Just seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
May. 6th, 2009 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcPretty good.
A touch overly violent for my taste, but I knew it was a Wolverine movie going in[1]. A solid story, with lots of neat touches for geeks. I'm not sure it was really necessary to do the first two issues of Origin, which despite the title is almost totally irrelevent to Wolvie's history (one reviewer said it was as much an origin as Peter Parker: The Kindergarten Years would have been), but it established the Victor/Logan dynamic nicely[2].
It was a bit crowded, especially Team X. In the comics, the black ops unit comprised Logan, Victor, Wraith and Maverick (Agent Zero). (And possibly Silver Fox, depending on which of Logan's memories of her are assumed to be accurate this month.) Deadpool makes sense, especially given the role he plays later[3]. But the Blob? Seriously? And I don't even know who Lightbulb Man is.
I enjoyed Gambit's role though. And the appearance of Prof X came as a nice surprise[4]. I also enjoyed the geek game of identifying the prisoners. I spotted Quicksilver, Toad, and another character who I thought "Oh, I know who that is!" and then forgot.Not sure about Emma Frost being Silver Fox's sister, but it's not a major deal[6]. And kudos for ensuring Xavier and Scott never actually met Wolverine, since they hadn't met him before in X-Men.
Talking of cameos, unless I blinked and missed it, no Stan Lee. I know he wasn't in Ghost Rider or Punisher because he didn't create those characters, so maybe the thinking is X-Men team movies, yes; solo characters he didn't create, no. I understand the next Origins movie is going to be about Magneto, so he'll probably be in that.
The mythical origin of the Wolverine name was interesting[5], but I'm not sure we ever got one for "Logan". In the comics, it's his real father's name, but I don't think that gets established here (and if it is, where did Sabretooth get the surname "Creed"?)
Another interesting touch was Wolvie escaping from Weapon X before he had his memory wiped. It got wiped eventually, of course, because that was already established, but it would have crippled the film if it happened when it was "meant" to.
The bit after the credits was interesting; it looks like X-Men Origins: Wolverine II may be based on the Mariko storyline. Or there aren't any plans for Wolverine II, and they just thought the Mariko story made Japan a suitable place for him to end up.
[1] This is why I haven't seen Watchmen. I don't care how amazing it is, I could only just handle it on the page. I really don't need to see SFX guys bring it to life...
[2]Which the comic doesn't do, by the way. It's left unclear whether James's half-brother (known only as "Dog") is meant to be Sabretooth or not, and later comics have mostly assumed he isn't.
[3]And yes, I'm sure that if I cared even slightly about a crazy mercenary who kills people while breaking the fourth wall, I'd be outraged by that development. But I don't.
[4]I really didn't see that coming. I was trying to remember if there'd ever been any hint in the comics that Cyclops had direction-finding powers.
[5]Although I'm sure the legend is entirely fictional. For one thing, wolverines don't howl...
[6]Edit: Following both the discussion below, and a similar one in rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe, I've decided that yes, it is. What were they thinking?
A touch overly violent for my taste, but I knew it was a Wolverine movie going in[1]. A solid story, with lots of neat touches for geeks. I'm not sure it was really necessary to do the first two issues of Origin, which despite the title is almost totally irrelevent to Wolvie's history (one reviewer said it was as much an origin as Peter Parker: The Kindergarten Years would have been), but it established the Victor/Logan dynamic nicely[2].
It was a bit crowded, especially Team X. In the comics, the black ops unit comprised Logan, Victor, Wraith and Maverick (Agent Zero). (And possibly Silver Fox, depending on which of Logan's memories of her are assumed to be accurate this month.) Deadpool makes sense, especially given the role he plays later[3]. But the Blob? Seriously? And I don't even know who Lightbulb Man is.
I enjoyed Gambit's role though. And the appearance of Prof X came as a nice surprise[4]. I also enjoyed the geek game of identifying the prisoners. I spotted Quicksilver, Toad, and another character who I thought "Oh, I know who that is!" and then forgot.
Talking of cameos, unless I blinked and missed it, no Stan Lee. I know he wasn't in Ghost Rider or Punisher because he didn't create those characters, so maybe the thinking is X-Men team movies, yes; solo characters he didn't create, no. I understand the next Origins movie is going to be about Magneto, so he'll probably be in that.
The mythical origin of the Wolverine name was interesting[5], but I'm not sure we ever got one for "Logan". In the comics, it's his real father's name, but I don't think that gets established here (and if it is, where did Sabretooth get the surname "Creed"?)
Another interesting touch was Wolvie escaping from Weapon X before he had his memory wiped. It got wiped eventually, of course, because that was already established, but it would have crippled the film if it happened when it was "meant" to.
The bit after the credits was interesting; it looks like X-Men Origins: Wolverine II may be based on the Mariko storyline. Or there aren't any plans for Wolverine II, and they just thought the Mariko story made Japan a suitable place for him to end up.
[1] This is why I haven't seen Watchmen. I don't care how amazing it is, I could only just handle it on the page. I really don't need to see SFX guys bring it to life...
[2]Which the comic doesn't do, by the way. It's left unclear whether James's half-brother (known only as "Dog") is meant to be Sabretooth or not, and later comics have mostly assumed he isn't.
[3]And yes, I'm sure that if I cared even slightly about a crazy mercenary who kills people while breaking the fourth wall, I'd be outraged by that development. But I don't.
[4]I really didn't see that coming. I was trying to remember if there'd ever been any hint in the comics that Cyclops had direction-finding powers.
[5]Although I'm sure the legend is entirely fictional. For one thing, wolverines don't howl...
[6]Edit: Following both the discussion below, and a similar one in rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe, I've decided that yes, it is. What were they thinking?
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Date: 2009-05-07 08:14 pm (UTC)Actually, the more I think about it, Wolverine was actually less graphic than The Dark Knight, wasn't it? I suppose the difference is I knew what was going to happen to Harvey, but despite being prepared for claw-on-claw action, I wasn't expecting the nice elderly couple to get shot.
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Date: 2009-05-08 02:54 pm (UTC)