At The Movies: Wolverine

Whether it was the magic of Free Comic Book Day or today's beautiful weather, I suddenly had the urge to go check out the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. Up until today, the movie looked like Dud City...a hunch that seemed to be confirmed by an avalanche of bad reviews.

However, I think it helped going to see it with my teenage son and his pal, since I tend to see a movie through the "eyes" of the people I'm with.  What I saw was a tightly-shot movie that clipped along at a brisk pace, but not so brisk that it didn't cover the major beats needed for Wolverine's story.  I think the primary reason for its surprising quality was Hugh Jackman's charismatic performance.  The guy obviously enjoys playing the character, and I think that enthusiasm transferred to the rest of the cast...most of whom were roguish mercenaries and stereotypically sinister military spooks.

Any big surprises or genre-bending twists?  Nope. Was there some kinda goofy stuff? Plenty (especially the "mutant zoo" of young X-Men before they were X-Men), but overall, a surprisingly entertaining movie that moved Logan right where we found him in the first X-Men movie (which was almost 10 years ago, folks!). 

Final verdict: Not at all the Super-Stinker I thought (and heard) it was going to be.  Was it Citizen Kane? Heavens, no...but I don't think it was trying to be. What it was trying to be was an engaging, fast-paced, "stylishly" violent, occasionally funny, and action-packed popcorn movie....and I think on that level it succeeded.

Rating: Three out of Five Dramatic Claw-Extension Close-Ups

 Think that's too high a rating? Go watch Wolverine, then watch Superman IV 

and THEN we'll talk about what makes for a truly horrid movie.  

Comments

[Grumpy]

But what I'm dying to know is, Is Gary Mitchell in it?

Oops. Wrong prequel.

[Paul McCall]

How very odd! I was thinking the same thing last week (the Gary Mitchell comment). I had just bought the digitally augmented ST:TOS 3 series DVD and watched the first few (just to see if they worked) and found myself looking at IMDB to see if the Mitchell character was listed as being in the JJ Abrams reboot/retool, whatever it is. He's not.

Regarding the Wolverine movie - I agree completely. My only question - how did his hair go from fabulous in EVERY shot in this film to the odd approximation of the whacko comic book hair of the X-Men films?

[zubzwank]

He has another mutant ability we didn't know about: super hair styling.

[Wes C]

I haven't seen it. I'm probably waiting for the dollar theater or DVD.

My wife had a girls night out and saw it with several of the wives from our "geek group". She enjoyed it a great deal.

Her review seems to go along with yours (well,admittedly, hers had a lot more gushing about Jackman's bod). A fun semi-mindless action flick with superheros.

I admit, it felt weird to have my wife go see a superhero movie and me stay home.

Based on these 2 reviews, I may have to go see it sooner than I thought.

BTW: I was disappointed to hear that Gambit didn't come off like a total dweeb, oh well...