yup, i did it, just as i promised a month ago. to be honest, the wife reminded me of the date to watch it, since she had her own ulterior motive: watching Hugh Jackman nekkid (or at least from the waist up).
of course, her first reaction within the opening scene was: where the hell is Rose? (she read Origin and she liked it). i had to break the news to her everything she read was condensed to that opening scene, and the movie won't attract viewers with the slowburn suspense/drama beautifully narrated in the original story (at least not the stroller parent crowd who showed up in the cinema - honest to God, there were babies in every third row). she seemed disappointed.
i don't think its as messy as X3 was, and i bet it will rake respectable numbers (i'll take Jackman over McConaughey and Beyonce) despite last month's leakage disaster. sure i have my nitpicks - the events leading to the formation of the X-Men; Silver Fox and Emma Frost (unless that wasn't her - but why then slyly make her team up with Scott?); Gambit inexplicably breaking up the fight between Logan and Victor, just to continue their own fight; Gambit inexplicably not having a Cajun accent (that was like Bryan Singer telling Tom Cruise to play a WWII German colonel without a German accent) - sure, it sounds like stereotyping but that was part of his appeal, n'est-ce pas?; and a big groan at Deadpool ("Dead Pool" a.k.a. Weapon XI, actually) - who's kind of like the mutant Taskmaster, but only used the powers that were obvious to the audience (was this because Col. Stryker was controlling him, and he conveniently forgot all the other powers in his excitement, or were those the only powers he was compatible with?) - i think i saw Chamber there somewhere - and was that a young Iceman? i'm sure other geeks would have their own list of annoyances.
i thought the wife would be disappointed overall by the time the end credits rolled, but she was actually in suspense for the most part, because i merely smiled at all her questions of whether "is this gonna happen" or "is that gonna happen"? she even led the clapping in the theater.
so there you go. there's no happy ending (you know that by now) - it's in between the battered-but-defiant (think "Empire Strikes Back") and the crap-i'm-gonna-go-home-and-cry-then-attempt-suicide (think "Se7en") in terms of the impact of Logan's tragic life to the layman. it may be far, far away from the now-seminal tome written by the three Js (Joe/Jemas/Jenkins), but it works in a simplified sense. sometimes adapting comic books too faithfully (anybody remember Watchmen?) can have the opposite reaction.
but of course, if X-Men Origins: Wolverine doesn't go #1 for the box office weekend, they'll be sending out papers suing all the subscribers who downloaded the leaked copy. and at that point, i say, run!
update (Sunday pm): CBR says so. Fox execs breathe little sighs of relief. then realize: "that could've been $100M! damn you pirates!"
of course, her first reaction within the opening scene was: where the hell is Rose? (she read Origin and she liked it). i had to break the news to her everything she read was condensed to that opening scene, and the movie won't attract viewers with the slowburn suspense/drama beautifully narrated in the original story (at least not the stroller parent crowd who showed up in the cinema - honest to God, there were babies in every third row). she seemed disappointed.
i don't think its as messy as X3 was, and i bet it will rake respectable numbers (i'll take Jackman over McConaughey and Beyonce) despite last month's leakage disaster. sure i have my nitpicks - the events leading to the formation of the X-Men; Silver Fox and Emma Frost (unless that wasn't her - but why then slyly make her team up with Scott?); Gambit inexplicably breaking up the fight between Logan and Victor, just to continue their own fight; Gambit inexplicably not having a Cajun accent (that was like Bryan Singer telling Tom Cruise to play a WWII German colonel without a German accent) - sure, it sounds like stereotyping but that was part of his appeal, n'est-ce pas?; and a big groan at Deadpool ("Dead Pool" a.k.a. Weapon XI, actually) - who's kind of like the mutant Taskmaster, but only used the powers that were obvious to the audience (was this because Col. Stryker was controlling him, and he conveniently forgot all the other powers in his excitement, or were those the only powers he was compatible with?) - i think i saw Chamber there somewhere - and was that a young Iceman? i'm sure other geeks would have their own list of annoyances.
i thought the wife would be disappointed overall by the time the end credits rolled, but she was actually in suspense for the most part, because i merely smiled at all her questions of whether "is this gonna happen" or "is that gonna happen"? she even led the clapping in the theater.
so there you go. there's no happy ending (you know that by now) - it's in between the battered-but-defiant (think "Empire Strikes Back") and the crap-i'm-gonna-go-home-and-cry-then-attempt-suicide (think "Se7en") in terms of the impact of Logan's tragic life to the layman. it may be far, far away from the now-seminal tome written by the three Js (Joe/Jemas/Jenkins), but it works in a simplified sense. sometimes adapting comic books too faithfully (anybody remember Watchmen?) can have the opposite reaction.
but of course, if X-Men Origins: Wolverine doesn't go #1 for the box office weekend, they'll be sending out papers suing all the subscribers who downloaded the leaked copy. and at that point, i say, run!
update (Sunday pm): CBR says so. Fox execs breathe little sighs of relief. then realize: "that could've been $100M! damn you pirates!"
2 comments:
Pirates and that swine flu scam.
By the way, in any of your fantasy casting exercises, did Liev Schreiber even come within radar range? He was fuckin awesome as Sabretooth and just dominated Hugh Jackman in every scene they had together.
sure, i even casted him as Big Blue. i'm sure if he appeared as Sabretooth in any of the other storylines, he would have been in there as well.
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