X-Men, X-Men Origins, Wolverine, etc.

[Slicker]

I saw a preview for this before "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (which fucking blew...) and Origins actually looks really damn good. It comes out in May so I'll be able to see it and I can't wait.

[Double_G]

So I saw "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". A hell of a lot of other people did too. A rough cut of the movie has leaked to the internet. If you want to check it out, just go to watch-movies-links.net. This version is 106 minutes long, whereas the final cut will run 120 minutes. It also has unfinished special effects and a temp soundtrack (featuring music from none other than "Transformers").

Now I know it's a bit unfair to judge an unfinished film, but I will say that I enjoyed "X-Men: The Last Stand" more. Now I know how that'll fare with some of you, but I thought "X3" was okay. Still, I will see the final film in theaters regardless. I didn't think it was a bad movie at all, it just didn't excite me like the other X-Men films (yes, even X3). This movie is obviously about Wolverine (which makes it the fourth movie that's been about Wolverine now) and features a clusterfuck of X-Men characters that didn't make it into the first three like Blob, Gambit, Emma Frost and Deadpool. But you already knew that. What you didn't know is they're all pretty much cameos. The movie's really about the struggle between Logan, Sabretooth, and Stryker.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The first forty five minutes of the movie are pretty cool. We get the origin story, which is straight frpm the "Origin" comic. At least, what I remember from it. But in the movie, Sabretooth is Logan's half-brother. They grow up together, fighting in every war from the Civil War to Nam. They then get recruited by Stryker to join a strike team, featuring folks like Deadpool. Logan then decides he's tired of it after a while so he goes off to Canada to shack up with Silver Fox. Sabretooth shows up and kills her, which just pisses Wolvie off. Stryker promises Logan that he'll have his revenge in return for participating in a government experiment...and you know what happens next. After Logan gets his adamantium bone structure, he goes on a long journey to find Sabretooth. Along the way, he runs into John Wraith, Blob, and Gambit. All of whom have very little screentime. Finally, he reaches the end of his cameo-ridden trip and he faces off against Stryker, Sabretooth, and a mute (!) Deadpool that has two huge adamantium claws that pop out of his arms. Yeah.

That's all I'll say about the plot. Let me talk about the characters.

Wolverine - Jackman's okay in the role, but you can see he's getting tired of it. There's not much that needs to be said. It's Wolverine.

Sabretooth - I was surprised by Liev Schrieber. Damn the fucked up continuity between this and "X-Men", he played a badass Victor Creed. He was the best part of the movie for me.

Gambit - You know, there was a time when I'd shit my pants if I saw Gambit in a live action X-Men movie. But those days are gone. They got some Zoolander model to play him and he's got all of five minutes of screentime. Hopefully there's more character development in the final film.

Stryker - The guy who played him (don't recall his name, but he played Samuel Adams in the "John Adams" miniseries) was okay, but he was no Brian Cox.

Deadpool - They completely ruined the character, but it's a Liefeld character. I don't understand how you can fuck up a Liefeld creation even more than it already is, but mother of god, they found a way. In the beginning of the movie, Deadpool is portrayed as a wisecracking mercenary, which is what he is. But that's only for two minutes. At the end, he comes back as a mute super soldier (Weapon XI) whose mouth is sewn shut and has adamantium sword claws. Also, he looks like Baraka from "Mortal Kombat". I have no idea why they decided to make him a bad guy, especially when he's ripe for a spin-off movie, but oh well.

Blob - If they were only going to have him in the movie for two minutes, why did they even include him? Especially when he spends half that time drinking a damn slurpee?

Emma Frost and Cyclops - They both escape Stryker's prison and are rescued by none other than Professor Charles motherfucking Xavier (the best cameo of the movie by Patrick Stewart) and presumably brought to the school, which is fine, but you have to wonder where the fuck Emma Frost ended up.


So those pretty much sum up my thoughts on "Wolverine". I wasn't impressed by it and I wasn't disappointed by it. I think general audiences will eat this up, but I'm sensing there could be some fanboy negativity towards this.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

I'm sensing there could be some fanboy negativity towards this.

Fanboy negativity? Surely you jest.

[Double_G]

Fanboy negativity? Surely you jest.

Yeah, fanboys are always complaining. "Wolverine" just fucks up the pattern again after the trifecta of awesome that was "Iron Man", "The Dark Knight", and "Watchmen". Fanboys ate that shit up. "Iron Man" was praised by practically everyone (and it is one of the better Marvel movies out there), "The Dark Knight" was treated like the second coming of Christ (it was that good), and "Watchmen", though not universally praised by critics and general audiences, got a lot of fanboy love. And thus ends a good year for comic book movies. Now we're back to sub-par superhero flicks starting with "Wolverine".

[anarky]

There was Hulk last year, too. And Wanted. Not sure of any other comic book movies from 2008.

[mabudon]

You seen HULK yet Anarky??

[Double_G]

There was Hulk last year, too. And Wanted. Not sure of any other comic book movies from 2008.

And Hellboy II. None of them sucked, though.

[Newsbot]

LOS ANGELES - Fox News columnist Roger Friedman is out after posting a review of a leaked full-length work print of " X-Men Origins: Wolverine ." Fox News said Monday that the company's representatives and Friedman "mutually agreed to part ways immediately."

Friedman had been an entertainment writer who has contributed to FoxNews.com for 10 years. He wrote in his Fox 411 column Thursday that downloading the 20th Century Fox superhero prequel was "so much easier than going out in the rain" and that the movie "exceeds expectations at every turn."

The early review of the film, which 20th Century Fox described as a "stolen, incomplete and early version," was later removed from the Web site Friday. Fox News and 20th Century Fox are both units of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

The movie, which focuses on the beginnings of Hugh Jackman 's clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine, is not scheduled for release until May 1, but the leaked version began appearing online last week. 20th Century Fox promised that the source of the film would be prosecuted and said the FBI and Motion Picture Association of America are investigating the leak. The FBI has requested Double_G to step away from his computer and put his hands behind his head.

[vynsane]

hahaha... from corporate shill to unemployed douchebag in 24 hours. we can only hope this is the beginning of the end for fox 'news'.

[mabudon]

Saw it just a few minutes ago.
It wasn't on my to-do list anyways, I planned on seeing it on dvd eventually but was not gonna hit the theatre to see it

Nothing stood out as truly awesome, some stuff was truly bad. Wolvie and Sabretooth are done better than they have been thus far, Sabretooths 4 "legged" running was especially well rendered
Gambit, a character I have hated ever since that crappy 90's x-men cartoon treated him as the second coming, was actually very well done, tho he was the character with the most unfinished FX shots, what there was actually worked really well..

Deadpool, a character I also never cared for (I believe it was Anarky who said he is spiderman with a gun and that was what I always thought too- first time I saw the character I thought it actually WAS Spidey re-imagined) was actually really cool UNTIL his plotline got expanded- what happens to him by the end is painfully stupid, it made the SpeedBall/Penance thing seem respectful and well thought-out, and even made the whole "magneto builds a mutant-ablility sucking machine" plotline excusable to some extent.

Overall the plot is okay. Not great, but okay. Pacing issues bog the first 1/3 or so of the film down pretty bad, but once it actually starts in earnest it gets fairly fun.

There is way too much goofiness throughout tho, and it wasn't meant to be funny- case in point, when Wolvie is getting the skeleton put in, he is dubbed "weapon X"- someone asks "what's the X for" and the reply is "it's a roman numeral.. TEN". Okay fine, they also have "agent zero" but no other numbered guys UNTIL near the end when the "sequel" to the "weapon X" project is revealed- what's the name of this one, you might ask?? What comes after X in roman numerals?? ELEVEN. Not "weapon XI" which would have sounded dumb but made sense, no- Wolvie is X and V2 is "weapon eleven"

There's plenty more of this kind of thing- teleportin dude teleporting WITHIN striking distance of Sabretooth in probably the most pointless, poorly explained moves in the whole film, Gambit atacking Wolvie while Wolvie is fighting SabreTooth (this despite that Wolvie made it clear that Gambit was an enemy of Sabretooth AND Logan TOLD Gambit he was trying to kill him)

I don't wanna post any real spoilers but I can answer questions easily enough.

Oh and it's too bad it was so uneven- there's one truly funny sequence in the film and only one (the "washroom" scene, totally silly but made perfect sense and it was all too plausible)

Oh and one more gripe, WHY does Canada look the way it does in this film?? There's like 3 buildings in the whole country, all one-lane roads and mountains and forests and everyone is lumberjacks (even Logan)

Worth a watch but not no spiderman 2, I'd give it a weak 7 out of 10 since what worked really did work but the Deadpool thing was so painfully ridiculous that even that might be too generous

[Ran]

Oh and one more gripe, WHY does Canada look the way it does in this film?? There's like 3 buildings in the whole country, all one-lane roads and mountains and forests and everyone is lumberjacks (even Logan)

That's silly. Only a third of all Canadians are lumberjacks. The other 2/3rds are hockey players and mounted police. The rest, like Jim Carey, Pam Anderson, Mike Meyers, and Michael J. Fox, move to California. Everyone knows that.

[vynsane]

Oh and one more gripe, WHY does Canada look the way it does in this film?? There's like 3 buildings in the whole country, all one-lane roads and mountains and forests and everyone is lumberjacks (even Logan)

That's silly. Only a third of all Canadians are lumberjacks. The other 2/3rds are hockey players and mounted police. The rest, like Jim Carey, Pam Anderson, Mike Meyers, and Michael J. Fox, move to California. Everyone knows that.

no no no, half of all canadians are called 'jjreason' and the other half are called 'mabudon' or sometimes 'mebeducks'.

the jjreasons are all mounties. i don't really know what the mabudons do. they're kinda like the 'kramer' to america's 'seinfeld'.

[Deadpool]

Everyone see the movie so's i can get millions in royalty. now! c'mon. please?

[vynsane]

BRYAN SINGER RETURNS TO SAVE THE X-MEN FRANCHISE!!!

Bryan Singer is returning to Fox for another "X-Men" movie.

Singer, who directed the first two installments before famously jumping ship to make “Superman Returns,” has signed on to develop and direct “X-Men: First Class.”

The studio has tapped Jamie Moss to write the screenplay and work with Singer on the project, which goes back to the drawing board. "Class" was put into development in 2008 as a prequel to the "X-Men" movies, looking at the teenage years of the super-powered mutant heroes seen the “X-Men” movies and the “Wolverine” movie. New characters will also be created.

The story is still in the early stages of development but will deal with the first meeting of Charles Xavier and Magneto and involve the creation of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the school masquerading as the headquarters of the X-Men.

Singer revealed his involvement during a red carpet interview at the “Avatar” premiere. Fox confirmed the news Thursday.

While the deal seems to clear up any bad blood that may have existed when Singer left the studio for Warner Bros. and “Superman,” it also reflects the studio’s realization of the value Singer brings to the franchise he helped launch. While “X-Men: Last Stand” and “Wolverine” were blockbusters, they were received less than enthusiastically by fans of the Marvel Comics characters.

“First Class” takes its name from a Marvel Comics limited series written by Jeff Parker. Josh Schwartz wrote an earlier draft of the script.

Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg are producing.

Although WME-repped Singer has several projects in development, his next project is likely to be “Jack the Giant Killer,” New Line’s take on the classic fairy tale.

Moss worked on “Ghost in the Shell” for DreamWorks and wrote “Street Kings,” the crime drama directed by David Ayer. He is repped by CAA and 3 Arts Entertainment.

http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2009/12/b ... class.html

[anarky]

Is it not too late to save things? I thought X3 screwed the pooch so hard, it had semen squirting out of its cute widdle puppy nose.