Warning: Spoilers will sprout up in this review.
This weekend, Duo, Evey, mah girlfriend, and I all went to see the new Xmen movie. I had seen the trilogy when it came out. The first two I put up with. I didn’t particularly like what they did with many of the characters, but I kept telling myself that it was some sort of alternate reality from the true canon storylines, and the stories were digestible enough that I enjoyed the movies. The special effects were nice, and I had a good time each time I saw then.
That is, until I saw the abomination that was the third movie. I might make a rant review about that later, this is about the new movie Xmen Origins: Wolverine.
From a storyline perspective, I again had to put myself into the “alternate reality” mentality. They got quite a few things correct, and it stayed rather true to Wolverine’s backstory. In the constraints of a regular movie time length, I can understand why they didn’t delve into what he did between quitting Stryker’s team and hooking up with his woman. However, they had already done a montage or two by this time, why not another one showing him going to Japan, wandering around and being that “Ronin” character he always seems to be. But, again, I can understand.
Another thing I would have loved to see explained is the seeminly arbitrary change in his name from James to Logan. They do explain it in the comics, quite well. In the movies it’s an afterthought. One moment he is James, the next he is Logan. Throughout the whole movie, Sabertooth (who isn’t called that at all) stays as Victor, so it isn’t as if they changed their names or anything.
The creation of Weapon Eleven, aka Deadpool, is an interesting idea…but it has no counterpart in the comics. They have yet to reveal what Weapon XI was (or what will become it). They could have used almost anything, but to try to slide in something into the cracks like that is just dumb. As I said, it’s a cool sounding idea, mixing different powers artificially (it was done in canon by the mutant Mimic, who had the power to use five mutant powers at once).
The ending left a lot to be desired. It was almost as if they went “ok, we’re out of money, let’s wrap it up”.
So, for the story, I’d give it a solid B. It tried, a little too hard in some places, and failed in other places, but overall I was drawn in and had a good time.
Now, when it comes to the CGI, it some parts it was awesome. Wolverine healing looked badass, his bone claws were pretty sweet. The other mutants powers, especially Wraith’s, were badass. And the Blob looked just like that, a blob.
However, there were quite a few scenes were it was painfully obvious it was CGI. The first time Logan pops his shiny new adamantium claws, it is just a horrid showcasing of CGI. They look obviously fake. And when he blows up the helicopter? It looks like a fiery explosion straight out of a bad Beyonce music video.
The CGI did well it some parts, and the fight scenes looked great…so in all I’ll give it a B. Well, B-. The bad outweighed the good. When the good drew you in…the bad just thrust you out of the scene.
Overall, I had a good time. It keeps Xmen in the minds of the people, and hopefully will draw more interest into the comics (and hopefully make some of the storylines better). Would I have liked to see some changes? You bet your ass. I was told DEADPOOL would be in this. And damn it, Ryan Reynolds kicked ass as Wade Wilson…but I want Deadpool.
So I hope this movie goes well, so we can see a great (and accurate, if Reynolds has anything to do with it) Deadpool movie soon.
-Zeke
