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X-men Origins : Wolverine

After a good year for the comic movies last year with Iron Man, Dark Knight and Incredible Hulk all showing what can be done when a comic movie sticks to the source material. We get arguably amongst you comic fan boys the most popular anti-hero getting his very own movie. Hugh Jackman made this role his own the mixed X-men trilogy playing the role right on the money so a full length feature focusing on him should get the nerves tingling. So with that the fightrunner team gathered for our weekly assualt on the Vue cinema in Aberdeen.

And on paper things look good we see the early days of wolverine and his brother sabertooth some 145 years ago and then through some intriguing shots we see them fighting in all the major conflicts of the past century until present day where they are employed by the mysterious General Stryker to join a band of mercs who also posses special abilities. During a mission in Nigeria Wolverine has a crisis of conscience and retreats to a simple life as a lumberjack in Canada living out a wholesome life with a school teacher. Sabertooth then murders his girlfriend and Wolverine agrees to take part in the Weapon X programme with Stryker to get his revenge, it is here that he gets his Adamantium skeleton and wolverine as we know and love him is born.

On paper it all sounds good and for the first 15 minutes things look promising as the band of mercs including Ryan Reynolds as one of my comic book faves Deadpool (or the character who will become him later) and Reynolds nails this role and at the start i had very high hopes but then the film goes awry. The plot just becomes a very disorganised mess punctated by some decent fight scenes and dodgy CGI. The whole movie feels rushed and the makers were 50/50 on wether to keep true to the comics or try the best please everyone route and keep clear from the source.

Point in case is the later appearance of Deadpool or what the writers have made Deadpool into and this is not Deadpool in anyway. The whole appeal of this character was the “merc with a mouth” and in the opening Reynolds hits it perfectly but at the end Deapool can’t talk. What the fuck? Its like spider-man with no webs, superman no lasers from his eyes, hulk not smashing you get the picture. Now I’m not  fan boy and will allow movie makers a little licence when bringing a comic character from the page to screen but to fundamentally change such a popular character in such a way is a crime.

Another sticking point is the very crap CGI employed at times like the scene where wolverine is checking out his new claws in a bathroom looks just shite. I have no idea why they didn’t just use prop claws as they would have done the job. But like i say there is some entertaining action and an array of marvel characters are ticked of the list but it feels like that  they are trying to satisfy the comic book spotters in the audience. But this film is way of the mark for casual and hardcore viewer alike as the plot twists that come just don’t shock or excite. But the movie gains some points with the Fightrunner team for a brief Patrick Stewart cameo.

Rating : 4/10

Not the Dogs Bollocks , just a dogs dinner.

Hulk Vs Wolverine.

Back to the comic books again for the second of Marvel’s direct to DVD animated flicks. Another one to wet the appetite for an upcoming live action (this years wolverine) sees big old greeny pitted against everyone’s favourite mutant. Its not necessary to have watched Vs Thor as they are both stand alone stories but it think on the surface this would have the comic fanboys creaming themselves more than the Thor yarn.

The story starts with Wolverine being dispatched to take care of a out of control Hulk rampaging through towns and generally making a mess of wherever he goes. After short fistfight both Hulk and Wolverine are taken out and kidnapped by Sabretooth (Check your comics people) who is aided by among others Deadpool, Omega red and Lady Deathstrike. Hulk and Wolverine are taking to the weapon X  facility where they are to be made into weapons of warfare respectively. Needless to say things go awry and our 2 heroes cause a right bit of mayhem.

Now on its own this is fine and entertaining stuff and the fanboys will have happy faces with all the comic lore packed in BUT the story is very lightweight compare to Hulk Vs Thor and lacks any depth. There are some nifty action set pieces such as the Silhouetted wolverine taking out a team of armed guards but the whole thing feels very patchy and doesn’t flow all that too well. It seems as though they have just tried to squeeze in as many cameos for the fans as possible and neglected the narrative.

The plus point? The character of Deadpool is done to perfection and totally outshadows the rest of cast including the two leads, his wisecracking adds some much needed humour and you can’t help but hope he gets an animated movie of his own from Marvel. The big downside is Lady Deathstrike she just comes across as very one dimensional and you never really know why she has it in for Wolverine. On the whole this isn’t a bad feature just feels very lightweight compared to the much beefier Vs Thor.

By no means a failure but a let down after the bar was rasied high by Thor.

Rating 6/10

Not the SMASH you hoped for.