Wolverine!

Ensign Lestat's Film Log, 09/05/09

It's been a while since I last wrote (I seem to be making a habit of that, actually).

Anyway, it is that time of year when some people live and breathe the movies. And one can't blame them. I am thankfully currently in a country which also believes in showing movies.

After planning, re-planning and planning some more, Dad, Lou (that's my sister) and I finally decided that after eating at our favourite South Indian restaurant, we would catch the morning show of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

After the X-Men trilogy (which got the two of us hooked onto all things X-Men) we couldn't wait for the Wolverine movie. Wolvie, as he is called in the comics (occasionally) seems to be a lot of people's favourite character, especially after the movies made him the protagonist.

He definitely is an interesting character with a dark and mysterious past. Of course, that wasn't the only reason we were going to watch it. While I was really very neutral, my sister was dreadfully excited because on imdb (we practically live there) she had read that Gambit would be in the movie. Once the trailer came out, all her fears were laid to rest - Gambit was going to be in the film. Hence, she couldn't wait.

Why she likes Gambit (of all people) neither of us knows. We have not yet met Gambit in the comics that we are reading. In fact our only knowledge of Gambit comes from the 2- 3... 5? issues that Gambit was featured in in Ultimate X-Men. The rest we know from our Rise of Apocalypse game and whatever Lou has read on Wikipedia. That doesn't tell us much, but it apparently told her enough to like the fella. It's rather funny actually.

Anyway, with bated breath we awaited the start of the film. We had decided to watch it in CineStar in one of our favourite malls, City Centre.

We got ourselves good seats. Of course that's not very hard when there's only five other people watching with you. I couldn't believe it! This was Wolverine, and there were only five people! Lou assured me that this was because it was the morning show on Friday (Friday being the weekly holiday here). Anyway, of the five people, there was one man, way at the back, who was chomping on something and lecturing someone on some matter. A young lad (under-age for the movie, I can assure you) who was coughing so hard, I thought we'd miss out on the dialogue (we didn't, thankfully, because he progressed to snivelling the moment the film started). An invisible child (one of those who was [loudly] heard but not seen) and another man who took up an extraordinarily poor seat up front. That makes four, but apparently there was an Indian woman behind us, but I didn't see her.

Anyway, the usual ads and trailers began, and I did what I do best, began daydreaming, only to realise that the production company logos and stuff now belonged to the film we'd come for and not for another trailer. I woke myself up and began watching earnestly.

So it began. Wolverine! And of course the first thing I did was loudly say, "Impossible" when tiny James sprouted bone claws. (Hey, how am I supposed to know that Wolvie actually has bone claws under those adamantium ones of his!) Lou reassured me that the bone claws were a part of the comic books, so I calmed down.

Now, the problem with nigh empty halls and me watching something I've wanted to watch for ages, is that, I can't seem to shut up. I keep talking to the screen. It must have been kind of annoying if any of the other people actually heard me.

Anyway, I figured out that Victor was Victor Creed aka Sabretooth (okay, that was a no-brainer, but anyway).

I quite liked how they did the opening credits, despite being surprised that they actually hadopening credits. In this day and age? Oh well. Lou and I glanced at each other every time James and Victor moved on to a new war. I lost count as to how many they were a part of. Jeez!

Well hmmm... So be it. The two of them were together, despite Victor being such an unsavoury character. Then we move on to them about to be executed. I keep forgetting that scene for some reason, despite it being an important one. Well that's pretty much where the movie starts, properly. Or so I thought.

Anyway, I'm not going to go over it scene by scene. These are my thoughts and opinions and they're going to be here in a real jumble.

I like how almost all the important characters were thrown together on the flight to Lagos, and how almost all of them were shown using their powers/abilities. I really liked Agent Zero. Daniel Henny who played Zero was good looking, too. His gun-toting reminded me a bit of Christian Bale in Equilibrium, but I think that's just me.

I also liked how Liev kept... hmmm... not sure of the word, but he definitely did the animal run thing well. He ran up the wall, too, that was nice.

And, then the team were in the elevator, and it was the turn of Wade Wilson to show off. And man, was that great or what! Ryan Reynolds sure wielded his swords well. God, even today (a day after I’ve watched Wolverine) the scene with him fending off the bullets kept playing on loop in my head. Breathtaking!

Alright, I'm probably exaggerating this. It's probably a really normal action scene, and there's probably nothing spectacular about Ryan either, but it just looks so great in my head. Oh well!

Anyway, Lou can not figure out how Wade knew how to speak Nigerian. I don’t know why she was annoyed though, she’s never even met Deadpool. It’s really sweet how she thinks sheknows these characters. I mean, I’m not going to hear the end of most things.

After Nigeria came the boring bit. I mean were we actually watching a movie about Wolverine here? Good lord! Wolverine is supposed to have been a bad person (if not a downright evil one). He suffers from a berserker rage that scares the daylights out of virtually everyone - and he’s living a peaceful life as a lumberjack. That too with a dog-ugly (my opinion, so shoot me) schoolteacher. That was one of the most disappointing aspects of the film. And he gets his name, Wolverine, from there too. Oh well.

There’s this bit with Bolt, where Sabretooth kills him. I couldn’t believe Sabretooth killed him. I mean, Dominic really got the wrong end of the stick when it came to screen time. The carnival scene actually brings to mind the carnival kids and not Bolt. Who’s Bolt anyway?

Interestingly a lot of people thought (and I concur) that they should have included a scene where Sabretooth comes for Wade - it would’ve given us an extra fight scene, and we could’ve listened to Wade jabber away and watched his ultra-hot sword wielding. As Lou said, “If Directors had brains...”

When Kayla finally gets killed, I was kinda relieved. Because that meant that the movie would REALLY start. What I liked about the “Kayla’s dead” scene was how Logan double-checks for her pulse - which is rather poignant when you reach the end.

Okay, so then there’s this utterly cool fight between Sabretooth and Wolvie which ends with Sabre breaking Wolvie’s bone claws on one hand. Anyway, I think that was it. It takes place in and around a really dingy cafe, where Sabretooth, who hears Logan coming, asks the poor bartender-cum-manager, “Do you have insurance?” Of course, the guy says no. You feel really sorry for the man when he tells Logan and Sabre to take their fight outside. Thankfully they only break his door, nothing else as far as I can remember.

So then Wolvie joins the Weapon X program. I was hoping against hope that when Wolvie woke up (after he’s implanted with the adamantium) he’d have lost his mind and would be the real animal that we know is a part of him.

But no. He wakes up (naked) and takes off a few heads, and jumps into the lake and then runs into a barn. And we meet Heather and Travis Hudson. Travis? I tried to reassure Lou that these were not the Hudsons. Apparently I was wrong. Why’d they cast such senior citizens? Logan was in love with Heather. Heather takes over as Alpha Flight’s leader! What the heck! And why is it Travis Hudson? Come on! What’s wrong with keeping James MacDonald Hudson?

Anyway, Travis goes into the barn and finds the naked Logan. Hugh looked lovely in that scene - so innocent and lost. And his hair looked really lovely too.

I liked the funny scene when Logan is admiring (I guess you could say that he was admiring them) his new adamantium claws and accidentally slices through the sink and the radiator. Ha ha!

Agent Zero ruins it all, though. Really obliterates the Hudsons. I thought the Logan and Zero face-off was well done too. Not hand-to-hand but a bike against a ‘copter (almost).

What happens after that? Logan meets up with Wraith (who I’ve not yet read about) and gets into a pretty, well, a bit of an unnecessary fight with Blob. I mean, I like the whole, “Did you just call me Blob?” bit. But we didn’t need the boxing match. A normal fight would’ve been alright, what with Fred Dukes being in such a delicate state of mind.

Anyway, the moment Blob mentioned that the only one to escape the facility was a fella nicknamed Gambit... well, one person (okay, I’ll be honest, two people) sat up very straight and stared hard at the screen.

Did I forget the “young mutant”? I did. I think the “young mutant” came in somewhere in between.

Anyway, I knew that a young Scott Summers would be in the film, because the Wolverine page on imdb had mentioned it. (I actually wondered whether the young mutant was Scott or Gambit, before the confirmation was made for me)

However, I thought it would be a very young Scott. Imagine my surprise when the red sunglasses are worn by a young teenager.

First up let me say that the introduction of Scott was really well done. In the comics Scott mentions that he sees the world in shades of red, and when we see the classroom like that, you immediately know who it is. And I (by now in my element) couldn’t stop myself from saying (over) excitedly, “Scott!” Boy, this has got to be the first movie Lou and I have gone to see because of the characters alone!

I have no idea which language class he was in, but I really don’t think his teacher was very kind. She doesn’t know he’s a mutant, but she says, “Summers, take off those sunglasses.” And I loudly said, “You don’t want him to be doing that!” I also like the, “I have a headache” bit. Anyway, this was Pocock’s first on-screen role (that’s what I know for now), and under the ruby-quartz glasses he sure looked like Scott. I love how he totals his school with his optic beams when Sabretooth attacks him. Nicely done.

We are then, finally, introduced to the hugely-anticipated-by-my-sister character of the film - Gambit!

“Are you Remy Lebeau?” asks Logan.

“Do I owe you money?” asks the man under the hat.

Nice! There are woefully few memorable lines in the film (I should be happy I found the ones that I have). I don’t understand why. Logan does say “I’m the best at what I do, but what I do best isn’t very nice”, but you can’t really quote that. Also, I’ve always associated those words being said by a gruff, angry voice, in the film he just... says it.

I complain too much! My apologies.

Anyway, I like how Gambit starts attacking Logan and the fight with Logan (which I thought was prematurely cut short, but thankfully, it was only briefly, postponed) was fun to watch as well.

However, where was the Cajun accent? I mean, the accent’s supposed to be thicker, I’m sure of it. And it’s supposed to have a lot more French in it. Taylor Kitsch did put on something of an accent... but there could’ve been more.

When Logan starts fighting Victor again, Lou sadly turned to me and asked, “Gambit’s gone? That’s it?”

But nada! He does this fantastic staff-whirling-in-the-air-like-a-witch thing and attempts to fight Logan (who he thinks is planning to lock him up in the facility again) and we get a bonus fight.

And then a bonus scene, too, as Gambit flies the strangely airsick Logan to the facility, which is hidden in plain sight, in amongst nuclear reactors.

Gambit says that people don’t want to go near nuclear reactors because they think “they’ll turn into freaks”, and Logan says, “Like you?” That was funny too.

Then Gambit leaves us, and I caught a glimpse of an extremely sad Lou.

So then Logan breaks into the facility and comes across some poor hapless person being operated upon. I can’t remember correctly now, but I think that was probably the same person that Stryker was looking down at when he kills the General who’s trying to shut down the facility owing to Stryker’s personal involvement and problem with mutants. They’ve tried to tie that in with the films, but in the comics Stryker kills his son when he’s born. I mean the son didn’t kill the mother, Stryker never alludes to that in the comics, but since they started that story in the movies, and since Wolverine is a prequel, it made sense to continue that.

Anyway, the patient that Stryker was looking at had his mouth sewn, and for some reason I thought that was Dominic’s character. Because I was under the impression that Dominic was playing a character called Beak (as was said on imdb when the Wolverine page first came up). So I thought mean Stryker is giving Beak a beak.

Apparently not!

Anyway, we find out, not much to our horror, that Kayla Silverfox is a mutant, she has tactile hypnotic ability... did I get that right? Anyway, she’s not dead. She appeared dead, which is why Logan double-checked her pulse, most likely (this is all my theory) his advanced senses picked up the faint pulse.

Anyway, that was a good twist. Somehow or the other, after Sabretooth attempts to kill Kayla, and Kayla tells Wolverine that she was not taking him for a ride, and that Stryker has captured her sister, Wolverine and Sabretooth start battling. I can’t remember that too well. It’s good though, like most of the other fights.

Logan (sorry the timeline’s all mixed up here) frees the kids, including Kayla’s sister Emma and Scott who, as usually seen in the comics, has something covering his eyes.

Logan tells Kayla to take the children to safety, and we find out who this Emma is actually. She is Emma Frost - The White Queen, your everyday average pain in the neck. Okay not so in the movie, but that’s essentially the character she plays. I love the diamond skin though. I have not yet seen it in the comics, and in The Ultimates series it was a big disappointment.

As they attempt to escape, Emma and Scott make for a good fighting pair, as Scott’s optic beams take out the bad guys and her diamond skin reflects the bullets.

Kayla tells the kids to find a way out, ostensibly to help Logan, but actually, she probably wants to say goodbye as she’s been shot.

Why does Logan need help? Because, when Stryker sees what Logan’s doing (freeing the kids) he wakes Weapon XI. Weapon XI is the patient who had his mouth sewn. Weapon XI is Deadpool - Wade Wilson. Now, I know that Deadpool (in the comics) is a messed up character. Lou’s research has told me that. He’s scarred and he’s a lunatic (Wade Wilson is not a lunatic, but in the movie he just talks a lot of nonsense all the time, which isn’t a lot of time). I know all this. But it was a real shock to see it, anyway. I mean, all I was thinking was, “Oh God, Wade was so beautiful!” His mouth’s sewn, and his eyes are virtually popping out of their sockets and of course, he’s bald. It was awful. The fight scene with him and Logan, and then with him against Logan and Victor, is good. Especially when Logan’s done all the hard work of climbing up the side of this huge wall and looking down at XI, challenging him to come up, and XI, given commands by Stryker from a computer, just teleports up (the power taken from a now dead John Wraith); I loved the expression on Logan’s face.

Of course, the arrival of Weapon XI was not welcomed by the invisible kid who was with us in the audience. I think it was weeping or something. Told you it was an adult movie.

Anyway most of that fight scene was ruined by me thinking, “no no, how could they do that to Wade?” I mean, I don’t get myself. It just doesn’t seem to matter that Wade is played by Ryan Reynolds. This is the guy who I’ve spent some of my time getting mixed up with Jason Lee (okay okay Ryan Reynolds/ Jason Lee fans may burn my effigy). I think I’ve seen Ryan in a grand total of... two movies, barring this one; the first was Van Wilder (on one of those nights when Lou and I, after our exams had finished, just wanted to watch movies, and Van Wilder just happened to be a movie), it was awful, whatever we saw of it when Lou wasn’t gagging and changing the channel; and the second when my Dad for some reason decided Mum and the two of us should watch Smokin’Aces with him. There Ryan played a serious role as the protagonist (I recall being impressed, who wouldn’t considering what I’d seen of him before). That’s it. The only other info I have of him is from Lou, who tells me that he’s married to Scarlet Johansson. She’s married? Isn’t she a bit young? Especially for him. Oh and that he is Canadian and dated Alanis Morrisette, and her new album (which is probably old by now) is about her break-up with him. I think I got that right.

So why on earth do I think Wade Wilson-played-by-Ryan Reynolds is beautiful? Beats me. But I have this lovely image of the close-up of him in the elevator going on about Stryker’s green (I think) shirt bringing out the seriousness in his eyes. It’s a beautiful image! He’s in his tight red singlet, short hair, lovely tanned skin, why wouldn't I think he was beautiful? And for that Stryker sewed up his mouth. Die Stryker, die! I have issues. If I ever see this movie again, I know I’ll be scratching my head wondering what I was on about. Now, though, “How could they do that to Wade!”

Anyway, I learnt later (from trustworthy imdb of course) that Ryan didn’t participate in that fight scene as Weapon XI. Someone called Scott Adkins was XI and fought Logan and Victor with his (implanted) adamantium knives (that is not true to the comics either, nor is the fact that Weapon XI, also not a character in the comics, has Scott’s eye-beams. But we’ll hand it to the writers, though, for good, creative artistic license). I frankly liked the implanted adamantium swords and the borrowed eye-beams. Anyway Logan finally cuts off poor XI’s head, to which I sadly went, “But it’s not Deadpool’s fault!” I was really into the movie.

Anyway, XI’s death by decapitation means his severed head totals the building that they were fighting on. Logan follows Sabretooth and jumps off. He lands on his back on the ground and helplessly watches as this enormous chunk of the wall is all set to make a huge impact on him.

Bonus screen-time of the century. From nowhere a flying figure comes and seemingly smashes that ghastly wall to bits. It’s none other that our very own ragin’ Cajun! I know one person who practically leapt out of her seat when she saw the man and his staff.

Anyway Logan goes to help Kayla while telling Gambit to see to the kids.

The kids in the meantime have been following Scott who heard in his head “Left” when they reached a crossroads. I was wondering who could have told him this - because it couldn’t have been Kayla because even if she did have some telepathic ability she would’ve told Emma not Scott.

We soon realise who the mysterious voice belongs to. As the kids run out and see a helicopter awaiting their arrival, a man walks up to them and as the camera tilts up, I said, “I’m Professor Charles Xavier”. I hope the rest of the audience didn’t hear me, because it would have ruined the surprise that was awaiting them in a few seconds’ time. It was an age-reduced version (I think) of Patrick Stewart, but it was great anyway. One of the more wonderful surprises in the film.

Gambit catches up with the kids in time to see them boarding Xavier’s ‘chopper.

While he’s gone, Stryker shoots Logan several times with adamantium bullets (a scene not appreciated by the invisible kid, who loudly voiced his displeasure). Kayla, who Stryker is about to shoot, thankfully gets some kind of vengeance as she uses her power to make Stryker “walk till your feet bleed, and then continue walking”. Not the worst punishment one can think of, but she was dying.

Anyway Gambit returns and tells Logan to hurry up and get out, but Logan (having been shot in the head with the adamantium bullets) has lost his memory. Unfortunately I was hoping he’d get up and become the animal persona (the primitive persona that one may adopt when they have no memory). But he just gets up, looks at the tags around his neck and asks Gambit, “Who are you?” And then when they’re running off he spots Kayla and though he doesn’t recognise her, he has enough memory to check her pulse. Disappointing! Logan should have acted like a wild and scared animal. He should have acted the way he did when he woke up in the lab at Professor X’s school in X-Men. That was a Wolverine reaction, as Lou put it. This was a damp squib. It just totally negates the fact that Logan has always been part animal.

Anyway, Gambit is told to make his own way and then end credits roll.

All the audience (all five of them) jumped up and were almost out of the door, when fade out, Stryker is still walking. Finally some people from the army come and tell him he’s wanted for questioning for the murder of General something. I suppose we’re supposed to go, “Justice!”, but we didn’t.

Anyway, the audience now decided they could leave, and they did. Lou and I though sat glued to our seats, enjoying the music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, the same man behind the music for the two Narnia movies. We could hear a little of Narnia in the movie, and Lou tells me that he also added some electronica that was a huge part of X-Men.

Anyway, the cleaning crew had very little cleaning to do. The lights came on so that they could clean, but once they were done, they politely switched the lights off, because they knew that we were awaiting the scene after the credits.

We didn’t know this at the time, we just wanted to stick around, just in case. And good for us. There was a scene. Not an important one. But Logan’s in Japan and talking to the female bartender telling her he was drinking to remember.

The important thing here is, he’s in Japan. Much of what makes Logan, Logan, is his connection with Japan. Hugh says there may be a sequel - and it may be the Samurai story. So now we know what he’s doing there.

All in all, I think Wolverine could’ve been darker. More fight scenes. We were told this was about his relationship with Sabretooth, well it sure didn’t seem like it. The introduction of the other characters was a good thought, but it left, at least, me, wanting for more of some of the others. More of Sabretooth, more of Gambit, more of Scott (though I think all the scenes of Scott were a bonus because I had almost forgotten about him, and anyway I thought they’d cast a child) and definitely more of Wade - and I mean Wade. Not that ghastly excuse called Weapon XI. Weapon XI was nothing but a mindless automaton, Wade was the one with character, we needed to see more of that. I think we, the audience, were robbed!

But, you know, having complained so much, it was still good. It had some action, some special effects, and Wolverine’s gorgeous adamantium claws.

I need to see this movie again!