My impression of the XMO:WOLVERINE movie
May. 1st, 2009 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockWell, now it's confirmed that elegant, pale brunettes are so Logan's type. That's not at all helping me get over my residual Rogue/Wolverine UST from the first three movies.
Generally, I liked it! It's not going to win any awards for brilliant film making, and it certainly doesn't have the ambition of Iron Man or the panache of the the first Spiderman movie. It's too predictable and cliched for that. However, I really don't mind cliche when it comes to superhero movies, and it's only predictable because we've already SEEN the next three movies and thus we know how it must end. It's very hard to surprise viewers in those circumstances.
Still, if you go in expecting a wonderfully explosive action movie that doesn't require much thought and delivers on the big "action" moments, this is a good one for you. Plus gratuitous shirtless muscle from Hugh Jackman! I mean, honestly, that man must be happy when his filming period ends and he's can get back down to Mostly Human Perfect Muscles instead of Unbelievable Deity Muscles.
Liev Schreiber was creepy and hairy and scary; excellent! Ryan Reynolds was...Ryan Reynolds. By which I mean that even though he was a sociopathic murderer, I loved every minute of him being on screen and I kinda wish they'd given him an entire movie to himself. Himself and his wondrous torso! When I found out he'd be in this movie, my desire to see it was doubled, and I'm glad that they brought his character back as Deadpool at the end, even if he was barely recognizable. Now I'm wondering why, if he's so indestructible and ruthless and perfectly violent, he gets to survive. Surely he's going to suffer the god-mode plot fallacy? Ah well, that's for future movies! At least now I'll know who/what Deadpool is when people mention him.
ETA: I saw the Deadpool tag where his sword arm emerges from the rubble and his eyes open. I hear there are others?
Feminist Sidebar!
Was the woman in this movie "refrigerated" or was the trope subverted? I almost feel like it was subverted, because it was overtaken instead by a different trope: the honeytrap cliche, where the woman is a seducer/betrayer/hunter who prays on the delicate feelings of men and causes them to lose their humanity.
Even though she died, I still don't think it counts as a "women in refrigerators" thing, because when she *did* die, it didn't serve Logan's characterization at all. He wasn't there for her being shot, and he was distracted for the whole period where she passed away. When he woke up again, he had no idea who she was and her death meant nothing more to him than any other person's death. I suppose you could say this is the final erasure of her character after serving the plot point of luring him to the island, but since she was shot while rescuing her sister and the other captives, and then apparently had the strength to make her way to Logan's location, I don't think she lacked efficacy in her final moments. She didn't die for the man, she died because of the rescue, and her last conversation with Striker wasn't about Logan, it was about all mutants. Her death and her final actions were about herself, her sister, and all the mutants involved (including but not limited to Logan.)
Thoughts?
By the way, potential viewers: THERE ARE TWO END-CREDIT SCENE TAGS! So definitely stick around. The first one is very quick, but the second doesn't play until after the final credits roll. You'll want to stay and see it.
Generally, I liked it! It's not going to win any awards for brilliant film making, and it certainly doesn't have the ambition of Iron Man or the panache of the the first Spiderman movie. It's too predictable and cliched for that. However, I really don't mind cliche when it comes to superhero movies, and it's only predictable because we've already SEEN the next three movies and thus we know how it must end. It's very hard to surprise viewers in those circumstances.
Still, if you go in expecting a wonderfully explosive action movie that doesn't require much thought and delivers on the big "action" moments, this is a good one for you. Plus gratuitous shirtless muscle from Hugh Jackman! I mean, honestly, that man must be happy when his filming period ends and he's can get back down to Mostly Human Perfect Muscles instead of Unbelievable Deity Muscles.
Liev Schreiber was creepy and hairy and scary; excellent! Ryan Reynolds was...Ryan Reynolds. By which I mean that even though he was a sociopathic murderer, I loved every minute of him being on screen and I kinda wish they'd given him an entire movie to himself. Himself and his wondrous torso! When I found out he'd be in this movie, my desire to see it was doubled, and I'm glad that they brought his character back as Deadpool at the end, even if he was barely recognizable. Now I'm wondering why, if he's so indestructible and ruthless and perfectly violent, he gets to survive. Surely he's going to suffer the god-mode plot fallacy? Ah well, that's for future movies! At least now I'll know who/what Deadpool is when people mention him.
ETA: I saw the Deadpool tag where his sword arm emerges from the rubble and his eyes open. I hear there are others?
Feminist Sidebar!
Was the woman in this movie "refrigerated" or was the trope subverted? I almost feel like it was subverted, because it was overtaken instead by a different trope: the honeytrap cliche, where the woman is a seducer/betrayer/hunter who prays on the delicate feelings of men and causes them to lose their humanity.
Even though she died, I still don't think it counts as a "women in refrigerators" thing, because when she *did* die, it didn't serve Logan's characterization at all. He wasn't there for her being shot, and he was distracted for the whole period where she passed away. When he woke up again, he had no idea who she was and her death meant nothing more to him than any other person's death. I suppose you could say this is the final erasure of her character after serving the plot point of luring him to the island, but since she was shot while rescuing her sister and the other captives, and then apparently had the strength to make her way to Logan's location, I don't think she lacked efficacy in her final moments. She didn't die for the man, she died because of the rescue, and her last conversation with Striker wasn't about Logan, it was about all mutants. Her death and her final actions were about herself, her sister, and all the mutants involved (including but not limited to Logan.)
Thoughts?
By the way, potential viewers: THERE ARE TWO END-CREDIT SCENE TAGS! So definitely stick around. The first one is very quick, but the second doesn't play until after the final credits roll. You'll want to stay and see it.
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Date: 2009-05-02 05:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-03 03:21 am (UTC)RYAN REYNOLDSstart-of-the-movie Wade Wilson in a mask: deadly deranged killer AND adorkable loser geek, with bonus regular fourth-wall-breaking. The Deadpool guy at the end (who was played by a different actor!) is a bundle of WTF to me, and I am going to do lalala away his existence quite happily as long as I get a snarky Ryan Reynolds DP in a sequel.I am having unresolved thinkythoughts about Silverfox's death myself, and I'm not really sure which direction it worked if any. I think she was a flat-out honeytrap-turned-refrigeratored-woman in the comics; was this an attempt to not fuck with Classic Plot ZOMG while trying to downplay the bad taste of the original? I don't know how subverted tropes can be when all the female and minority major characters are wicked cool but still all end up evil and/or dead.
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Date: 2009-05-03 06:19 pm (UTC)