X-men Origins: Wolverine

To say that I was looking forward to the latest installment of the the X-men franchise, would be a gross understatement. Truth be told, Wolverine has been my most anticipated film for the last 2 years or so.

With great excitement and high expectations I went along to a screening, only to come out going 'hmmm....' Id say that's my own fault by having such high expectations, but hey I'm a geek, I'm allowed to right?

My biggest nuisance would probably boil down to the fact that I feel that too many stories have been crammed into one. One of the exciting things about the character Wolverine is that he has many different origin stories creating a very diverse character. I feel that the creators of this film should have maybe picked 1 or 2 lines from the smorgasbord to create a masterpiece, instead it seems they have picked many and tried to cram them all in to the first 30mins or so of the film. If they had chosen to focus on one closer I feel that they could have created an awesome film that would show a development of a character rather than an the array of awesome action effects that we got, causing the film to fall into the awkward middle ground between mindless action flick and a well rounded blockbuster film.

Strangely the film seems to be made for fanboys of the Marvel universe, as the film is made of characters from the universe, but almost no information is given on them. It seems that you need to be well educated in the characters to understand why they do the things they do and how (ie. powers and such) but at the same time, if you know a little about some characters it was easy to be let down. Where the hell was Remy's accent?

Now for some positive,

Liev Schreiber does a brilliant job as Victor, a man having great difficulty keeping the beast within. He growls his lines with ferocity and even at times out shines our hero.

Agent Zero played by Daniel Henney was an interesting character, with most of the best action sequences, when he met with his demise, the film actually felt to lack. Is it the revival of gun-fu?

The action sequences were awesomely gritty and brutal, when Wolvey says "I'm the best I am at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice" you believe him, and almost feel hes understating it.

The scene with all the young mutants in the prison, is interesting, I'm actually looking forward to watching it again and picking out who is who. But as someone has pointed out - In the finale, the mutants who will become the first generation of students for Xavier's School are freed by Wolverine. One might expect that the students to mention the grizzled, hairy rescuer with long metal claws in his hands, or that their psychic mentor might pick up on it. Cyclops is the only exception, as he was blind throughout that sequence. Yet when Wolverine reaches Xavier's School in the first X-Men movie, he is a complete mystery to everybody.

Also to be commended is Danny Huston as Stryker he fits the role perfectly.

In closing "Oooh, Shiny. "

Transformers

I may be the only 80's child who was not into Transformers while growing up. To me they were just funny looking dolls. So why then, did I go to the film?





To say I went on my own accord would be not a full truth. I have to say that I had my arm twisted and pulled a little by various friends, who thought it was amazing. "You should totally go" they all said.

So I went, and was thoroughly impressed. Considering I went for the effects and cinematography I was not left wanting. In honest truth I actually said "Wow" in the first scene at the army camp. Something about the fast change from helicopter to robot, the Chgrrclick sounds, and the flying fire and sparks. Michael Bay always knew how to get bang for his mega bucks. With this scene he certainly set the bar for the rest of the film. A bar that unfortunately cannot be carried. After you've seen the change, seen the fast editing, had your giggle at the quirky humour (including Optimus Primes' "My Bad") and somehow managed to see a likeness between Frenzy and Sebulba (StarWars), it loses its oomph, its not exciting anymore, its all the same. So I loved the first three quarters, the last quarter however, was a bit meh.

Other than this what else is there to look out for in the film? Megan Fox... shes hot, I look forward to seeing her more on the action film scene. Her next project doesn't really interest me.
Spielberg's muse Shia LaBeouf, not bad see him next in Indy IV. (A film I am soooo excited about)
Ive always liked Joshua Duhamel, and no its not because hes dreamy.
However I didn't care much for Rachael Taylor, possibly because her Aussie accent stood out so much in an very American cast, or that her character was soooooo annoying.
Finally John Voight is always good value.

Watch for the sequel in 2009, for now "Autobots, roll out"

Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer

The geek that I am causes me to get rather excited and wrapped up in the hype with upcoming Comic Hero movies. The second installment of Fantastic Four was no different.



Unlike many, I quite liked The first Installment, the childish fun was enjoyable & even exciting in parts. The only thing that bugged me was Jessica Alba's Sue, It just didn't seem to work.
I'm happy to say, that although its still iffy, in Silver Surfer, she is a lot more convincing. Maybe it was the hair, I'm not really sure, but she was better.

In complete contrast however I was rather unimpressed with Julian McMahon's portrayal of Victor Von Doom, I believe his performance was a 10th of that in the 1st. Doom is one of the nastiest Marvel Villains, there is so much wealth in that character, it feels like McMahon just threw it away.

Brilliance=The combination of Laurence Fishburne's voice & Doug Jones' movements to create the Silver Surfer. To me the character was believable, exactly how he should have been. These two talented men really pulled it off.

It seems to me that Johnny has been the comic relief as well as the glue that held it all together for both films, he gets all the best lines "I'd hate to wake up one morning and find out she was killed in a rock slide!" This film seems to be as much about him as it is about the Silver Surfer, its about his growth as a hero and a person, it actually has depth. And seeing him take on the others powers, is awesome.

Other highlights:Reed 'Loosening up' at his bachelor party, getting to see the soft side of Ben Grimm, and of course Stan Lees brilliant cameo. "Yeah...Nice try."

And the best quote of the film goes to Alicia (Grimm's love) "Honestly you smell like ash" In reference to knowing Johnny's there even tho she is blind.

But honestly Galactus as a giant cloud!? No way! My flatmate tried to justify it to me as being particles from destroyed planets, but sorry, I don't buy it. However Tim Story once said that he would never have giant robots in any of his movies. Go figure.

Watch for the Silver Surfer spin off coming 2009