Friday, May 1, 2009

X Men Origins: Wolverine

I learned two things today. The first day of summer is now May 1st, according to Hollywood anyway. With the release of Wolverine, to be followed shortly by three other big summer blockbusters (Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, and Angels & Demons) all before Memorial Day (the previous start of summer), movie season is falling prey to the same forces that have stretched Christmas towards Halloween. Not that I am complaining, just observing. Second, I am not really a movie critic. I just happened to listen to some real critics discussing Wolverine about an hour before I saw it. In hind sight, everything they said was true. It's just that while watching the movie, I didn't really notice any of them.
Hugh Jackman plays an excellent Wolverine. In this installment of the X-Men stories, we get a lot of back story on the mutants in general, and Wolverine and Sabertooth specifically. While this may not have the best dialogue (it is a summer blockbuster, what do you expect), and it may not have the best special effects (I actually didn't notice what others are complaining about), it entertains throughout and never left me wondering what I was going to do later in the afternoon. My simpleminded enjoyment of a comic book tale, without all the baggage of knowing the actual comic book storyline made this a great opening for the summer. By the end of the month, I may have to see some independent films just to balance out my movie karma.
3-stars

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