Wolverine: Review Thread

[WriteSimply]

As always, please know how to use the [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] tags until maybe page 50.

Saw it this morning. Pretty entertaining. It could have explored the darker side of immortality but I guess Gavin Hood and Hugh Jackman (as well as Fox) wants to keep the pace going. Acting by all is spot on. The special effects are well done - if you can't tell which shots use VFX then it's a credit to the director and VFX company - and the sound design is exciting. The Wolverine theme (soundtrack) is not very heroic or memorable however. Great work by the art designers, makeup artists and costumers. This is a solid entry to the X-Men movie series. Recommended.

Running time is 1:47 inclusive of easter eggs.


fuad

[Teabaggins]

do you think it would have benefited from an extra 20 or 30 minutes? does it seem choppy at all

[WriteSimply]

It's not choppy. It flowed smoothly.

My take on the darker side of immortality is just that. It would have been nice to SEE how he copes with losing friends over the centuries but that was not dwelled upon. Maybe it was shot and cut or maybe it was never in the script at all.

There were scenes of awesomeness (as in "that was FCUKING A!") and some COOL scenes that were linking it to the movies in the series.

Liev is a great pick! And there are two Aussie actors who were part of the cast of McLeod's Daughters that got bit parts.


fuad

[Afrobean]

Wait. People have seen this movie before it has premiered?

If I may interject a counterpoint to the OP:

Sloppy storytelling that plays like a string of cameos, a mutant parade across a story that is supposed to be centered around Wolverine.

Unnecessary changes from the comic source that adversely affect the story (see above about string of cameos). If it were me, I'd have developed Team X a little more too. If any mutants deserve roles in Wolverine's origin story, its these guys and I don't think they gave them enough screen time.

And finally,

[Show spoiler]a cop-out ending. Wolverine seeks vengeance throughout the majority of the film, only to find out that he had been tricked all along. That "twist" is just fine, even if expected. The problem is that during the ending, they trot out a certain Weapon XI, i.e., Deadpool. Wolverine drops his vendetta against Sabertooth and actually teams up with him for some stupid ass reason. It's just a weak bait and switch, Logan chases Sabertooth the whole time, only to learn that the puppetmaster was actually Stryker, then after having a brief angry battle with Sabertooth, decides it's more important for him to team up with Sabertooth to fight Deadpool. This cop-out honestly hurts me almost as much as the terribleness they did to Deadpool in taking away his mouth and giving him cyclops eyes. Makes even less sense when you consider that Sabertooth was working with Stryker to bring down Wolverine and should have known that Stryker had Wade Wilson "modified" and was prepared to "remote control" him against Wolverine should he show up.

But all things said, action seems to be top shelf, so depending on your personality, it's likely worth seeing if only for that. Wolverine is an interesting character who can play well with good storytelling, so it's disappointing that it misses the mark there, but it could actually be a lot worse. At least the acting and action aren't terrible.

I just wish they had focused a little better. It felt like they had a mishmash of characters from the X-men world they never got around to using, so they decided they needed to use them here for no good reason. If they had stuck to the Wolverine + Sabertooth vendetta and didn't bring in a crew of mutants to help Wolverine along the way there, I think the film would've been stronger for it.

[Aerodude73]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

As always, please know how to use the [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] tags until maybe page 50.

Saw it this morning. Pretty entertaining. It could have explored the darker side of immortality but I guess Gavin Hood and Hugh Jackman (as well as Fox) wants to keep the pace going. Acting by all is spot on. The special effects are well done - if you can't tell which shots use VFX then it's a credit to the director and VFX company - and the sound design is exciting. The Wolverine theme (soundtrack) is not very heroic or memorable however. Great work by the art designers, makeup artists and costumers. This is a solid entry to the X-Men movie series. Recommended.

Running time is 1:47 inclusive of easter eggs.

fuad

I clicked on the Fandango site today to get showtimes for this wk-end in my area, and it showed run time as "1:37", which is pretty much kind of short to me - 90 minutes, then the credits.

[masoud90]

I am a publicist tonight at the premiere so I will post a review as soon as I watch it.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

Wait. People have seen this movie before it has premiered?

It was a press screening. Originally it was supposed to be last THURSDAY, , but it was pushed back to yesterday.

Sloppy storytelling that plays like a string of cameos, a mutant parade across a story that is supposed to be centered around Wolverine.

I don't think it was a mutant parade at all.

[Show spoiler]There was a cabal of mutants he was involved in that was lead by Stryker. That was part that drove the revenge story.

Unnecessary changes from the comic source that adversely affect the story (see above about string of cameos). If it were me, I'd have developed Team X a little more too. If any mutants deserve roles in Wolverine's origin story, its these guys and I don't think they gave them enough screen time.

I'm NOT a comic book fan. So unless another Origins movie pick-up on how Team X got developed with a clear defined storyline, I think such a story would alienate audiences who are also like me.

I just wish they had focused a little better. It felt like they had a mishmash of characters from the X-men world they never got around to using, so they decided they needed to use them here for no good reason. If they had stuck to the Wolverine + Sabertooth vendetta and didn't bring in a crew of mutants to help Wolverine along the way there, I think the film would've been stronger for it.

There was LITERALLY a sparse "crew". I can count them with one hand with fingers to spare.

Originally Posted by Aerodude73

I clicked on the Fandango site today to get showtimes for this wk-end in my area, and it showed run time as "1:37", which is pretty much kind of short to me - 90 minutes, then the credits.

Running time is 1.47. I timed it using my wristwatch, which is what I do for movies that are brand spanking new.


fuad

[GreenScar]

Thanks for the review WriteSimply!

You're one of the reviewers I agree with more than not. Looking forward to this now!

[hardcorefrokid]

Didn't like how they handled Dead Pool. Other than that, it was okay.

[Blu Titan]

Good stuff as always Fuad. Your reviews are usually right on...IMHO.

[Itputdallotion0n]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

It was a press screening. Originally it was supposed to be last THURSDAY, , but it was pushed back to yesterday.


I don't think it was a mutant parade at all.

[Show spoiler]There was a cabal of mutants he was involved in that was lead by Stryker. That was part that drove the revenge story.

I'm NOT a comic book fan. So unless another Origins movie pick-up on how Team X got developed with a clear defined storyline, I think such a story would alienate audiences who are also like me.

There was LITERALLY a sparse "crew". I can count them with one hand with fingers to spare.

Running time is 1.47. I timed it using my wristwatch, which is what I do for movies that are brand spanking new.


fuad

See thats why it was ok to you but butchered to people who actually follow the comics. This was absolutly butchered, so many of the mutants in this movie had nothing to do with the actual story. These things get popular for a reason and most stories in the comics are good, why do they always run away from the actual story line so much.

You goto the movie to see wolverine, why clog all these others in that had no place in the story and butcher Deadpool wtf was that, that most certianly was not deadpool.

You can stick as closely to the roots of these comics as you can and still makes boat loads of cash, have they learned nothing from Christopher nolans Batmans. Seriously when is the total demolisment of these Superheros gonna end.

All in all, if you dont follow the comics your gonna like it, if you do be forwarned it makes no sense.

[DVDave]

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by DVDave

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

What? I stayed after the credits, and sure enough, it was Logan speaking Japanese with the bartender.

[Itputdallotion0n]

Originally Posted by DVDave

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

What i mean by butchered was giving him all these mutants powers. Correct me if im wrong but i dont ever remember such a thing happening.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by DVDave

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

The problem doesn't arise from him being killed off. Take a gander at the Wikipedia article about the character and you should quickly be able to realize how heavily departed this abortion is from the character so many fans have come to love.

I can't speak for everyone, but my problems primarily fall in:

[Show spoiler]#1: Adamantium skeleton and blades. Not every character needs to be like Wolverine, Fox. Lady Deathstrike is one thing, because a cyborg would come off as a little absurd, but Deadpool certainly doesn't need it. And anyway, wouldn't adamantium katana serve him better than fixed blades coming out of his hand? They very easily could have added Stryker saying, "because Wade Wilson has such an ability with swords, we specially crafted these swords out of adamantium so that they'd prove effective against you, Weapon X," and even then, I don't think him having the adamantium skeleton would have even bothered me.
#2: Cyclops eyes. No reason at all for this, and furthermore, Scott Summers had no place even appearing in this movie at all. He's only here as an attempt to tie in a First Class spin-off and draw the Wolverine story artificially closer to the X-men world.
#3: Taking away his mouth, both physically and metaphysically. The guy is known for his mouth, and not only did they physically remove it, but they turned him into a remote controlled zombie. Terrible.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

I think you missed the thread saying that different theatres would receive different reels with different teaser endings. One of them teases a Wolverine sequel, one teases a Deadpool spin-off, and apparently one of them shows something else involving Stryker. I'm honestly surprised I haven't heard about one showing a tease involving Prof X and the in-development First Class spin-off.

Originally Posted by ckent22

I didn't like it at all. It was poorly made, both poorly directed, poorly written, and some laughable acting performances. If this is the first of a series of origin films, then I hope they get better than this.

Don't badmouth the directing or the acting. The story is terrible and the writing might not be the best, but the directing and acting are just fine.

[RSuarez]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

As always, please know how to use the [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] tags until maybe page 50.

Saw it this morning. Pretty entertaining. It could have explored the darker side of immortality but I guess Gavin Hood and Hugh Jackman (as well as Fox) wants to keep the pace going. Acting by all is spot on. The special effects are well done - if you can't tell which shots use VFX then it's a credit to the director and VFX company - and the sound design is exciting. The Wolverine theme (soundtrack) is not very heroic or memorable however. Great work by the art designers, makeup artists and costumers. This is a solid entry to the X-Men movie series. Recommended.

Running time is 1:47 inclusive of easter eggs.


fuad

Easter eggs?

Is there anything we need to wait for when the credits roll?

[rocelia]

X-MEN, the origin of wolverine is very fantastic movie. I loved the actions the way Hugh Jackman deals it's character. He's fit for that rule.