Wolverine

Just got back from seeing X-Men Orgins: Wolverine with Thing One. I'd heard negative things about this movie from my favorite movie reviewer, Max On Movies. Max had pointed out on the radio that several things were considerably "off" in this movie as compared to the rest of the franchise. Things like the acting, special effects, and general flow with the comic-book storyline. For Max, this movie was a huge disappointment. So I didn't enter the theater today with high hopes.

As a fellow comic-book fan and Star Wars geek of epic proportions, as is Max, I can't really disagree with him when it comes to Wolverine. Max gave it 2 stars out of 5.

I'll give it 3, for my part. Three is being just a good movie, sure go see it. Should you pay full price to check this out at the theaters? Only if you are one of those people who, like me, believe that all your favorite "big" movies automatically deserve the big screen for proper viewing.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit.
It didn't knock my socks off and I'm certainly not a professional film critic - those lucky guys and gals! But I do agree with Max on a few points.

The special effects are hit and miss. Some of them are fantastic - everything you'd dream of - and some are hokey looking. It was odd. Wolverine's claws in a few scenes did look like a bad Photoshop job, as Max had put it, and I agree. Then there were other times that you totally believed they were real. What is up with that? Its a shame the editing wasn't better so things like this could be caught.

In regards to acting, I do think it could have been better. Hugh Jackman only needs to take his shirt off to impress the ladies (which he does a lot of that) but he's also a good actor - he didn't disappoint me in this and seems to really get into this role. It was cool to see him have his own movie just for this character. He really has grown into the role of bringing Wolverine alive.

The other actors I honestly didn't care about too much - never really got involved with them. Gambit is a great character but I really think they could have picked someone to play him better. The guy that did it, and I'm not going to even look up his name was very, very average. He had some cool moments but somone else playing the character I think could have done much more with those moments and really shined.

The story - well I'm not as big of a comic book or even book geek as I am a movie geek - but even at my level I knew they had things out of whack with the orginal Weapon X storyline.

So ultimately I agree with my fellow nerd Max. If you like just good action movies then go see this, particularly if you're just a casual fan of the X-men. If however you're a huge fan of the series, particularly from the comics standpoint, then you might want to catch this on DVD - and either way you're going to be disappointed.

Hugh gives a great Wolverine performance - maybe his best so far. He makes you believe it. There is another exception to the average acting ... Ryan Reynolds, who I think is hilarious - is also funny and creepy in this movie - it was great to see him play the part he did. EVERYBODY else - well wow, you just shoulda tried a tad harder.

I'm not sure if it is actors, directing or writing that limits the primary success of a film. However if Ian McKellan can pull off bad lines like "I thought you lived at a school" back in the original X-men movie then I think having better actors for this one could have pulled this all together and made it better than it is.

I hope that Hollywood doesn't start watering-down our comic-book movies. It's been a good run with these and others so far. One stumble does not a face-plant make.

Hollywood has an enormous fan base ready to give lots of their hard-earned green backs in trade for accurate representations of our heroes, heroins, and villians. We don't need perfect representations of them either. Just acceptably close. Get to 80% and we'll be quiet. But start in with the 50% stuff and we'll take our geek butts back to the comic shops instead.

Well there you have it. My little blogging corner of the world's review of X-Men Orgins: Wolverine.