which_chick | (no subject)

Film review: A movie I should not have been able to see yet. Nonspoilery, though. Very carefully nonspoilery.

A working print of X-Men Origins -- Wolverine hit the internets shortly before April 1. It's a working print, with some wire work still visible, some rendering incomplete and left at the 3-d solids level. Most of the dialogue and most of the action is in place, though. It's about an hour and forty-six minutes long so most of the movie is probably there.

Thoughts? Several.

First: Hugh Jackman is just entirely too pretty. He makes such a nice Wolverine. He's got great eyebrows. In this film effort, he runs around with his shirt off rather a lot, which is a total bonus. Also, he's ripped in this movie, which we can tell because he's naked more than I would have expected. Yay for naked. (Special mad propz to Mr. Jackman for not shaving or waxing or whatever. I like my guys on the furry side, thank you very much.)

Second: I like the plot, here. I'm only vaguely familiar with the more-or-less official origins of Wolverine (to wit: Bad Government Things Happened To Him. Also, Something About Canada.), but the movie version works pretty well for me. Mileage may vary for more hardcore fanbois than I. I was engrossed and not just because of Hugh Jackman running around shirtless though that certainly didn't hurt.

Third: Casting for Victor was really well done. (If you're reading this, you know who Victor is.) He's a good character. I like the guy who does him and I like the way he's done -- good choices all 'round, there. He actually gets some of the more amusing dialogue in the film, which is nice. (There isn't much. This is not a particularly happy movie.)

Fourth: I'm not sure how they're going to spin Origins into a franchise -- for mutants that are strictly out-of-the-box, there isn't much of a story beyond Needing an Additional Handout for puberty. How many ways, really, can that be played to effect? Self-made Men In Tights (eg. Batman, Iron Man) have more of a story to drive them. OOTB mutants didn't really pick to be what they are. I guess that with the rare exception of ones that are clearly and obviously trans-human, they could probably have real jobs and whatnot. Spandex is not the only career choice for a lot of 'em so there's some rationale behind telling that story, but still I'm not sure there's enough story potential there to drive a franchise.

Fifth: This is a movie about betrayal. It's actually surprisingly effective if you like your betrayal served turtles-all-the-way-down. I really liked this, more than I expected to like it. Yay betrayal! I lost count of the items of betrayal, there were so many and they were so tasty.

Sixth: Really, Warner should not be so pissed about this. I mean, yeah, kind of pissed, but as an added and unexpected bonus, seeing how movies are made is actually kind of interesting. I think I'll like seeing how the official version comes out with all the rendering and fx in place. I definitely want to see it on a big screen. They should think of this as a lengthy trailer, maybe.