Monday, May 04, 2009

Now Playing: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Ahh, the first Movie of the Summer. It's like a fresh, wonderful breeze after being locked up in a house for a month or the first kiss you get - full of anticipation, joy and excitement. And it certainly doesn't hurt that it has a perfect man in the leading role - a certain Mr. Hugh Jackman.

I don't know much about Marvel comics to begin with and my entire exposure to the X-Men franchise came in the form of the 90's cartoon and the previous movies. I do know that if I have to pick a favourite Marvel character, I'd be hard-pressed to choose between Punisher, Gambit and Wolverine. So, when I see there's going to be an origins movie for Mr. Adamantium himself, I'll admit - I'm pretty excited. And as April grew crueler and crueler, I looked more and more forward to it.

This brings us to the moment of truth, finally... and? Not bad. Now, I will admit that I'm tempering my original enthusiasm. I have to be cognisant of the fact that even rotten fruit would taste like ambrosia to a starving woman. In deference to some readers, I have to say: Spoilers Abound.

Originally, I freaked out when I heard about Professor X, even though he's in the thing for all of 30 seconds. And I really got excited when I saw that Patrick Stewart had actually stopped in for the 3 lines of dialogue! Originally, I was super-excited about Gambit having a trailer-worthy role. Originally, I thought Liev Schreiber just tore it up as Sabretooth, pardon the punnage. Upon reflection, however, there are some glaring problems. I won't even get into the storyline issues - I'm sure there are plenty of better-versed people than myself that can rip it apart. Things that I'm talking about are small: Gambit's should-be-sexy-as-hell Creole accent flits in and out, sometimes missing altogether; Deadpool's far too powerful and, yet, too-easily defeated; too little of some very cool characters.

All in all, was it entertaining? Of course! Things blow up when they're supposed to and get quiet when they're supposed to... I mean, there's even a very naked Jackman in not one but TWO scenes. But there was something missing, some little thing that I can't quite place my finger on. As a result, I just didn't feel like it was everything it could have been. 3 out of 5 stars.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

mmmmmmmmmmmmm! Naked Jackman.

Malecasta said...

...right? was almost worth the price admission alone.

Unknown said...

LOL that's why my bf won't take me to see it ... he knows all I'm gonna be saying is "mmmmmmmMMMMMMM!!"

Malecasta said...

screw the bf and go see it anyway! ... or do that in reverse order.