X MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE
I’ll be the first to admit I was not going to attend this movie in fears that Hollywood had begun to sink into that cycle of shlock that several times over the past 30 years has plagued the comic book industry and that’s going for the easy, cheap sale.
I was wrong. Glad I took the Sunday off and went to the Vista Theatre here in Hollywood and saw Wolverine get his thing on!
I’ve been working in comics now for over 20 years. I was lucky enough to illustrate a couple of books that the creator of Wolverine, Len Wein had written. Got to meet him and joke with him too. Although I grew up not a major fan of the X Men comics, the majority of my friends knew those books inside and out. I was fortunate however to get a copy of the first appearance of Wolverine in a “The Incredible Hulk” comic book. That story was awesome! Wolverine had been sent out to kill the Hulk. Nobody kills the Hulk but that one issue had such a good story it remains memorable to this day.
So here I am watching this new incarnation of the X Men movie franchise and loving it! I couldn’t believe how much fun I and the audience had watching this flick! We were laughing and shouting and cheering! Just the reason why we go to the movies to share the entertainment experience with others.
Sure this movie isn’t “Casablanca” but as far as superhero action movies, action movies, go this one takes a big prize. It didn’t lack in anything especially “crazy movie logic” like in the latest “Star Trek” movie where theres a huge evil looking starship that you just know no one in their right mind would get near. X Men Origins: Wolverine is opening the door even wider for the domination of Hollywood by the Marvel Universe. We Marvel fans all knew this for half a century but Hollywood’s special effects couldn’t get anywhere near the astounding, amazing, incredible action the classic Marvel Comics artwork from greats like Jack Kirby, Herb Trimpe, Steve Ditko, and John Buscema presented. This is the closest thing to ever get there and it raises the bar for future superhero fare.
The story was interesting, combined from years of Wolverine and X Men stories, the acting was much better than I expected, and the director should be congratulated for taking so many characters and putting them in an easy to follow narrative. I’ve heard that some didn’t find the direction so great but I have to hand it to him because each scene was easy to follow. The battle at Three Mile Island raises the bar even higher. That was freakin’ awesome no end!
The actors just so surprised me that I can’t wait to see them again.
You get the full spectrum of what made those Marvel Comics stories so great, love and romance amongst unspeakable evil and either power gained by mad scientists or nature. I’ve always thought of Stan Lee the mastermind behind classic Marvel Comics as a romance writer using superheroes as a means to tell a story. Every one of those Marvel characters had worse love relationships than we readers. Before Marvel came along superheroes didn’t have divorces and affairs and other such interrelationship problems. In Marvel stories you would have a superhero in a battle against some horrific supervillain and in the middle of the fight one of their lawyers would show up with superpowers trying to get one or both of them to pay their alimony or child support payments.
This movie carries all that and more as we get introduced to new mutant menaces, military industrial magnates, and a glimpse of our favorite mutants from their early years.
There are so many high points in this movie that if I listed them I’d be dang near writing the script of the movie right here!
Each scene stands on it’s own merits and fits into the narrative without trying to be anything more than a superhero movie wrapped around romance and intrigue and the virtues of rising above one’s hate and anger against all odds.
I can tell you one thing, these superhero movies are going to be the new “westerns” where stories are being told of human endeavors in this format. We know this because that’s what happened in comics way back in the 1960s. Western stories had be told to within an inch of their lives and a new venue needed. Along comes Marvel Comics and the witty writing and unprecedented artwork that gave creative people a new way of telling stories. I remember as a kid not wanting to read Marvel Comics because they always had “mush” in them. That’s an old term for romance. No self respecting eight year old wanted to see his favorite superhero smooching it up with some yucky girl but when you had girls in the comics drawn by John Buscema you hit puberty a lot faster and realized why these super guys were beating the snot out of each other. In those days a Marvel superhero wouldn’t think twice about beating the crap out of a supervillain with a ’58 Chevy or a ’64 Chrysler over some girl they were both in love with.
So once again the superhero genre’ ramps up to new heights. Last year it was the outstanding performances of Heath Ledger and Robert Downey Jr. that showed what I’ve been saying for years that the big awards are going to start going to the actors who take these superhero roles and own them. If you’re an actor and you’re not snagging up one of these Marvel roles you’re gonna find yourself missing out big time. Believe you me, Marvel’s got thousands of characters that are well defined enough for any actor worth their salt to take on and rule.
Comic books are now ruling Hollywood. It’s not going away. Just wait until Wolverine’s story progresses and the crossover movies start up. Something like “Wolverine vs Spider-Man” might make it and then you’ll have to have armed guards at ever movie theatre.
The audience has spoken! Make mine Marvel!
Posted under Comic Book Artist, COMIC BOOKS, Conventions, Movie scores, Movies, Sci-Fi
This post was written by Greg Boone on May 12, 2009
