29 April 2009

Coming Up Friday, May 1

URBAN:
When you look at the offerings at your local theater you will realize that none of the other studios expect to make any money by competing with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. With that being said, I have to admit that I already have low expectations for this film. The advertising thus far would lead one to believe that this film is the equivalent of last year's The Incredible Hulk, in the amount of money spent on effects, budget for actors, and (most importantly) writing and directing.

It does look like it is going to attempt to place Wolverine in some historical context. If it can pull this off as a plausible explanation of the origin of the character this film might possibly overcome the obvious reliance on special effects in place of the story. In this case, the film might be able to rise to the level of Ironman, rather than The Incredible Hulk.

Wolverine was always my favorite X-Men character when I was a kid. I just hope that it isn't ruined by opportunists trying to make a quick buck copying the proven success of recent superhero films, and especially the Batman franchise with it's focus on the explanation of a character's gritty origins.


LUCAS:
I'm still holding out hope. I had a lot of reservations when they announced the first X-Men, for many of these same reasons... they're childhood icons, screen representations and actors won't be able to live up, etc. But they managed to put together a fairly good movie, and the actors met their roles reasonably well.

So, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. They don't have Brian Singer involved, which was part of what made the first two movies work, but they also don't have Brett Ratner, which is part of what made the third movie fail. I don't know what to expect with Gavin Hood, as I haven't seen either of the films he's directed previously, but I'm staying optimistic. But perhaps the wish is the father of the thought.

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