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.

[TheDarkKnight821]

I just wanna know does

[Show spoiler]Deadpool still lose his head?

[GreenScar]

Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight821

I just wanna know does

[Show spoiler]Deadpool still lose his head?

I have not seen the movie yet, but I've seen this cover from a recent issue:

[andyman1970]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

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

That's usually not a good sign, but hey at least they gave the press an advance screening.

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

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.

No offense, but it's "audiences" like you that cause Hollywood to screw up comic-book movies. All style and no substance.

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

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

fuad

Do you use one of those fancy sport watches with the stop watch on it?

[TheDarkKnight821]

Originally Posted by jasonbird

I have not seen the movie yet, but I've seen this cover from a recent issue:

Yeah I have that issue. Awesome read.

[fighthefutureofhd]

Originally Posted by andyman1970

That's usually not a good sign, but hey at least they gave the press an advance screening.



No offense, but it's "audiences" like you that cause Hollywood to screw up comic-book movies. All style and no substance.



Do you use one of those fancy sport watches with the stop watch on it?

why do you say that? it's audiences like him that made such great movies like x-men, x2: x-men united, spider-man, spider-man 2, batman, batman begins, the dark knight, and iron man. without audiences like him we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by andyman1970

That's usually not a good sign, but hey at least they gave the press an advance screening.

Pushing back a press screening date is uncommon but doesn't mean much. NOT scheduling a press screening IS the bad sign.

No offense, but it's "audiences" like you that cause Hollywood to screw up comic-book movies. All style and no substance.

Thankfully I have an on-going experience on this. And I've yet to lose my faith in content winning out.

I have every confidence that the producers, writers, actors and the director of Wolverine have no intention of screwing up the comic book lore. However, they are also not making a 26-hour movie either. Not every minutae has to be shown, alluded to or talked about. A comic-book movie with a budget of 100 million is not going to be tailored to 20 million hardcore comic book fans. It's not going to happen as the movie will never be greenlit.

Seriously, if you think you can do a better job than Gavin Hood, Bryan Singer or even Brett Ratner, go on ahead. Take one issue of Wolverine and shoot your own live-action mini-movie. You don't even have to worry about style - special effects and sound mixing- and just get the "substance" right. Once you've made your final cut on it, show it to somebody who has never read an issue of Wolverine or any other X-Men comic books and see if they felt entertained with what you did.

Do you use one of those fancy sport watches with the stop watch on it?

Nope. I don't need to measure this by the hundredth of a second. 1.47 right through the end of the CODA, plus about 2-3 seconds of the leftover reel. It is certainly not 1.37 with credits, which is long.


fuad

[doctorD]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

I have every confidence that the producers, writers, actors and the director of Wolverine have no intention of screwing up the comic book lore. However, they are also not making a 26-hour movie either. Not every minutae has to be shown, alluded to or talked about. A comic-book movie with a budget of 100 million is not going to be tailored to 20 million hardcore comic book fans. It's not going to happen as the movie will never be greenlit.

Seriously, if you think you can do a better job than Gavin Hood, Bryan Singer or even Brett Ratner, go on ahead. Take one issue of Wolverine and shoot your own live-action mini-movie. You don't even have to worry about style - special effects and sound mixing- and just get the "substance" right. Once you've made your final cut on it, show it to somebody who has never read an issue of Wolverine or any other X-Men comic books and see if they felt entertained with what you did.

Thanks for the review. I agree with your comment 100%.

Actually, a comic book movie was recently released that, I believe, was made for the serious fans...that being The Watchmen. From what I could tell only the die hards saw this movie and once they were done no one else saw it. Which is why this movie has turned out to be a major disappointment for Warner Bros. This is proof that you can't just make a movie for the die hard fans and expect everyone else not familiar with it to go see it. Although the economy may have affected this movie a little, I think the content had a lot more to do with everyone else not going out to see this movie.

I'm looking forward to Wolverine.

[LynxFX]

Thanks for the review, I've been looking forward to this for awhile. Rewatching the X-men movies now to prepare.

[Darkhawk9587]

Good review. Going to watch one X-Men movie a night from now until Thursday before going to see Wolverine in theaters on Friday.

[masoud90]

I didn't get to see the movie although I did escort Mr. Jackman down the red carpet and took a picture with him (took many of him) lol.