Saturday, October 17, 2009

Wolverines!

In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hugh Jackman shows off an amazing physique. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

This origin story tells of how a boy and his half-brother grow up in the Northwest Territory and discover that they can sprout claws and can recover almost instantly from any wound. One, Liev Schreiber, is mean and nasty. The other, Hugh Jackman, is Wolverine. They fight in wars (American Civil through Vietnam) and get into trouble, and finally wind up in a secret government program for other badasses with superpowers. That's nice, because we get more action scenes. We get a love interest and a retreat with a kindly old hippy couple.

Somewhere in there, the government re-builds him, replacing all of his bones and claws with unobtainium. And he loses his memory. And that's the origin of the Wolverine.

We also meet young Scott Summers, a dark brooding teenage delinquent. Which is strange, because, brooding he may be, but Cyclops has always struck me more as a geek - a sullen AV club type. We also meet Prof. Xavier, walking. I guess they both go through some changes.

Like all of the X-Men movies, this suffers from trying to do too much in too little time (making too little sense, IMHO). They could have slowed down and developed some of the side plots and minor characters. Possibly, they could have done this without slowing down with better writing. But I'm not picky. Give me some flashy action and cool superpowers, and I'm happy.

Plus, look at the pecs on Jackman. Wow.

1 comment:

mr. schprock said...

"Unobtainium." Good one.

I enjoyed the movie. Who cares what Rotten Tomatoes says?