Not the comic...

Okay kids, it is time for the Lockedawg to try his hand at a movie review.





I grew up as a big comic book geek! I loved them all, Batman was my favorite (but the only DC comic I enjoyed), then there was The Punisher, Spiderman, The Avengers and of course The X-Men. I loved the escape that comics provided, spending some time in a world where people could fly, climb walls, do super-cool-sweet ninja kicks. There was also the drama of relationships, betrayal, loyalties questioned, basically soap operas for geeks. I ate them up!

When the newest Hollywood craze of making movies out of comic books, I was of course excited, imaging getting to see on screen the comics I knew and loved. To my initial disappointment, I found the movies to be lacking. "That's not how so-and-so would say that", "that's not where so-and-so came from", "that not how...". I soon got over it realizing that movies are not exactly like the books and so it is with the superhero movies. There will be differences, some things don't translate onto the "big screen", some back stories are too complicated, etc.

Having said all that, I went to see X-Men Origins Wolverine this weekend and was not disappointed! No, it will not be nominated for an Oscar, and no, it does not follow the comic mythos of Wolverine either. It is what it is, an action packed, big screen rendition of a comic book superhero. There was lots of action, lots of explosions, characters that I have grown to love doing what they do best...destroying things and getting the bad guys. There was relationship drama, there was betrayal, loyalties questioned...everything I enjoyed in the comics. This was a comic book on the big screen.

I have seen quite a few reviews by some of the so-called "fanboys" that are upset that it didn't tell the story of Wolverine that they have accepted. No,it was not a carbon copy of the exact story that I knew growing up. It is a different mythos, and I am okay with that, it fit with the mythos that was established in the previous X-Men movies and the consistency of the 4 movies was there, and that is what mattered to me. It is to be a pre-quel to the movie mythos, not the comics(get over it fanboys!).

Did it have good action, yes. Did it have Wolverine using his sweet claws to destroy things (and the bad guys), yes. Did it have betrayal, yes. Like I said, it was a comic book on screen, and it was a really fun ride!



Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen the movie, and don't want any of it ruined, do not read on...Okay, here is a couple of my specific issues.



There was just two scenes that I didn't like. When Logan is cleaning up in the old couples bathroom, the Logan that I know isn't that clumsy. He wouldn't have sliced up the whole bathroom, he is a finely tuned fighting machine, his body is a highly trained instrument, he has more control of himself than that! I realize that they put that scene it for two reasons, it was to demonstrate how sharp his new claws really were, and it was for some comic relief (it was pretty tense until then). The other part that bothered me, was at the end of the movie when Prof. X is escorting his new students to the plane, the "blue screen" effect was very poorly done. It looked like it was added just before the release and not cleaned up. In a movie that had some pretty nice effects, the poor ones are just that more glaring.

Until next time...

the Lockedawg