Escape to the Movies: The Wolverine

[Rakor]

The question is, bob......have you seen the Wolverine anime from a few years ago? Cause it was pretty cool. And involved Wolverine wrecking stuff in Japan.

 

[Gatx]

Man, just saw Pacific Rim last week. Can I afford to go to the movies again? Still kind of want to see Despicable Me 2, Turbo, Red 2, and White House Down too.

I've noticed that in these movies you just can't seem to have plot and (good) actions scenes. I loved Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy to death, but the fight choreography is almost universally panned by everyone. Doesn't matter to me because I go to hear the dialogue that I've come to love from Nolan movies, and I suspect lots of people don't care about the plot of this movie and just want to see Wolverine slice up ninja's and apparently robotic samurai. Whatever.

Thing I like most about Bob's reviews are his tidbits of info that I would have never known anywhere else. First time I saw saw the trailer for this I figured they were just desperately searching for content so they figured, ninjas, samurai, Japan, lets do this! But no, its actual part of the comics. I got a good laugh at that.

Raimi's Spider-man movies had amazing fights, especially 2, and 1 and 2 at least were pretty good movies in general.

 

[kailus13]

So the ability to turn your brain off and on again several times throughout the movie would be useful in this case.

What's wrong with the bone claws? Plenty of mutants have a secondary mutation, what's so bad about Wolverine having one?

Is Mr Bob about a Gorilla playing baseball? Finally, a sports movie I might be interested in.

 

[MB202]

Nothing wrong with the bone claws, Bob.

Except that it makes no sense, seeing as animal claws aren't bones, they're made of a protein called keratin, the same thing nails and hair are made out of. Yeah, it's easy to sweep it under the rug with "he's a mutant, mutants are we're like that", but it's still a completely pointless retcon that adds nothing. The whole "claw implants" thing was way better.

But yeah, glad to know that the Angry Nerd from Wired and I aren't the only ones who hate the bone claws.

 

[Duncan Belfast]

Don't usually comment on these reviews, but I have to award Bob points for that Tommy reference.

 

[Vivi22]

So Bob says it's "good enough?" Must mean it's the best comic book movie in years then since Bob's taste seems to clash quite a bit with mine.

 

[Merklyn236]

I agree, MovieBob, that the first movie wasn't much better than "Eh, good enough" but I really wonder how much of that came from the studio not wanting to invest too heavily in something that they probably considered VERY risky at best. The second movie was so far above

Since then we've had one more high mark (First Class), and two very low marks (XO:Wolverine and The Last Stand). I guess since Days of Future Past is already filming this won't stop that one way or the other, so we've got two more to go. With this one going back to "Good enough" wonder what that means for DoFP...

 

[Lightknight]

Hmm, I was really excited about the setting. This is my favorite wolverine era. It never struck me as entirely sensical tha a canadian would be in Japan, but I liked the comics from that era.

I would like a more visceral Wolverine. PG-13 just isn't cutting it (hahaha, NO, lazy puns are bad!)

 

[thetoddo]

The bone claws are canon. He had them after Magneto ripped the adamantium out of him. This being said, it happened in the 90s.

 

[Ukomba]

Hmm, I was really excited about the setting. This is my favorite wolverine era. It never struck me as entirely sensical tha a canadian would be in Japan, but I liked the comics from that era.

I would like a more visceral Wolverine. PG-13 just isn't cutting it (hahaha, NO, lazy puns are bad!)

Why is that? There are a lot of Asians in Canada. 15% of Canadians are Asian actually, doesn't seem all that strange for a Canadian to go the other way.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

while I would like to see it, I just can't get past how bad origins was. Also it kind of irks me that they imply in the trailers that wolverine is immortal. He can heal at an enormous rate, yes, but that does not equal immortality.

Well in the comics, and somewhat scientifically, his healing factor does make him immortal. A person ages due to the slow damage and death of cells and organs in their body. Logan's cells and organs repair and regrow that damage, meaning he won't age and since he can repair any other injury he sustains due to drinking, fighting, or accidents; so long as some part of his DNA still exists he is effectively immortal outside of total disintegration.

by giving a circumstance that states his mortality you have proven my point

since the likelihood of him suffering injuries that out-damage the effectiveness of his healing ability is slim I'll go with suffocation and drowning as potential proof of mortality options as well

It's a tricky subject anyway given all the continuities and versions of the character that has existed though the years

 

[Nimzabaat]

while I would like to see it, I just can't get past how bad origins was. Also it kind of irks me that they imply in the trailers that wolverine is immortal. He can heal at an enormous rate, yes, but that does not equal immortality.

Well in the comics, and somewhat scientifically, his healing factor does make him immortal. A person ages due to the slow damage and death of cells and organs in their body. Logan's cells and organs repair and regrow that damage, meaning he won't age and since he can repair any other injury he sustains due to drinking, fighting, or accidents; so long as some part of his DNA still exists he is effectively immortal outside of total disintegration.

There have been many comics showing Logan in the future as an old man (Days of Future Past etc), so he does age even though his mutation slows that process down. Though they may have ret-conned that like the bone claws thing. (One of my fav comics was Logan fighting alongside Captain America (pre-freeze) and telling Rogers it was fun working with him but he didn't need a sidekick.)

As for scientifically? Lizards can regrow entire body parts but that doesn't make them immortal, likewise there are worms that can regrow their heads but they still die over time.

I'm also in the camp that doesn't want to see this movie because of (a) how completely awful Origins was (b) making the Silver Samurai a robot (c) screwing up Yukio's character (d) screwing up the whole Japan part of Wolverine's storyline and messing up the continuity and (e) Yakuza instead of the Hand.

 

[Souplex]

*Youtubes up Mr. Go*
So it's a Korean Air Bud with a gorilla instead of a dog (Upgrade) and baseball instead of basketball. (Downgrade)
I'd watch that.

 

[Mr. Q]

I really can't generate any excitement to see the Wolverine. Judging from the trailers, it doesn't have anything that draws me on. Plus the fact that its referencing X-Men: Last Stand makes it less appealing. I'll wait for DVD to see it but I'm gonna wait to see if X-Men: Days of Futures Past can bring the X-Men movies back on top.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Yeah, I really hate "plot twists," where the filmmakers deliberately withhold information. Like the entire remakes of the Ocean's Eleven film, it is like the writers and director are just holding information from the audience in a pathetic attempt to demonstrate how smart they think they are.

Hitchcock can do plot twists, mostly because he was smart enough to show you his entire hand during the film, then you would still be incredibly surprised when he laid his cards on the table. As if: "Hey! when you showed me your hand, you had three Aces and two Jacks! How on earth did you get a full house from that?" Essentially, it was the only logical explanation for the events going on in the film, but you were still surprised when it happened.

 

[EeviStev]

Fingers crossed the bonus scene features a Sentinel.

 

[LetalisK]

Dumber then making him an ACTUAL wolverine that had been genetically engineered?

Naw, I think the "human descended from wolves" one was worse.

You know, I'm not a comic book reader at all, but considering how comic book fans talk about their own hobby, would I be remiss in assuming comic books are generally a cesspool of absolutely horrific writing? I'm always hearing about the absolutely eye-rollingly dumb facets and continuities of even major characters and I can only assume the thick layer of camp is what makes the hobby so appealing to people.

 

[Vausch]

Nothing wrong with the bone claws, Bob.

Except they conflict with the continuity of the first X-men when you see the x-ray of Logan's hand and he has a mechanical device in there.

And that the bone claws aren't blade shaped, nor would they be able to do so if they were just coating his bones like they did.

And the bones don't really have a way of staying still when he cuts with them, likely resulting in them splitting his hands apart if he ties to swipe.

And without a healing factor, they wouldn't work. He doesn't have like skin that retracts them like a cat, they split the skin between his knuckles.

 

[Lightknight]

Hmm, I was really excited about the setting. This is my favorite wolverine era. It never struck me as entirely sensical tha a canadian would be in Japan, but I liked the comics from that era.

I would like a more visceral Wolverine. PG-13 just isn't cutting it (hahaha, NO, lazy puns are bad!)

Why is that? There are a lot of Asians in Canada. 15% of Canadians are Asian actually, doesn't seem all that strange for a Canadian to go the other way.

How many Canadians are in Asia? That's the reason for the comment. I've spent a lot of time in Seattle and am aware of the Asian population in the North West but am not particularly aware of the Canadian populations around the World.