main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Wolverine (X-Men Origins: Wolverine & The Wolverine)

Discussion in 'Archive: SF&F: Films and Television' started by Son of the Suns, Mar 30, 2006.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon

    Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 17, 2000
    I also really enjoyed X3, but I thought Wolverine was a mess.

    I have a friend who is a huge Wolverine fan and thought X3 was a major disappointment, but after seeing Wolverine he said X3 was a pretty good movie relatively speaking.
     
  2. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    It's funny how all over the map reaction to the movie has been. i saw it a second time on Sunday with some friends I was visiting who hadn't seen it yet (and I was hoping to get the Deadpool ending, but alas, only got the Japan one again), and when I was talking about the movie's quality (way better than X3, not as good as X1 & X2) from what "I had heard" (I didn't reveal to them that I had seen it already), one of their friends' present (who wasn't joining us for the movie due to work) had said that his one friend who had seen it say we definitely wouldn't be dissapointed, and that, duh, even he could have made an X3 better than The Last Stand.

    So, you have:

    -People who liked X3 that hated Wolverine.
    -People who liked X3 that liked Wolverine.
    -People who hated X3 that liked Wolverine.
    -People who hated X3 that hated Wolverine.
    -And everything inbetween.
     
  3. Obi-Wan2001

    Obi-Wan2001 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 6, 2001
    I'm with Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon. I also enjoyed X3, and found "Wolverine" to be a major mess. A colossal disappointment, actually. It's, by far, the least of the four films. Least skillfully directed, least engaging, least entertaining, least interesting. I was shocked just how uninteresting they were able to make the character of Wolverine in this.
     
  4. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Ok, comic books and continuity? these are two terms that are virtually antithetical. Come on, wolverine was a one-shot character for an issue of hulk.
    "Let's send hulk up to canada."
    "uh, ok. What's he do there."
    "Don' know. Maybe he can fight a beaver?"
    "How about a wolverine?"
    "How about a mutant named wolverine?"
    "OK, sounds good. What's Wolverine's mutant power?"
    And the comics retcon and rewrite their history every 5 years or so anyway. Remember when Prof X died, and was replaced by his son? Huh?

    So all the arguments about the movies not following the comics should just be thrown out the window. Seriously. Right now. It would be totally impossible to follow all of the comic book histories and create a coherent movie.

    Which is what Wolverine tried to do: obey all the existing origins.
    So, is it a good movie: no.
    Is it a bad movie: no.
    It is a movie that pays lots of tribute to the geekism of comic-book culture with many, many side references, small plot points, and occasional dialog while trying to create a movie that fits in with the previous movies and tells a new tale to keep the comic-geek fan-boy target audience from being bored.

    No for technical points:
    The claws were an occasional problem.
    The shakey-cam during the fight outside the bar really annoyed the hell out of me. What's the point of fight choreography if the camera is going to shake all over the place so the audience can't see it? I hate shakey-cam, especially when it is combined with undercranking.
    Overcranking was way overused in the fight vs the military equipment. Slo-mo gets old very quickly. Used 5 or 6 times in rapid succession is just unwise.
    By far the worst effect was Xavier showing up at the end. It looked like a bad CGI overlay of Patrick Stewart's face onto another person's body. Was he even there, or did they green-screen him in?
    Pacing is a bit uneven and does slow down from time to time.
    Dramatic lightning flash was incrediblly corny.
    Worse was the "NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!!!!" shout. Has theater really evolved so little? Ok, it's a classic gimmick, especially for a cartoon, but half of the 8 people watching the movie this afternoon were laughing at it.

    I gather from another post that there are at least 2 different post-credit clips. I think there should be a note (almost a disclaimer) that all movies with this gimick should have a symbol on the cover/poster/whatever (even just a small icon) that lets the audience know. OK, Marvel has been doing that for the last year or 2, so I stayed, but I only just found out about one at the end of X3 today. Hopefully both/all ending clips will be on the DVD.

    End result: this is a mediocre action flick with some pretty comic-book effects, but no where near as interesting or revolutionary as the first X-Men movie.
    Would I buy it on DVD: no.
    Would I rent it? maybe, but probablly just to see the other endings and extras.

    If this was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, what's next? Who's next?
     
  5. Yodaminch

    Yodaminch Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 6, 2002
    X3 had a terrible plot. And it too had plenty of cues it should have taken from the comics (ie: The movie is about Jean and SCOTT not Logan for the 3rd time:mad: )
    But the effects were better. I tend to cut through much of the Jean/Logan stuff on my dvd and just watch Beast and Magneto. The bridge scene was fantastic.

    I really hope someone just reboots X3 but gets Kelsey Grammer back as Beast.

    This movie the first 15 minutes are great. Up to Weapon X, everything is tolerable. Weapon X itself is alright even. It's after that that it all goes down hill fast. The effects take you out of the movie especially in the bathroom scene. Wolverine great race towards finding Victor involves a little bit of jumping around the US. And too much is unnecessarily crammed in. They had good actors. They had a great origin story. But they made some creative decisions that really cost them in the end. I'm not sure if they rushed the effects to make May 1st (and if that's the case, they should have waited) but whatever the reason, the final product is a huge step down from the first 2 X-Men films and many of the other marvel films in general.
     
  6. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    I think, outside of Deadpool, the main continuity concerns here are not with how much the movie fits the comics, but rather how much the movie fits the other movies (the mismatching locations and events from the X1/X2 flashbacks, for example).

    I mean, i agree that's rather impressive how much of the comics they integrated into the film, but I think it's the second half where it falls apart- after the humvee/chopper battle, the movie becomes a series of character encounters, instead of developing the existing characters. It just so happens that that second half is where the film starts to fall apart and where they deviate from the comics the most to try to work in their own story.
     
  7. The_Smirking_Revenge

    The_Smirking_Revenge Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2008
    I didn't hate the movie, but it was no where near on par with X2, which, for me, still remains the best of the X-flicks. Too much CGI and poorly done as well. I mean there were times when the claws looked completely fake, how do you f. that up? They looked great in the other movies. I liked the casting with the exception of Gambit, who was just f.ing lame. What was with the running along the wall *****? This ain't the Matrix. The story was pretty solid, they just, once again, over-used the SFX. The movie had too big a budget to keep it grounded in reality. And that whole Deadpool is "Weapon XI" crap was kinda stupid, and uncalled for.

    -T_S_R
     
  8. Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon

    Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 17, 2000
    I just re-watched X2, and it's got its fair share of clunkiness. The Nightcrawler/Storm subplot is pretty bad, mostly because of Halle Berry being a bad actress, but also the hamfisted way it talks about 'faith'. Singer apparently has issues with doing this sort of thing well, something Superman Returns's overdone Christian symbolism is a testament to.

    Not to mention that Magneto's "let's off all the humans" bit is ridiculous even for him. Why cut off the source of future mutants? Maybe that's just because I prefer Magneto as a believable human character and not just a genocidal madman.
     
  9. Excellence

    Excellence Jedi Knight star 7

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2002

    I didn't get the chance to see this in the cinema. Hate you all... :_|

    No one is showing this on youtube.

    There have been . . . disappointments today.
     
  10. The_Smirking_Revenge

    The_Smirking_Revenge Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2008
    Wow, what a surprise, someone on this website being contrary for contrary's sake. X2 is still the second best comic flick ever made. And Magneto did want to off all the humans, go read the damn comics. The source of future mutants would then become mutants, it's not that hard to figure out.

    -T_S_R
     
  11. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    So, apparently the sequel is called, simply, "The Wolverine", according to Arnonofsky.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.