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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine

There's nothing like a good fanboy movie to put a grin on my face. Along with Terminator: Salvation and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, another movie that has got my fanboy palms sweating is X-men Origins: Wolverine, slated for release in May.

While poseurs all around the world lapped up the X-men trilogy on the big screen, I wasn't particularly pleased as I felt the movies couldn't do much justice to each of the characters as individuals. Unlike the Spiderman movies which worked well chronicling the life of Peter Parker as he became Spiderman, the X-men franchise works better on print due to its ensemble of characters which can never be fully fleshed out and explored with 120 minutes of screen time. The Dark Phoenix saga was one whole mini series by itself, but it was barely covered in X-men 3: The Last Stand.

Which is why I was pretty excited when news of the Wolverine movie broke. I'm not particularly pleased that Hugh Jackman was chosen to play Wolverine (I would have preferred the more feral-looking Dougray Scott, who passed on the opportunity to participate in the first X-men movie due to film committments on Mission Impossible 2), but I must say he has done a pretty fine job munching on cigars, cocking that eyebrow and going on berseker barrages. He reprises his role as Wolverine, which is a prequel to the X-men movies set 17 years before the events of the first Xmen movie, exploring how he got involved in the Weapon X program (that gave him his adamantium-laced skeleton), why he's always hell bent on ripping Sabretooth's head off, and hopefully his obessession with Harleys, etc.

**TRIVIA NOTE: Wolverine's mutant healing factor slows his aging process drastically, which explains why he looks the same 17 years before and after.**

Far more exciting than Logan's flashback is the fact that this movie also introduces a whole host of other mutants from the X-men universe - the suave card flicking, pole fighting Gambit; the fat bouncy dude known simply as Blob; my favourite wise-cracking, cancer-ridden ninja-commando Deadpool; a younger Storm whom Logan is supposed to meet as a pickpocket in Cairo (according to the comics, but not sure how it'll be portrayed in the movie) and a younger Cyclops (dunno what he's doing here - they never met according to the comic book storyline).

The trailer looks REALLY exciting. I await with bated breath!!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually I was kinda of dissappointed to learn that they were going for the origins story this time round...

Lots of OTHER interesting story for both X-men and origin... Unless they are introducing Alpha Flight? That would be better....

But why not "Onslaught" or more recent events? Or on the summers brothers... Havok, polaris etc.. all not explored yet.. or even the new mutants... or the story with Bishop or Cable... or continue with the Phoenix storyline and bring on the Shi'ar empire...

Btw, theres a good X related-story going on right now.. call War of Kings... fantastic... Black Bolt taken over Kree... Skrulls got their ass turned after the failed invasion.. and Shi ar ruled by the third summers brothers going head to head with the inhumans.. and Havok..

Btw, I think theres an natural wolverine out there.. not sure if you watched "twilight"... that evil vampire dude.. looks pretty feral, can easily take on the role of wolvie or sabletooth..

Still fingers crossed, I hope I get proven wrong and wolvie introduces more x-characters..

Oh yes.. GI Joe is on the stands again...