X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The movie is melodramatic. Though there’s only a few “slow” emotional scenes in the parade of action set-pieces, everything that happens is “super serious and very important, just look at the scowl on my face.” And I mean a parade of set-pieces. Even if several of them are incidental and small setups for later plot points, the production always makes sure there’s some eye candy, be it aggressive cinematography and/or something ‘sploding.

I jokingly call the movie Wolverine & His Excessive Co-stars, and I still think there are far more characters than necessary. However, their relational network is kept small, so it didn’t wind up feeling like Mortal Kombat Annihilation where there are characters just for the sake of ticking up some arbitrary cameo counter.

I’ve got two major complaints for an event pic like this. 1.) After all these years and advancements in technology and techniques, why does some of the wire-work still look laughable? 2.) You know what else is laughable?  There is no excuse for the CG claws to stand out and look so obviously bad and fake.

And speaking of fakes, there are actually two post-credits bonus scenes. Don’t leave after the I’m-not-sure-why-that-was-made-a-big-deal Stryker scene.

Not as good as the X-flicks, but worth it for the grand fight scenes.  I suppose it’s fair about how they’re different.  X-Men is a parable about society, and Wolverine is just about the visceral rush.