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X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Started by Mike Carroll, 29 April, 2009, 12:12:53 AM

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Mike Carroll

Just back from the first showing at Vue, Liffey Valley...

Thoroughly enjoyed the movie - it opens beautifully and just keeps getting better. There are some great touches (including some nods to the X-Men canon that they really didn't need to do, so it feels like they were done just for us fans) and it ties in very well with the existing X-Men movies.

Hugh Jackman is - according to my wife - "a GOD!" on screen. This naturally makes me jealous but since it's her birthday I'll indulge her rampaging Jackmania.

-- Mike

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: "Mike Carroll"Thoroughly enjoyed the movie - it opens beautifully and just keeps getting better.

Hmm... can't help but wonder if we didn't see different films.

I thought it was an absolute turkey, a strong candidate for one of the worst films I've ever seen. Empty, soulless, nonsensical, turgid. There are almost no laughs, no touches of character - there's barely a single line that isn't there simply to further the plot or explain what's happening; the meandering, lacklustre plot doesn't stand up to any close scrutiny; none of the (rather insipid) villians have decent motivation; Jackman phones it in from the get-go and there are no particularly strong performances anywhere. Add some gaping flaws in logic, plot holes you could drive a bus through and one of the most cringeworthy moments I've ever seen in a film, and, well, I'm sure you'll get a sense of how I felt about this.

Sorry Mike.
@jamesfeistdraws

Mangamax

"Empty" sums it up nicely. As does pointless.
And the most shockingly obvious, clumsy and inept CGI for quite a while. It was like watching a 3D film, the way the foreground just floats in front of the backgound.
Poor on every level.
The perspective on that chairs all wrong

Radbacker

might go see it tonight, preview looked fun and i really didn't mind X3 at all so might enjoy this.  Its funny but it seems to be getting fairly positive reviews in the trades over here but that may be because our boy Hugh's in it and he gets a free pass from the press over here (even Van-hellsing or what ever the hell it was called averaged 3 stars in OZ press all i can say is High Speed Coach chase).
I have heard that its not too different from the work print that was leaked a couple of weeks ago that Fox went to great pains to say that it was so different from, sneaking gits.

CU Radbacker

Roger Godpleton

Pretty weak. It felt disjointed throughout, like a whole bunch of stuff that should be awesome but isn't because no one had the flair, visual or otherwise, to pull it off. Towards the end it became a total mess since[spoiler:yow7waoz]there was no clear primary antagonist.[/spoiler:yow7waoz] The Blob sequence was just embarrassing. I'm not an X-pert so can anyone tell me if there was any point to [spoiler:yow7waoz]Ma and Pa Kent?[/spoiler:yow7waoz] Kudos must go to the casting department for hiring probably the least scariest rapper in history as well.
He's only trying to be what following how his dreams make you wanna be, man!

the shutdown man

I thought it was was okay, in a dumb fun sense, but that was about it. It didn't really tell any new story, it felt more like a marvel universe cameo special. Gambit is onscreen for about five minutes. Same with Emma Frost and Cyclops. The CGI was pretty bad in some scenes, including CGI that should be really easy at this stage, like Logan's claws in the bathroom scene. They literally looked worse then the first X-Men film.  Still, there's some decent action, and a few laughs, so it could be worse.

Also, hate to be a continuity whore, but this film just opens up a big ol' can of worms. Like; [spoiler:16vrr2mg]Why doesn't Cyclops remember Sabretooth or Striker in the X-films? (Okay, there's nothing that says he doesn't, but come on, he doesn't). Why doesn't Sabretooth remember Wolverine, and why the hell does he look like a wrestler in X-Men?[/spoiler:16vrr2mg]

Quote from: "Dark Jimbo"and one of the most cringeworthy moments I've ever seen in a film

Which one are you referring to? My mates and I disagreed on facepalm moments in this film.
You're at the precipice Tony, of an enormous crossroads.

Roger Godpleton

Am I the only one who thought [spoiler:42ogw92m]Patrick Stewart[/spoiler:42ogw92m] looked incredibly bizarre?
He's only trying to be what following how his dreams make you wanna be, man!

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: "the shutdown man"
Quote from: "Dark Jimbo"and one of the most cringeworthy moments I've ever seen in a film

Which one are you referring to? My mates and I disagreed on facepalm moments in this film.

When Wolverine fucking skimmed himself across the water from the helicopter, like a stone, for no discernable reason.

Maybe someone out there thought it was a really cool moment, but it made me want to eat my fist in embarassment.
@jamesfeistdraws

JamesC

I thought it was goodf fun but I agree that Patrick Stewart looked really weird. I think they botoxed his entire face to make him look younger. Either that or they borrowed his waxwork from Madame Tussaud's - he didn't need to move after all.

TordelBack

Totally off topic, but the wife and I are working our painful way through a ST:TNG Season 1 boxed set at the moment, and watching Patrick Stewart is absolutely hypnotic - this heroic actor struggling with every ghastly line to singlehandedly hold up a tent made entirely of diarrhea.  Occasionally Brent Spiner comes to his aid, but since Data has the worst lines imaginable it pretty much falls flat.  Everyone and everything else in it is just completely hopeless.  Compulsive viewing - if it wasn't a real show it'd make a great modern sitcom.

the shutdown man

Quote from: "Dark Jimbo"When Wolverine fucking skimmed himself across the water from the helicopter, like a stone, for no discernable reason.

Maybe someone out there thought it was a really cool moment, but it made me want to eat my fist in embarassment.

Ah yes. I hadn't thought of that. When I saw him jump out of the plane, I figured "Okay, he's indestructible, he'll do a cool hardman thing and scrape himself up off the hard ground" but instead he went for the awkward water landing which surely took longer and as you say looked ridiculous.

Top candidates in my opinion included the "berserker fury" moments which looked cool in the other films, but here just seems to mean "Okay Hugh, flex your muscles and stare into the camera for a few seconds.....okay, cut."

And while I liked the opening montage of Jimmy and Vic in the various wars of American history, Victor doing his animal thing across the D-Day beach just looked silly.

Quote from: "JamesC"I thought it was goodf fun but I agree that Patrick Stewart looked really weird. I think they botoxed his entire face to make him look younger. Either that or they borrowed his waxwork from Madame Tussaud's - he didn't need to move after all.

My guess; After they Benjamin Button'd his face to make him look younger, they didn't actually have the budget to make him talk, so all his dialogue was telepathic.
You're at the precipice Tony, of an enormous crossroads.

I, Cosh

Quote from: "TordelBack"Totally off topic, but the wife and I are working our painful way through a ST:TNG Season 1 boxed set at the moment, and watching Patrick Stewart is absolutely hypnotic - this heroic actor struggling with every ghastly line to singlehandedly hold up a tent made entirely of diarrhea.  Occasionally Brent Spiner comes to his aid, but since Data has the worst lines imaginable it pretty much falls flat.  Everyone and everything else in it is just completely hopeless.  Compulsive viewing - if it wasn't a real show it'd make a great modern sitcom.
TNG got a lot better after Roddenberry's involvement reduced.
We never really die.

the shutdown man

Quote from: "The Cosh"
Quote from: "TordelBack"Totally off topic, but the wife and I are working our painful way through a ST:TNG Season 1 boxed set at the moment, and watching Patrick Stewart is absolutely hypnotic - this heroic actor struggling with every ghastly line to singlehandedly hold up a tent made entirely of diarrhea. Occasionally Brent Spiner comes to his aid, but since Data has the worst lines imaginable it pretty much falls flat. Everyone and everything else in it is just completely hopeless. Compulsive viewing - if it wasn't a real show it'd make a great modern sitcom.
TNG got a lot better after Roddenberry's involvement reduced.

I haven't watched TNG in a long time. I have fond memories of it, but looking back, the first season was pretty bad. Maybe it was due to the skintight jumpsuits, and dodgy FX, the 80's style wood panelling, Wesley saving the day more than once..... actually I'm not sure what it had going for it in the early days. Still, it caught on later.
You're at the precipice Tony, of an enormous crossroads.

bluemeanie

I liked it.
Could put my comic nerd hat on and pick it to peices, but I wanted an entertaining 2 hours and I got it. Job done really.
I wasnt expecting it to be Dark Knight, I just wanted it to hold up to the other X movies which I thought it did admirably.

And personally I loved Victors four legged run. Thought that was all kinds of cool

the shutdown man

//http://www.empireonline.com/empireblog/post.asp?id=510

A decent article from Empire about why films like this and Spider-Man 3 shouldn't listen to the fans when selecting which characters to use, otherwise you just end up with five minutes of Deadpool here, ten minutes of Gambit there.

Also, did anyone stick around for the after credits bit? Apparently the rumours were true, they used different ones for the US and here.
You're at the precipice Tony, of an enormous crossroads.