Wolverine...

[annwfyn]

So, I went to see it last night.

Being unchained by any kind of comics geekery (I've read some of the X Men comics, am clueless on most of them), I was therefore free to enjoy it utterly.

Yes, it wasn't entirely canon. I do, however, disagree that the plot made no sense. It all seemed fairly coherent to me, and the more I think it through, the more internally consistent it does seem. There is one point which was driving pierot insane at the end of the movie which I concede I have no real answer to, but other than that I think it worked.

Rather than write a long and rambling piece, I offer instead some bullet points.

Things I Liked

• The opening credit sequence, showing Logan and Victor Creed fighting their way through war afer war - fantastic music, lovely imagery, really nice silent story of Victor devolving more and more into the monster he would become, and Logan's slow recoil from the whole thing.



• Actually, Victor Creed in general. He was just perfect. I'm told that the guy in the X Men films looked better (if was sadly unable to talk or act), but I really don't care. Liev Shrieber was just amazing in terms of movement, mannerisms and voice. He positively radiated danger, and managed to send equal levels of 'want' and 'fear' down my spine.



• The short section of the film which showed Logan, Creed and the rest of the Weapon X team working together in their evil minion days. Glorious glorious representation of a mutant hit squad, doing exactly what evil combat mutants do best. Fantastic.



• Scott Summers. I know he was only in it for a while, but he was fab. I loved the angsty teen, the scared kid standing in detention rather than risk taking off those sunglasses. I also loved the fact that for once you realize how bloody powerful Cyclops is. In the X Men films he was so tightly controlled - all you saw was the sharp and precise red laser beam. Here, you saw him in his early days, uncontrolled, powerful and able to rip buildings apart, just by opening his eyes. And finally, I really liked the ending. A scared kid, with a bunch of other scared kids, trying to run from a facility says "no - we go this way. I just know we should", and they do it. OK, so he might have been taking orders from Professor X in his head, but in that moment I suddenly saw why that kid was going to grow up to lead the X Men.



• Gambit. I don't care if they changed him. I think he worked. He was smooth, charming, and I loved the opening shot of him throwing Logan through a wall with a card.



• Add Deadpool (back in his merc days, when he was pretty Ryan Reynolds), Bolt, and Agent Zero. They were all stunningly cool and stunningly underused.



• The moment when, at last, Logan responded to Stryker's constant 'do it for your country' with a confused 'what? Canada?' which I'd been waiting for him to do all film! He's the most Canadian man ever! And has anyone else noticed that in all the comics he tends to scuttle off back to the Canadian mountains any time he's left alone for too long. For a man with no memories, he's got a hell of a homing instinct.



• The periodic link ins with the later films. I was really glad that there was that shot of Professor Xavier managing to collect the runaway mutant kids from Stryker's facility - in film canon it never has been explained where he started his academy, and here I felt there was a good beginning. Although I did wonder if he'd been sitting outside Three Mile Island with his helicopter for weeks, occasionally getting phone calls from Magneto.
  
  Magneto: Charles. You've been there for eight weeks. You really need to accept that they aren't just going to come running into your open arms. Plus, I'm getting really bored back here with PsychoTeenageJean.
  
  Xavier: Who's the genius here? It'll happen, I'm telling you. How many times has any evil villain successfully kept an entire prison full of vastly powerful superheroes locked up for any period of time without it going wrong? It's practically a narrative certainty.
  
  Magneto: You've been reading too many comics.

Things That Were Not So Good

• The very first scene. The child actors playing Logan and Victor were really not very good. Logan did not so much howl when killing his father, as wail like a small child having a tantrum.



• Logan in general was not as strong as he has been in the previous films. Hugh Jackman did OK, but basically I don't think he does 'pured entirely by rage' very well. He did 'slightly grumpy and laconic' well. 'Raw animal power' was not so convincing. Serviceable, but not stand out.



• I think the secondary characters were criminally underused. I can only hope this is because this is the first film in a new series, and that Deadpool and Gambit, especially, have a lot more to do in the next one. Frankly, they took their best characters and just walked them around a bit.



• The Blob. It was a lousy fat suit. And he moved all wrong. There was no need.



• The love story I was ambivalent about. It didn't feel right to me at first, but I did quite like the twist they put in at the end. Even if it drove some people in the cinema with me into hissing fury at the familial relationships added.



• The reason Logan lost his memories. OK. Jez is right. It doesn't make much sense unless you squint kinda funny. But I'm squinting! I'm squinting!

Overall, I really liked it. It's not comic book canon, but neither were the movies and I felt it did fit in well with the storyline established there. It was pretty, it had a dramatic angsty story, and whilst it wasn't X Men 2, neither was it X Men 3, which made me weep bitter tears.

Now, I want to see what they do with Magneto's origin story, which I think is coming soon...