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

[Trekker4747]

At the end of X2, Stryker tells Wolverine that he wouldn't like who he was when he came to him. That "you were an animal then, you're an animal now...I just gave you claws." I don't know, he seemed like a pretty likable, affable guy who just happened to be a good soldier.

Then, of course, they had to retcon the bone claws. Just like in the comics!

Man, that movie sucked.

Yeah, they really could've gone a whole lot more "animalistic" with Wolverine's early days.

Stand-alone, I think it was OK but when scrutinized against the other movies and you come up with stuff like this.

It sucked.

 

[RoJoHen]

Gotta say I agree. And it sucks more the more I think about it.

 

[T'Baio]

Apparently, Stryker is a mutant, as well. His power is the ability to develop a Southern accent later in life.

Fail!

 

[Norrin Radd]

I've got it! Liev Schreiber Sabretooth mutated into Tyler Mane Sabretooth.

Do I get a No-prize?

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

How old is Gambit...seriously. I'm confused by the time line.

This movie felt so rushed it was ridiculous.

And man...WTF is with let's throw everyone in there? I hate Emma Frost. What a waste...

 

[exodus]

How old is Gambit...seriously. I'm confused by the time line.

This movie felt so rushed it was ridiculous.

And man...WTF is with let's throw everyone in there? I hate Emma Frost. What a waste...

Gambit never joins ther X-Men or meets Rogue, so what does the time line matter?

Yes, it did feel rushed. Which is ironic, considering they had plenty of time to work on it.

No telepathy, Silverfox's sister?, No Emma "Frost". She was Emma but not a Frost.

 

[T'Baio]

The Silverfox's sister part cracks me up. Yeah, that blonde haired, blue eyed broad sure looks like that Native First Nations chick's sister.

And apparently the Weapon X lab is a mutant as well, with same power as Mystique. Cause it sure changed its appearance over the years!

Epic...fail.

 

[Dark Gilligan]

Apparently, Stryker is a mutant, as well. His power is the ability to develop a Southern accent later in life.

Two lines of thought with this:

1. In the comics Stryker was not in the military, he was a pastor. A clergyman. His issue with the mutants was religious, not national security. Perhaps Singer wanted to keep at least some aspects of Stryker's original character in X2 and had him speak in a manner most closely associated with fundamentalist bible-belters.

2. Cox is a Brit. Maybe a Southern accent is the closest he can come to sounding American.

Either way, young Striker should have sounded like old Stryker. A pair of glasses wouldn't have hurt either.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I missed the post-credits scene when I saw the movie.

Is there a site somewhere where the different post-credit clips can be seen???

 

[Trekker4747]

Is there a site somewhere where the different post-credit clips can be seen???

Even if there was we couldn't tell you since no legal copy would exsist and linking to and directing to illegal sources is against board rules.

You didn't miss anything during the post-credits scene. It was either Wolverine drinking in a bar in China or Deathpool coming out of the collapsed cooling tower and "sushing" the audience.

 

[Captain Craig]

The Wednesday totals are in and Wolverine made just over $4m to bring its total to $99.1m+ in 6 days or what Iron Man made in 3days. It'll likely have a 7 day total of about $102m.

Be curious to see the impact Trek has on it this weekend. Its possible its drop may not exceed 65% due to so many Thursday night showings from 7pm onwards. It could pick up viewers not wanting to hit the Trek crowd or who held off intentionally(I know a couple like this).

 

[DarthPipes]

Most films bleed off more than half their audience in the second week and I expect Wolverine to do the same. If it makes more than $40 million, I'll be surprised.

 

[Trekker4747]

Most films bleed off more than half their audience in the second week and I expect Wolverine to do the same. If it makes more than $40 million, I'll be surprised.

Star Trek is going to slaughter it this weekend.

 

[Captain Craig]

Most films bleed off more than half their audience in the second week and I expect Wolverine to do the same. If it makes more than $40 million, I'll be surprised.

Yeah, I know that. It's why I stated around a drop of 65% in my post.

It'll do good to hit $30m, low 30's at best. I saw Star Trek last night and it was great. If it gets the WOM it deserves it'll be like the previews said, "This years Iron Man".

 

[Captaindemotion]

I gave it an A-minus. Was going to give it a B but I was surprised to enjoy it as much as I did, perhaps due to low expectations, caused by the negative buzz about it.

What I liked:

- The nod to the Origins storyline, but compressing it into a few minutes, whereas the comic story was drawn out and anti-climactic;
- the montage of Logan and Victor fighting in various wars, culminating in their 'execution' by firing squad;
- the filming and look of the movie was quite distintive, as was the scenery;
- Jackman, as always, was brilliant as Wolvie while Liev Schreiber was nearly as good;
- Ryan Reynolds;
- Gambit, who I don't really like in the comics;
- lots of mutant cameos;
- great action scenes.

What I didn't like:

- How awful was the de-aging effect on Patrick Stewart? He looked like a waxwork dummy. The same effect was more convincing in X3;
- Some dodgy changes of tone. One minute, you have the slaughter of the elderly couple, the next, you have a tongue-in-cheek fight with the Blob;
- Stryker was not at all consistent with his X2 version, even if Danny Huston was fine in the role. It was also hard to accept that Schreiber turns into Tyler Mane. Such are the problems of prequels;
Time line made no sense. Presumably Stryker recruits Logan and Sabretooth in Vietnam, so the rest of the movie takes place no later than 1981. The Long Island climax suggests that it might be 1979. So how can the Scott Summers of the X-Men movies be about 18 or so, as he was in this movie? Is he a 40-something in Singer's first movie? And what age is Gambit?
- In similar vein, there was little attention to period detail - the shirt of the young man at the carnival aside, the movie never looked like the 1970s or 80s;
-Too little Ryan Reynolds and what's the point in having an actor so good with a one -liner and giving him no dialogue at the end?

Despite all that, I felt that it was a better movie than X-Men or X3, if not as good as X2. I'll go see a sequel, but I'd prefer that it was set post X-3 than before X-Men.

 

[Captain Craig]

The Thursday totals are in and Wolverine made $3.4m which many suspect indicates that the Thursday 7pm Star Trek showings delivered an earlier hit to Wolverine than anticipated.

All said though it crossed the $100m mark with $102.6m making it the 31st fastest movie to cross that mark.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine reminded me of that Kurt Russel movie "Soldier", in that I liked the first 15 minutes (the intros) far more than the rest of the movie. The battle montages made this look like it could've been great, instead it's mediocre.

That said I liked Schreiber and Danny Huston better in their roles than Mane or Cox (who seemed to ooze snide villainy and never came across as an ex-military officer).

Oh, and the reveal...

Spoiler: Wolverine

Stryker's base being Three Mile Island...was pretty blah...like Alcatraz...IT HAS TO BE SOME PLACE PEOPLE HEARD OF. Whatever.

Enough with the post credits scenes....all you do is make movie ushers annoyed waiting for people to leave the theater.

 

[Aragorn]

The latest I'm a Marvel and I'm a DC with Watchmen and Wolverine, with some funny shots at the Wolverine movie.

 

[Captain Craig]

Weekend estimates are in for Wolverine's second weekend and vs Star Trek. It seems to have had an about average drop for frontloaded films in summer of this nature. In other words an acceptable drop to haul in $27m bringing its estimated total to $129.6m in 11 days. This time next weekend it will surpass its $150m budget figure for sure.

 

[Neopeius]

I liked it. Solid movie. This from a Bronze Age Marvel fan.