it. In some areas, it does a good job of setting up the later films.

As for the other parts...liked Ryan Reynolds a lot as Deadpool. He was much better as Wade Wilson and should have been given a better role. Taylor "Tim Riggins" Kitsch was good as Gambit and his powers were cool. Nice to see Lost alums Dominec Merrigan (can't remember his name) and Kevin Durand.

If they're going to continue the mutant franchise, I hope they do a hell of a lot better job than this. Wolverine in Japan could be cool. I expect this film to have a monster opening weekend and then die at the box office the next week.
 
I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of X-Men lore, but how does Sabretooth go from looking mostly human to looking like the animal we saw in the first X-Men movie?
 
The director justified the different look by noting that comic book characters have looked differently over the years/different artists.
 
I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of X-Men lore, but how does Sabretooth go from looking mostly human to looking like the animal we saw in the first X-Men movie?

I doubt it "jives" with comic lore at all. It just plain boils down to different takes on the character.

We could "reason" that at "some time" between this movie and X1 Sabertooth undergoes a transformation or perhaps "procedure" that turns him into the animal he is.
 
I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of X-Men lore, but how does Sabretooth go from looking mostly human to looking like the animal we saw in the first X-Men movie?

I doubt it "jives" with comic lore at all. It just plain boils down to different takes on the character.

We could "reason" that at "some time" between this movie and X1 Sabertooth undergoes a transformation or perhaps "procedure" that turns him into the animal he is.

Fair enough. I just knew that he looked relatively normal when he was a child (at least he did in the FOX cartoon). I didn't know if there was an actual comic book explanation for it.
 
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

Stupid "video game" shots. Like the shot after agent 0 takes out the farm couple. Then the camera zooms across the farm to the sniper's hiding spot.
The final fight just HAD to be at the top of the nuclear plant.
Stupid shots like that took me WAY out of the movie. So I couldn't really appreciate alot of the action.
I'm a CGI guy but I can't stand how director's just put in shots b/c they look cool.
One cool sequence of shots (from a technical standpoint, not that it helped the story) was where Logan/Sabretooth and Weapon 11 were fighting. You had the camera moving around the actors, one character appearing/reappearing and the 2 primary actors responding to the disappearing/appearing weapon11.
Probably took some serious tracking, timing, retakes, and 3d characters.
And jeez.........even YOUNG people have wrinkles! They've had a couple years to refine the "young skin grafting effect" but it still looks terrible.
 
Editing gaffes......Logan knocks out Gambit right next to him, next we see Gambit jumping rooftops and coming back to Logan.WTF
Yeah, this scene bugged the crap out of me.

And maybe I'm just misinformed, but I didn't understand what they did with Gambit. From what I know of the character, he has the power to "charge" things and make them blow up.

I wasn't aware that he was also a super ninja (who can jump really really high) with the ability to levitate playing cards.
 
Editing gaffes......Logan knocks out Gambit right next to him, next we see Gambit jumping rooftops and coming back to Logan.WTF
Yeah, this scene bugged the crap out of me.

And maybe I'm just misinformed, but I didn't understand what they did with Gambit. From what I know of the character, he has the power to "charge" things and make them blow up.

I wasn't aware that he was also a super ninja (who can jump really really high) with the ability to levitate playing cards.
There were quite a few shots of this with Gambit.

Like I said, "video game" shots. Ugh
 
Editing gaffes......Logan knocks out Gambit right next to him, next we see Gambit jumping rooftops and coming back to Logan.WTF
Yeah, this scene bugged the crap out of me.

Yeah, that was a bit irksome. Logan knocks him out and then a few seconds later he's jumping towards them from a nearby rooftop -- Logan must be losing his touch! ;)
 
Wolverine opened well, but not stellar on Friday 5/1.
It has apparently made $35m for its opening day(I'd guess that is an estimate at this point and may be adjusted later).
If it holds it will be the 16th highest opening day tally.

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.
 
Wolverine opened well, but not stellar on Friday 5/1.
It has apparently made $35m for its opening day(I'd guess that is an estimate at this point and may be adjusted later).
If it holds it will be the 16th highest opening day tally.

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.
 
The most I can really muster for this film is "meh".

I guess it was better than X3, in so far as I was clear on what was happening and why. I watched X3 a couple of times, and I'm still not sure why a Lord of the Rings movie broke out at the end.
 
Editing gaffes......Logan knocks out Gambit right next to him, next we see Gambit jumping rooftops and coming back to Logan.WTF
Yeah, this scene bugged the crap out of me.

And maybe I'm just misinformed, but I didn't understand what they did with Gambit. From what I know of the character, he has the power to "charge" things and make them blow up.

I wasn't aware that he was also a super ninja (who can jump really really high) with the ability to levitate playing cards.
There were quite a few shots of this with Gambit.

Like I said, "video game" shots. Ugh

"It's nothing like the comics, here's my complaints".
Now we're getting "It's like the comics, here's my complaints!"

It's a wonder ANY movie gets made!

Gambit's mutant abilities also include heightened agility and reflexes. In the comics, they flat out say this (as well as showing it EVERY time he's in a fight) when the team is playing basketball outside, saying no use of powers, and Gambit says he can't turn that one off, so they just have to trust him.
 
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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.
 
1. They should have used more material from Origins (the limited comic series). Unless I missed something, James changing his name to Logan came out of the blue.

It was never mentioned on screen that Wolverine's father's name was Howlett and the gardener's name was Logan. For all we know these characters could have been named respectively Logan and Creed.
 
Yeah, this scene bugged the crap out of me.

And maybe I'm just misinformed, but I didn't understand what they did with Gambit. From what I know of the character, he has the power to "charge" things and make them blow up.

I wasn't aware that he was also a super ninja (who can jump really really high) with the ability to levitate playing cards.
There were quite a few shots of this with Gambit.

Like I said, "video game" shots. Ugh

"It's nothing like the comics, here's my complaints".
Now we're getting "It's like the comics, here's my complaints!"

It's a wonder ANY movie gets made!

Gambit's mutant abilities also include heightened agility and reflexes. In the comics, they flat out say this (as well as showing it EVERY time he's in a fight) when the team is playing basketball outside, saying no use of powers, and Gambit says he can't turn that one off, so they just have to trust him.
I just wish he had done more chucking cards at people than jumping around with his staff.
 
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