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“Wolverine” began the Summer film frenzy over the weekend of May 1-3. I was very excited as a huge X-Men fan. I wanted anything to wash away the Brett Ratner directed X-Men: 3. It was an entire film about Wolverine…my favorite childhood mutant. What could possibly go wrong? The answer: A LOT!
I’m going to start with what I loved: Hugh Jackman, but he’s the perfect Wolverine. I don’t know who they’re going to cast in fifteen years when they decide to remake “X-Men”. The idea that they showed young Logan with bone claws. It really made my day. If they began this film with the weapon x project that turned him into Wolverine, something would’ve been horribly wrong. I loved the way that they portrayed Deadpool…kind of. Ryan Reynolds was born for the role of Deadpool and I think he’ll be wonderful for the Deadpool film franchise that Marvel is working on, but they screwed things up with his character a little bit. Oh well…every comic book film can’t be “Iron Man” or “The Dark Knight”. I loved Gambit (you knew I’d gush over Gambit). I was a fanboy that bitched about him not being in the other three because he deserved a place in them. I think it was kind of odd how he got into the story, but whatever…the whole movie was odd.
What I hated: Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth. I know that they wanted a credible actor, but he had some lines that were unintentionally funny and some of the scenes that involved leaping were poorly choreographed “X-Men 3” style and you could tell that wire-work was involved. I was disappointed because I love Liev Schreiber as an actor. He comes into the film as a badass and kind of leaves it as a worthless mutant…sad. Young Cyclops as seen in preview…one of the WTF?! moments. I watched the film…realized what they were going for and I only came out with the idea that they were doing this for a “X-Men: First Class” film. Very disappointing tactic indeed Fox. Patrick Stewart’s de-aging looks worse in this than it did in “X-Men 3”, which I didn’t think was possible. I have seen movies like “Red Dragon”, where Anthony Hopkins legitimately looks ten years younger. That film probably didn’t even have half of the monster budget that “Wolverine” had and the effect looked better. My question is: WHY?! At times you could even tell that Wolverine’s claws were Cg. Some of the mutants are brutally underused while some of the others are brutally overused. I also want to know why Logan and Victor felt such a calling to be patriotic throughout their lives leading up to their meeting with General Stryker.
Laughable dialogue, some poor acting, shoddy effects that are blatantly cg and a poor story has led me to give this film one and a half stars.
In sharp contrast, “Star Trek” was released over the weekend of May 8-10 and was a great film. I am not a “trekkie”. But even some original “Star Trek” fans said that the changes were okay. (Yes…there are changes. I talked about the film with my Trekkie dad and found out what they are).
J.J. Abrams said all along that he felt the need to get a cast that is extremely appealing to the public and can act. Some of the actors that you may or may not recognize are: Chris Pine of “Smokin’ Aces”, Zachary Quinto of “Heroes”, Eric Bana of “Troy”, and Simon Pegg of “Shaun of the Dead”. He even has Leonard Nimoy in it. I thought that that was pretty cool for the show’s fans. He said that he wasn’t going to make it exactly like the original series because people have seen that already. He wanted a new beginning. A fresh start. With tv series films, this is okay. He wasn’t re-making any of the films.
I have always been a fan of things blowing up in space, aliens, time travel and action so this movie seemed like the perfect venue for my weekend. It was. I was enthralled by the story of how James T. Kirk became captain of the Enterprise. The special effects in this didn’t look overly computer generated like in “Wolverine” and so the bad taste that was left in my mouth from the last movie was almost wiped away. I lost track of time for two hours and seven minutes. It wasn’t like “Wolverine” at all. The theater was full and silent and you would be able to hear a pin drop. When we saw “Wolverine”, a person asked “Is this butchering almost over?” I wanted not to agree with him, but I kind of had to.
Now for the sentence I never thought I’d be typing as a child with one TV in the house and a Star Trek addicted father “Thank God for Star Trek.” This film has renewed my hope in this year’s crop of Summer films.
4 Stars. Yes…finally a film that earned it. Superb acting. Keeping me from bitching about anything. No plot holes. Aliens. Time travel done well. GOOD SCIENCE FICTION FOLKS!
Coming up: “Angels and Demons”, “Terminator: Salvation”, “Drag Me to Hell”, “Up”, “The Taking of Pelham 123”, “Year One”, “The Hangover”, “Transformers: Rise of the Fallen”, “Public Enemies”, “Bruno”, “Funny People” and “Inglorious Bastards”
Last edited: May 12, 2009 @ 07:16 AM, 313 days ago |
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FIRST!!!!!!1!!!
Left by Marcus MacDonald on Friday, May 15 @ 12:06 AM / Permlink