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Conan The Westy 
"Father, Faithful Friend, Fwiffer"
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 Posted - 04/16/2009 : 08:39:20
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If anyone has seen the German cannibal episode from the British comedy series "The I.T. Crowd", they'll understand my dilemma last night.
I was visiting some friends who'd just returned from Singapore and they had a copy of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I told them that it hadn't had its world premiere yet so the copy had to be from the nearly completed leaked version. To watch or not to watch???
After promising myself I'd still see it in the cinema so Hugh wouldn't be out-of-pocket, I watched. 
NO SPOILERS:
I was fascinated to see the film with only the basic CGI in place, waiting to get the final polish. I'm actually really keen to see the way the finished scenes look on the silver screen. Did I mention the harness was still visible in a few stunts?
Playing "Spot the Aussie" in the uncredited (on IMDb anyway) smaller roles was a hoot too - Peter O'Brien & Max Cullen were two I picked up on. Most were a "blink and they'll already be dead" roles |
Edited by - Conan The Westy on 04/23/2009 11:37:49 |
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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 04/29/2009 : 15:07:25
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OK except in the wider scheme of the universe, I am not the target audience for this film. But I know many many many people are going to love it.
While I was watching some questions winkled their way into my brain. I offer them here in no particular order.
1. If two guys are duking it out to the max and they are standing in front of a mofo-BIG window, what are the chances one or both of them will barge right through it, shattering glass all over the damn place?
2. If a guy is driving a vehicle and being harrassed bigtime by another vehicle AND a helicopter, can the guy assure destruction for the other vehicle, AND manage to fly upwards through the air just in time to collide with the copter and bring it down?
3. If a film title promises you'll get the skinny on how a certain character evolved into the more familiar dude you know from a famous franchise, what are the odds that the only evolutionary defining moments that matter will just be excuses for the deaths of innocent people, many beat-em-ups that are sure to recur in gameboy form, and blowing up lots of stuff, including one location that could probably destroy the whole of the US Eastern Seaboard but which only manages a few localized demolitions -- but which, ironically produces one of the BEST shots in the entire film, reminiscent of Bladerunner in the power of its urban decay.
Undoubtedly there are more such questions, but as someone says in the film - not very originally - I think you're confusing me with someone who gives a damn.
Oh, go see it, all you boysie-boys.
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 04/30/2009 : 01:30:12
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine
I haven't seen any of the other X-Men films, so please no spoilers about them. I thought it would be interesting to watch them afterwards (sometime) and see whether it all makes chronological sense. It certainly too obviously builds towards a future scenario, and the whole (packed) cinema laughed at an arrival near the end that I didn't see anything funny about.
I thought it was quite good, though. Jackman looks good, even with his comedy whiskers, and is naked at one point. The shot I think B.B. is describing is great. The other points she has raised didn't trouble me. No explanation is offered for the origin of his mutation or others. Given that it is quite ridiculous (including that he apparently ages to his thirties and then stops in that form for ever), they could've tried a bit harder with that.
The reason for his choice of the name Wolverine means that he metaphorically is a wolverine, so I wonder whether my "Glutton for punishment" (or Rock Golf's "Punishment for glutton") would do or whether I'll have to use "Wolverine: glutton for punishment". |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 04/30/2009 : 01:33:54
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| And Adamantium is a very silly name, even if there was never Adam Ant, which there was. |
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Conan The Westy
"Father, Faithful Friend, Fwiffer"
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Posted - 04/30/2009 : 06:59:53
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
And Adamantium is a very silly name, even if there was never Adam Ant, which there was.
I'm guessing your joking Salopian as I'm well aware of your expansive vocabulary. But in case this word has slipped by, "Adamant", I've included a link to a Wikipedia article. Now I have to stop whistling the tune to Ant Music. Grrr. |
Edited by - Conan The Westy on 04/30/2009 11:35:50 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 04/30/2009 : 12:45:59
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| I didn't know that usage. I thought it just came from the presumably related adjective of manner. Given Adam Ant, it still sounds very silly, but I'm guessing even the X-Men name predates him so it cannot really be blamed. They should have used a bit of Ant Music as a little joke, though. After all, the film is already somewhat Kitsch! |
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 05/02/2009 : 20:53:00
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| What a dull, dreary, beyond poorly written piece of shit this was. Just terrible. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 05/03/2009 : 07:39:36
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quote:
Originally posted by MisterBadIdea
What a dull, dreary, beyond poorly written piece of shit this was. Just terrible.
How did I guess you were going to say that? |
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MisterBadIdea
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 05/04/2009 : 15:48:33
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I feel like I should add more.
Pretty much the only thing that worked are that Jackman and Schreiber are great actors, plus there are a couple minor aspects of the action scenes -- Sabertooth grabbing that one guy's spine, for example.
But geez, this thing is just so unfocused and joyless -- it doesn't have the depth of the other X-Men movies, it's strictly a this guy vs. that guy deal where the "that guy" is constantly shifting. Every so often there's just a stunningly bad line -- "His brain may heal, but his memories won't," "I could shoot you but then I'd be no better off than you," that ridiculousness about the moon and the wolverine where Logan gets his name, and so on. Gambit is wasted in a barely justified fanservice cameo; Sabertooth and Wolverine are revealed to be brothers in an utterly pointless opening scene; the whole thing is hamstrung by prequelitis. (It probably would have worked better as a sequel, had the last movie not ended on such a bizarre and unpleasant note.)
Also, I'm not sure the bootleg has appreciably worse CGI than the actual movie, Conan. Some of the CGI is awful, particularly Wolverine's claws, which often look painted on "Roger Rabbit"-style rather than computer generated. |
Edited by - MisterBadIdea on 05/04/2009 15:50:25 |
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RockGolf 
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
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Posted - 05/04/2009 : 16:15:11
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
And Adamantium is a very silly name, even if there was never Adam Ant, which there was.
I believe the term "adamantium" was introduced in (and by) Marvel Comics at least a decade before Mr. Ant hit the charts. IIRC, it was the metal that Ultron was made from in an Avenger's comic circa 1969. |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 05/08/2009 : 05:04:00
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Utter, utter shit.
I could pick it apart, but there's really no need. The sheer fact that this film was certified a 12 in the UK speaks volumes about the target audience that it was catering to, but it was so astonishingly inept, so heaped with tedious cliche and redundant moralising that even the the two 12 year old kids in front of me in the cinema sat bored and confused. I'd call that a bona fide failure on all counts.
Minor plus points:
The line about Sabretooth's nails looking like a bag lady made me smirk.
Lynn Collins is easy on the eye (but has fallen some way since her decent turn as Portia opposite Pacino's Shylock).
No Stan Lee cameo. A small mercy.
p.s. Sal - it's worth giving the X-men trilogy a spin. They're no classics (although X-2 has great moments), but better stories, better directing, better acting, better scripts, more interesting character development, actual dilemma and conflict, less fan-boy juvenile "X vs Y battle to achieve Z" await. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 05/08/2009 : 05:58:38
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| I definitely plan to. I just have a list of things to watch on D.V.D. I don't really like it compared to the cinema. However, I'll probably watch a lot more soon since I won't have Cineworld membership or indeed television once I leave London. |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 05/08/2009 : 14:45:38
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| Are you going abroad? Or are things worse in the north of England than I first suspected? |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 05/08/2009 : 15:33:20
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| Abroad. But moving anywhere without a Cineworld would be just as much of a shock. :-) |
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MguyXXV
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 05/13/2009 : 22:35:50
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Hated it! 
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damalc
"last watched: Sausage Party"
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Posted - 06/29/2009 : 01:49:01
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not the Wolverine i've been reading for decades.
i know X-Men stories are usually heavier than Spider-Man's but i expect a comic movie to be a lot more fun.
p.s. how many times did we need to see characters snarling, brandishing sharp weapons, charging at each other? |
Edited by - damalc on 06/29/2009 04:55:14 |
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine
