X-Men Origins: Wolverine

(This Contains Spoilers!)
Today marks the first time I’ve ever seen a movie by myself. The reviews hadn’t been good but I felt it was my duty as an X-Men fan to check out the latest Marvel flick, which is probably one of their laziest yet.

Now I like most people love Wolverine and Hugh Jackman has always been great in the role but one thing I’ve never liked about Wolverine is various writer’s interpretations of his origin. I understand if somebody wanted to make a Wolverine spinoff and I could see why you’d want to start with his origin, but with all the liberties that writers have taken with comics over the years, there really wasn’t any good source material to start with. There was that Origins comic years back but frankly I find that anything that wasn’t developed by the characters’ creators (In this case Len Wein and John Romita Sr.) shouldn’t be considered canon. So what they did here was use Origins as a jumping off point and then basically make up whatever shit they wanted to. It’s not all bad, but for a casual comic geek like myself it was a butchery of the X-Men universe.

Instead of going through the film’s storyline, I’m just gonna start with my complaints regarding certain details, characters and whatever comes to mind. So Wolverine starts out as some kid in the 1840s right? Yeah but here’s the first thing I couldn’t stand… His brother is Sabretooth? When has that ever been in any comic? I guess they wanted to come up with an explanation for why their rivalry is so intense but seriously his brother? That seems like an easy way out and talk about being unfaithful to the character. I don’t really get why they even used Sabretooth since they already had him portrayed in a completely different fashion in the first X-Men movie. So what, did Sabretooth forget he was brothers with Wolverine? Or did he just feel like not bringing it up? What a stupid plot device.

I also don’t understand why they felt they needed to cram in so many characters, regardless if they actually added anything. It’s like “Oh man we’ve never used Gambit in a movie, let’s put him in this!” it’s not like the character even had any depth or a strong actor behind him. Or how about the addition of Blob? According to this movie he used to be a member of “Team X” but I never recall that being part of his background. He was just some strong obese jerk who left Xavier’s school to join Magneto’s “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.” So they just took whatever characters they felt like and made them do whatever they wanted. I mean they made Deadpool a villain, what the hell was that? And now he has like swords coming out of his wrists? It’s pointless throwing in characters like Cyclops or whoever the hell Dominic Monahagan was supposed to be in a movie about Wolverine. If you’re gonna throw all those characters in, then you might as well just make another X-Men movie, why complicate things?

Ignoring some of the annoying details, how about some of the more positive points? Okay so the action sequences are impressive and I’ll admit it was definitely entertaining. Hugh Jackman was still as good as he’s ever been playing old Wolvie and I always enjoy his wisecracks. The film definitely falls into familiar action movie cliches but I wasn’t surprised. Though I can’t believe the makers of the film didn’t catch on. You know there is something wrong when you have two separate scenes where a camera pans out and a character screams “Noooo!” It was a bad script but the cast tries their best to work with the material.

So it wasn’t any kind of abomination but it was definitely a wasted opportunity. They really should of done some more comics and worked more vigorously at the script. It’s even the little things, like when Stryker says “Your country needs you.” and Wolverine says “I’m Canadian”, I’m sitting here thinking “The people behind the X-Team were never American, they were also Canadian.” Why did they change that? I’ll tell you why, because they probably didn’t even know they were unfaithful and it shows… For shame.

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth

One of the great British comedies of the 80s and 90s, Red Dwarf was a landmark Sci-Fi/Comedy lasting eight seasons from 1988 to 1999. Garnering high ratings in it’s heyday, a strong cult fan base and even an international emmy in 1994, the cast of Red Dwarf recently reunited for a three-part reunion episode entitled Red Dwarf: Back to Earth penned by co-creator Doug Naylor and aired on British television last month.

The original series aired here in the states on PBS and I used to love watching this off-the-wall comedy growing up. So when I heard the cast was reuniting for a new special I was pretty excited but wondered, when will I get to see it? The three-part episode aired in the U.K. from April 10th to April 12th but there’s been no announcements as to whether PBS will ever air this on our side of the pond, or if we’ll get a DVD release anytime soon. With that news I decided to just screw waiting and check it out online.

Before I tell you all about it, how about I fill you in on the show’s premise? The show is set sometime in the future aboard the “Red Dwarf” a six mile long mining spaceship. Technician Dave Lister is the lowest ranking officer aboard the ship and after a leak of Cadmium II find himself to be the lone survivor due to his imprisonment in a stasis booth (which kept him alive in suspended animation.) Lister then awakes to find that almost three million years have passed and that he has become the last of the human race. Now accompanied by a hologram of his former neurotic bunk mate Arnold Rimmer (The second-lowest ranking officer on Red Dwarf), a smooth talking humanoid who evolved from Lister’s cat named “The Cat” and a loyal mechanoid named Kryten, these four misfits roam the galaxy going from zany excursion to zany excursion.

This latest installment, set nine years after the last series, finds the crew still adrift in space and putting up with each other’s nonsense. Then through a series of odd occurrences including a giant squid and a female hologram, the crew finds themselves transported back to the year 2009… Only to find that they are characters in a TV show called “Red Dwarf”.

Now I initially thought this whole idea sounded like a really stupid setup.You know how like the Fat Albert kid’s broke out of “TV world” in that atrocious Fat Albert movie? Luckily the special was actually pretty darn funny. The crew spends most of their time seeking their creator and begging for more life, which I guess translates into more episodes. This leads to hilarious bits such as Lister suggesting “Well what about a spinoff where Kryten travels back in time every week and I’m his sidekick?” or Rimmer saying he’d be great for a sitcom. Not to mention you get all the hilarious observations that characters from the future would make. One of my favorite scenes would have to be when Lister is looking at some DVDs asking “What are these?” and Kryten explains that they’re DVDs and because people kept losing them, they switched to the more practical use of VHS tapes “They’re just easier to hold on to.”

There’s a few jokes in Back to Earth that are just kind of “ehh whatever” and some convoluted plot twists but for the most part it’s the same great show I remember. Regarding the future of the show, Doug Naylor has stated that there might be an outside chance of a new series depending on reaction to Back to Earth. If you ask me that would be a great move as the show hasn’t lost it’s spark. If you’ve never seen the show, I highly recommend checking it out, it’s fun for any sci-fi or comedy fan.