Saturday, May 02, 2009

Wolverine- The Movie


My sister and I had a rare date to see a movie - we were going to see Crank 2, but when we arrived at the theater, pretty much only Wolverine (or "X-Men 4") was playing- so of course we just had to go see it. I think it was really well done, fairly faithful to the comics, but they added some other hoohah that included origins of other mutants as well- even, so, it worked. 
Liev Schreiber was amazingly evil and creepy, and Hugh Jackman was terrific and....gosh, yummy and nekkid. This is a pretty violent movie- definitely not for the kids and we were kind of amazed it didn't get an R rating. (I bet a full-frontal of Mr. Jackman would have done that, though, because we all know sex is bad, but violence is ok...)  
The actions scenes were fantastic and intense! The theater we were in was super loud, and really enhanced those scenes! The photography was a bit odd, but not distractingly so- the beginning sequence with the credits was gorgeous, but there were some odd shots that made everyone look a little too bronze and shiny and then some shots that looked like they were made-for-TV-movie planned. But it was still great. There was a lot of potential-spin-off/sequel-to-come bits that happened at the end of the movie, which makes it not really stand on its own.

Warning- potential spoiler alert! 


I do have a few beefs though: Logan's wife is Emma Frost's sister? That was a little desperate, but I like that Logan's wife did get a juicier role than in the comics.   

Admittedly, Gambit is one of my least favorite characters, but the kid who played him (Taylor Kitsch) sucked in that bland, Vanilla-Pudding/Ben Affleck kind of suckiness. There was nothing interesting or compelling about him, he was outclassed (even by Will. I. Am.) and didn't Gambit have a French accent? Well, not this one, apparently.  

I also felt the immense amount of info we're given as part of the origins of other mutants was too much too near to the end of the movie. All in all, I will most likely go see it again (actually, I kind of have to as I promised to see it with two other people) and I think I may have a different take on it the second time around- I did have to explain things to my sister, plus I thought this would flow with the previous three X-Men movies, but it didn't.

3.5 crowns out of 5, with Mr. Jackman's buns earning 5 crowns out of 5.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, I couldn't disagree more
Kitsch's portrayal of Gambit was one of the few good things in this movie, his take on the character was SPOT ON. Straight from the comics.

The Queen said...

Dear Anonymous-

Kitsch did not have the ridiculous "Cajun" accent - how could the portrayal be 'spot on'?

I think the Gambit character is tacky and useless and it has never failed to amaze me he wasn't killed off years ago.

C. Margery Kempe said...

We always called him Gam-Butt!

The Queen said...

Hahaha- so appropriate!

CL said...

The movie was great...and I liked Gambit just fine! I don't understand why people don't like him in the comics. I think he's a cool character.

As for the rest of the movie...I was very happy with it! ESPECIALLY lots of scenes of naked and semi-naked Hugh. I will not deny the fact that my main reason for seeing the movie was for Hugh Jackman.

And despite Jackman, it was still a good comic movie. It served the purpose...a good time escapist action flick. A good popcorn chomper!

The Queen said...

I thought you'd like it, Cranky! I hope they do make a sequel that features Wolverine's time in Japan- one of my favorite story lines.

I always felt Gambutt was just a lame male version of Storm....ma cherie....