We are only a few days away from a new trailer for Thor: The Dark World and today Marvel has released a new poster to get the thunder god talk going.
Literally every character is on this poster. It will be one of those posters that you want to take a glance at while you are at the theater, but can’t get to because of the two fu**tards that stand in front of it and analyze every single person on the damn thing.
I know there are more than one of you wondering how a second Wolverine movie even got made considering the complete abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and you would be right to think that. The movie made money, but is universally reviled by most comic fans and let’s not even start on Deadpool fans. The simple answer is that Wolverine is the most bankable of all of the X-Men, so that is why director James Mangold was given the helm and the character has been given a second chance to make a first impression.
You would think the surprising part is the fact that there is another Wolverine movie given what I just said. That’s not the truth. The surprising part is that The Wolverine is actually really good.
Director James Mangold and screen writers Mark Bomback and Scott Frank have decided to take the character on a personal journey based on one of the greatest Wolverine stories ever written by the legendary Chris Claremont. Not only is Claremont’s Japanese epic the basis for The Wolverine, but there are plenty of nods to other historic stories in the Logan/X-Men universe including Fatal Attractions and Old Man Logan. When you notice these it becomes clear that some care was taken with the character this time instead of just having him wrestle The Blob, fight the shittiest Deadpool ever and deal with bad CGI.
The Wolverine takes place after X-Men: The Last Stand with Logan playing the part of mountain man recluse living his life as a Grizzly Adams look-a-like and deep in despair over having had killed his love, Jean Grey. There really is no reason to watch X-Men 3 to catch up (or any reason to watch it at all) because that is the only main part that connects to this movie. He is content to spend his days drinking whiskey and listening to the radio while dreams of Jean haunt him. A young Japanese woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) tracks him down and requests that he come to Japan with her so that her employer, Yashida, be given the opportunity to say goodbye and thank Logan for saving his life in World War II when the bomb hit Nagasaki. Through some coaxing he boards a plane for the Land of the Rising Sun.
Meeting Yashida becomes more complicated than anticipated when he informs Logan that he has the ability to transfer his healing ability to another and can allow Logan to live a normal life. And yes, you guessed it, Yashida would like it transferred to him so he can keep on living. Needless to say Wolvie declines with a simple “you don’t want what I got”, but that is not quite good enough for the dying man and has his associate Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) implant a device in Logan that robs him of his ability to heal correctly. It is still too late for Yashida as he passes and control of his corporation passes not to his son, but his granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). This puts a target on her back as the Yakuza try to kidnap her at her father’s funeral. Reluctantly, she allows Logan to help her flee and during their escape and hideout the two form a relationship. Eventually the Yakuza gets their tattooed, grubby mits on Mariko and Logan has to figure out a way to reverse what has been done to him and save his new found love.
Like I said, this isn’t On The Waterfront.
What The Wolverine manages to do well is pacing. The slow parts do not drag on for too long and the dialogue is believable for a action movie like this. It is always interesting, for me, to watch the Japanese culture clash with anything different. Of course, the different this time is a self-healing mutant with adamantium claws that calls everyone “bub” and it completely works. You can never adapt Claremont’s story perfectly and there is plenty to point out that has been altered, but the central heart of the story is still there.
The set pieces are handled well including a Yakuza shootout at a funeral which leads to a chase throughout the street of Tokyo and ends with a fight on top of a bullet train which you may have seen in the previews. As over the top as the train scene is, it is still handled with a deft hand. The fighting never really gets too over the top or for the lack of a better term, comic book-y, until the final moments of the movie and it is in the final 15 minutes of the film where the train doesn’t fly off the track, but it begins to wobble like someone put a penny on the rails.
The final showdown, while wrapping up the story, left a little to be desired when compared to all the good the story had set up in the first 90% of the film. Yes, there is a nine-foot tall robotic Silver Samurai and you have already decided whether you hate this decision or not. For me, I was not hot on the idea, but it received a pass from me because of a very guessable reason. I am not saying the end ruins the movie…far from it. It is just a decent end game to a very good movie.
The Wolverine has surprised me more than any other movie this summer. Going in with blinders on, not wanting to remember the horrors of X-Men Origins is the best way to view this. It is far and away better than its should-have-been aborted offspring. It also holds up on its own as a singular movie including Jackman’s best performance as Logan due to a much better script than he has ever had for the character. If this had been the first movie for Wolverine, we would be talking about what an amazing future the character has in his own set of movies, but with the stench of Origins hanging this feels like an apology to fans and a hope that maybe there is more in store for “The Ol’ Canucklehead”.
Joss Whedon has shed some light on his just announced sequel to The Avengers, Age of Ultron. Once again, Whedon makes us internet guessers look foolish by saying that this will be a completely new origin for the character of Ultron. His script is going to bring in the robotic terror in a new way. So no Hank Pym…yet. Whedon also said that since this will be a new story that this past years Age of Ultron story will have no bearing on the next Avengers film.
Check out the interview he gave for Marvel at Comic-Con just after the announcement:
You knew Marvel could not leave San Diego Comic-Con without something pertaining to The Avengers right? At the end of the panel which featured Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, Joss Whedon came out on stage and announced the title for his follow-up to the second biggest movie of all time.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Not exactly what anyone was expecting huh? I think most thought that Thanos would be the big bad in the second Avengers film, but this tells me that he will most likely be held off until #3. Why would you have him be the villain in the second film where he doesn’t even have top billing?
The title does (possibly) reveal a few things about the upcoming Marvel cinematic universe. We know that Vin Diesel has been teasing his future work with Marvel and the fact that Ultron will be the villain in Avengers 2 almost guarantees that he will be cast as The Vision, who was created by Ultron. The villain also may be the segue into the Ant-Man movie with the robotic terror being a creation of Hank Pym himself.
Marvel certainly got a lot of people talking now about the next Avengers, but was it enough to trump the DC announcement of the Batman/Superman movie?
While we all sit and ponder on exactly how Agent Coulson is being brought back from the dead, let’s rejoice knowing that the music will be in very good hands.
Bear McCreary, who composes music for The Walking Dead and Defiance as well as the iconic music for Battlestar Galactica, will be handling the music side of Marvel’s TV venture. Here is hoping he can create a theme as memorable and set the tone for the show like he did for BSG and The Walking Dead.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air Tuesday nights at 7PM CST this fall on ABC.
Here is the shiny box art for the upcoming LEGO Marvel Superheroes. Nothing to really surprise you with except the flat-chested Black Widow, but that is just the boobie-loving part of me venting. Of course, it probably speaks volumes about me that I am even thinking about boobs on a LEGO figure.
[amazon_link id=”B00B98HBTA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]LEGO Marvel Superheroes[/amazon_link] releases this fall on every system imaginable. They may even have a 3DO version coming.