Obligatory Update UpdateI'll start with the "Extra" part first.
Been a long time since I've actually blogged about anything. I blame three things. First is my last post. The one where I ranted about the casting of the Avatar live-action movie. Anyone who knows me, and especially those who also love Avatar, knows how seriously I took this. I think I've certainly taken every opportunity in the past months to join others in the world community to fight this. Did that affect my blogging? Yes, sorta. Writing that post burned out any urge I had to write anything journal-like. Maybe it was the fear of eventually posting an uncivilized response, and I didn't want that.
The other thing is comics. I've more than doubled my comic-reading since December, and partly to blame are the interesting developments in the Dark Reign environment in the Marvel continuity. I'd love to blog about those, but I haven't because of what transpired before those events. I'm OC over doing reviews of previously-read comics before moving onto the new ones. It's not easy to overcome that. Problem is the events in DC and Marvel that happened before the Dark Reign era can be summarized thusly: Batman R.I.P. (confusing and mediocre), Final Crisis (triply confusing and terrible), and the end of Secret Invasion (triply terrible and infinitely disappointing end to what started out as the most awesome metaplot in the history of Marvel). It took me 5 months to work my way past wanting to review those. Now I can pick up from out of nowhere. Joy!
Third thing I blame is World of Warcraft. I've been playing in a private server for kicks, and I started some time after I got the double burnout I outlined in the first two points above. Anyone who plays MMOs knows how engaging this game can be, and even though I'm no longer a hardcore MMO-gamer, I did find WoW very engaging. I don't think I need to elaborate anymore.
On with the review!
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
First, the title. Why did they have to put "X-Men Origins" in it? "Wolverine" was just fine! It's not as if there's any other X-Man worth making an origin movie of. And only comic-readers will know that "Origins" is part of a long-running story arc in Marvel comics.
Second, the movie, as a whole, was actually good. It's not as entertaining as Iron Man, and I didn't expect it to be. It's a serious story. Duh. It's Wolverine's history. Were people expecting a comedy and wit? It did a good job of interpreting the comic-continuity history of Logan and translating it to a cinematic medium, all while integrating it to the events of the previous X-Men films (cameo of Prof. X! Woot!). All-in-all better than the third X-Men film. 3 stars.
Props to making Cyclops cool in this film. He was a bumbling teenager. And he was cool. Makes you realize that when he lets the whole X-Men leader thing get to his head, he becomes the lamest guy on the planet.
The cameos of mutants were nice. Along with Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, and Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) were among the ones I recognized (was that Ororo doing the ice and snow thing?).
Still don't understand why Kayla, who is dark-haired and has Native Amercan features (and even narrated what sounds like a Native American legend to Logan), is older sister to Emma Frost, who is 100% caucasian, and in the film, was a natural blonde.
I need to conclude with Deadpool. While the movie did a nice job of explaining Wade's eventual codename, their treatment of this very popular non-hero character bordered on the criminal. Why? It's not that they gave him those extra powers. It's not that he didn't get to put on a cool red and black costume akin to his comic incarnation. And it's not the fact that they killed in the end of the film. It's none of those things.
You see, anyone who knows and loves Wade's character knows what makes Deadpool Deadpool. It's his mouth. His constant, annoying, disrespectful and completely situationally-inappropriate babble. You can take away the swords, the costume, the regeneration, and the teleportation. But if he's still yakking away, Wade's still 100% Deadpool.
His conversation early in the film was spot on. It was one of the most spot on interpretations of a comic character I've seen, possibly taking a close second to Downey's Tony Stark. I looked forward to more as the movie continued. Then the criminal act happened. When Wade reappeared in the end of the film as Weapon XI "Deadpool," they sealed his mouth shut. They didn't let "the merc with the mouth" talk. That's insanely stupid. Imagine if an entire movie with Wolverine went by and for the remaining 50%, they didn't make him unsheath his claws.
Utterly pointless.
And that's all I have left to say.
6 comments:
Until they do good with the Deadpool movie; this rendition of the Merc with a mouth is one of the better ones out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1R5PhReY5k
just a note to the cameos: I dont remeber seeing Quicksilver myself, but I do remember seeing Caine Marco aka 'Juggernaut' as a teen - he was the one who was fully restrained in his cage.
All in all, I agree - it was a good movie, and action-packed as any tale of Wolverine should be.
Also, apparently Toad is in it, and the kid in the icy cage is Stryker's son *shrug*
Stryker kept his own kid on ice? Talk about a harsh upbringing.
And now there's a Deadpool movie being propositioned... Why am I filled with both fear and anticipation? Oh wait. That's a topic for another blog.
They've confirmed the Deadpool movie, and Ryan Reynolds (the lead) has said he wont do it unless they stay 100% true to Deadpool & his origins. So, it should be good - or at least decent.
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