Movie Review: Wolverine

Language: English

Run Time: 107 mins

Distribution: 20th Century Fox

I have been a long time fan of this particular character in the Marvel comics franchise. It would be interesting to see how the scriptwriters would interweave the mystery surrounding the character as well as the origins story already in place across several graphic novels. The signs were encouraging from what I saw of the trailers and of the news permeating across the internet though there were some scenes that I didn't quite agree with.

Hugh Jackman reprised the role that had shot him to prominence over the recent decade. Liev Schreiber takes on the role of Victor Creed or more popularly known as Sabretooth. Tyler Mane was initially interested in reprising this role but Jackman however felt that Schreiber's natural competitive streak gave him the edge in the landing the role, given the plotline. This version of Sabretooth pre-X-men movie seemed a more human and analytical version of the one most comic fans are familiar with though the the influences of his primal nature seemed quite evident. I kind of like this version of Sabretooth, though it would take some explaining (perhaps a Sabretooth movie) on how he evolved (or rather mutated) into the form seen in the first X-Men movie if continuity is to be preserved. Being depicted as Wolverine's half brother in the movie varies greatly from the long standing but ambigous relationship between the two most feral characters in Marvel's history. Although it makes for easier story telling, the loss of impact through the removal of ambigouity makes for a much less interesting prospect, for me at least. One of the more eye-catching of casting is that of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Weapon XI. Though it has been argued that both Deadpool and Weapon XI are separate characters in the comic continuum. Reynolds gave himself a startling performance worthy of the Deadpool name and dare I say it, his own Deadpool movie. Though this is good for him as an actor, I shudder to think of what fans of The Flash would make of this apparent betrayal after indicating his intent in taking on the role as the wise cracking Wally West.Will.I.Am landed a role as John Wraith, a mutant of similar abilities to Nightcrawler though his impact in the movie is negligble. Other less popular characters in Marvel reality also made the jump to the big screen in the form of the Blob, Agent Zero and Emma Frost. Though it has been argued if Emma Frost was indeed the same Emma Frost with the original character being able to read minds while only developing the secondary ability of diamond hard skin only later in her life. Cyclops also makes an appearance as is younger self played by Tim Pocock. The choice to cast Gambit/ Remy Le Beau is something that I do have qualms with. With the original character in the comics being more suave and more Cajun in his accent and not to mention taller. Though it is understandable how much of a feat it would be to find someone taller than Jackman. Still, somehow I feel that Taylor Kitsch's portrayal of this popular X-men character leaves much to be desired. Whether this is down to poor script writing, the actor's adaptability to the character or just my own deep bias remains a lingering conundrum. The main protagonist in the movie is that of Colonel Stryker played by Danny Huston. Brian Cox who had played the role in X2 was interested in reprising the role and argued that with the help of CGI tech, he would be able to make himself look younger. Though for some reason this idea was rejected. Huston's portrayal of Stryker was more calculating and menacing than complex and it blended a little too well with the story, almost to the point where Stryker seemed like just another plot moving character.

The Plot

The year was the late 1800s and young James Howlett had just murdered someone claiming to be his father. Howlett flees with Victor Creed and forms an alliance with the half-brother to go through thick and thin together. The proceeding scenes show both James and Victor partaking in various prominent wars in the last two centuries. The movie begins proper when scenes of Victor attempting to rape a Vietnamese woman and then attacking American soldiers attempting to prevent the cruel act, culminates in a firing squad execution for both James and Victor after the former had defended the latter. Identifying the unique abilities of these two, Stryker enlists them into an all mutant team that acts as a strikeforce for the government.

On a plane ride to Nigeria both James and Victor meets Wade Wilson (Deadpool), John Wraith, Fred Dukes - aka The Blob (Kevin Durand), Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) and Bradley (Dominic Monaghan of LotR fame) where James reveals his all too familiar fear of flying. Upon landing and invading an underground diamond smuggling operation, Stryker reveals his intent in acquiring a unique piece of metal fragment. This led them to a remote village in Nigeria. Whilst persistent questioning by Stryker of the village head gave no headway into the location of the metal fragment, Stryker ordered a complete annhilation of the villagers. Victor snapped the head of the village chief and a brief moment of massare ensued before James halted his brother's actions and ultimately the rest of the team. Making his objections known, James left the team, preferring a more peaceful and non-violent life.

Fast forward six years to the Canadian rockies, James, now going by the name Logan lives with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins) and seems to enjoy his newfound life. Elsewhere, Victor visits Bradley at his new life as a circus showman and kills him, though the reasons for doing so were not made clearly known. Stryker appears at Logan's workplace and warns him of the death of members of the previous team but Logan pays no heed. After an incident in which Logan's nightmares injures Kayla, she tells him a story of a wolverine and his love for the moon. After Victor kills his girlfriend, Logan goes on a rampage for blood and tracks down Victor. A fight ensued but Logan was savagedly beaten and got the claws on his left hand broken. Stryker meeting Logan in the hospital after his injury offers him a way to beat Victor to which Logan agreed.

After the scene shifts to a laboratory in an undisclosed location, Logan was given his old dog tags but he refused and requested the names on them to be changed to Wolverine and Logan, in memory of his late girlfriend. Logan was now secured in a supine position within a steel tank filled with a clear unknown liquid. With limbs clasped with metal brackets, Logan listens to Stryker explaining of the importance of the metal fragment they were searching for before and of how from it they were able to create the near indestructible alloy called adamantium. The objective was then to fuse Logan's skeletal structure with adamantium. As the process began the pain felt by Logan caused him to relive all the his previous moments of misery and torment and ended with him flatlining. But Logan's regenerative powers kick in soon after and upon hearing the Stryker wanted to erase his memory broke out into a rampage and escaped. Running into an elderly couple, Logan was given shelter by them while he explores his newly acquired abilities. The bonding occurring between the elderly couple and Logan dissipated soon after in the morning when both were assassinated by Agent Zero. A skirmish then ensued as Logan attempted to evade capture by Agent Zero, taking out Zero in the process.

Meeting up with Wraith and Dukes afterwards, Logan acquired information on the location of a mutant named Remy LeBeau, who knows of Stryker's location. Wraith elects to tag along. Upon meeting Remy, the Cajun was distrustful of Logan's intent and began to attack him while Victor slays Wraith and takes a sample of his blood. Logan faces off with Victor and has got the better of his half brother but Remy interrupts the fight, allowing Victor to escape. Once convinced that Logan was genuine in his intent of eliminating Stryker and destroying his project of abducting mutants, Remy brings Logan by plane to Stryker's facility on Three Mile Island. There, Logan learns that Silverfox is still alive and was conspiring with Stryker the whole time in exchange for her abducted sister's safety, but still genuinely loved Logan. Logan, feeling hurt and betrayed, leaves and Stryker refuses Victor to give the adamantium bonding promised for his service, on the basis that he will not survive the procedure. Victor, enraged, tries to kill Kayla, but Logan hears her screams and stops him. Logan nearly kills Victor but spares him, and agrees to help Kayla free the imprisoned mutants.

Stryker then activates the "mutant killer", Weapon XI, a combination of DNA and abilities from various mutants, inclusive of Logan's own healing ability and adamantium skeleton. Logan engages in battle with Weapon XI while allowing time for Kayla to free the other prisoners, including her sister. Overwhelmed by Weapon XI's fighting ability, Logan finds it difficult to stave him off and is joined by Victor in the fight. The freed mutants escape, led by a young Scott Summers, while Kayla mortally wounded, elects to stay. In the proceeding scene, it shows the escaped mutants being greeted by Professor Charles Xavier who offers them sanctuary. Logan then lures Weapon XI to the top of one of the cooling towers there and is assisted by Victor in decapitating Weapon XI. Victor flees after stating something along the lines of "We're brothers. We look out for each other." Gambit saves Wolverine from the collapsing tower and then proceeds to check on the already escaped mutants. Stryker then appears from his destroyed complex and shoots Logan in the head with adamantium bullets causing him to concuss. As he approaches Silverfox to shoot her, she grabs his leg and uses her power of suggestion to make him walk nonstop before she passes on. Wolverine now awoken by Gambit and apparently acquires amnesia from the gun shots to the head. As the ambulance and fire trucks arrive, Gambit urges Wolverine to follow him but he refuses, preferring to go his own way. Logan sees Firefox and perhaps noticing her as someone familiar, stops to regard her before making himself scarce.

The Critique

First off, any self-respecting Marvel comic fan would know how much mangling was done to the original Wolverine storyline just so that it could be fit onto the big screen. Maybe the writers and producers had forgotten the very idea which makes Wolverine interesting, in that it was always the enveloping air of mystery around him. Of him not knowing who he was and where he had been and despite of Professor X's efforts was still unable to retrieve his memory. This is the aspect of Wolverine, his vulnerability, so to speak which endears his fans to him. Otherwise he would just be another indestructible walking killing machine that is used as the main gear in an action driven plot, which I suspected was what they were aiming at. And with all due respect to the medical researchers who assisted or advised in the plot creation, how does heavy trauma to the head guarantee a total memory wipe? I've personally seen alcohol, drugs and cerebral vascular accidents having more effect than most cases of head trauma. In the comics, wasn't it some intricate brainwashing technique that was used on Logan to wipe his memory?

Then again, maybe I'm comparing the movie to the comics a bit too much. On the basis of the movie alone, it was a movie of sufficient standard. Given the plot holes within as well as the overuse of cameos of established Marvel characters. Not that I do not welcome such cameos but perhaps it should have been done with more taste than just simply adding them into the plot whenever possible. The CGI was good but then it is sort of the norm to expect such standards of computer generated imagery in movies, especially in those involving high action content. All in all, personally, I was a bit disappointed with the movie. I had hoped that it would retain the air of mystery surrounding the main character but unfortunately it has made him, at least in the movie world, a much less interesting character.

Watch it if you really have to but otherwise wait for the DVD release but even then, the comics would be a better bet.

Movie Review: Star Trek

Language: English

Run Time: 127 mins

Distribution: Paramount

Needless to say I, along with many Trekkies and Trekkers alike have been, for far too long been deprived of good old Trek stimulus be it on the small or big screen. Though there have been a number of Trek novels out with constant frequency post Enterprise series, their impact as compared to the films or TV serieses are not quite as far reaching. As to how extensively the Trek books affect ‘canon’ Trek though is up for debate especially since its creator, the late and great Gene Roddenberry had passed on.

But I digress. The purpose of this is not to debate the canonity of Trek books in defining the Trek universe and timeline as is. More so to review the latest Trek movie, simply titled Star Trek.

I had not quite made plans to watch this movie, preferring to leave it till it had spun its last yarns on the screens and made its way into some portable disc format. Much of this was down to what Berman and Braga had done to the legacy of Trek with their consistent tampering of what could be perceived as Trek culture. To which what I believe most Trekkies or Trekkers would agree. Then again I digress.

I was making my way to the Singapore National Library when what I could only describe as Fate’s ever so nudging hands prevented me from acquiring either a locker space for my bag or a seat in the Reference floor of the aforementioned bibliotheca. The heavy downpour during my journey didn’t help matters either. So in a bid to cheer myself up, I went to the nearest cinema with the hopes of being able to find a movie time slot that would end prior to the commencement of my night classes. The cineplex in question a newcomer into the cinema scene in a mall at Bugis, which is in itself, another story entirely. And the movie was of course Star Trek.

I have attempted to keep track of this movie's development from time to time ever since I knew that production works were underway. The offiially released summary of the movie's plot was that this was the time when the now famous character of James Tiberius Kirk first enlisted into Starfleet and the events surrounding them. Casting definitely intrigued me then as it would seem hard pressed to find actors in these times that would resemble the iconic Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner in their equally iconic roles as Spock and Captain Kirk, respectively. And I was indeed surprised when Zachary Quinto of Heroes fame was chosen to play a younger Spock. Gabriel Gray wasn't exactly my first choice for the role having not seen him in act as anything other than power hungry, serial killer. However after the application of makeup, one can clearly see why. Zachary's performance has been dubbed to portray Spock as colder and more rebellious than Nimoy's version of the famous character to which I wholeheartedly agree. There's even a hint of Sylar in there somewhere. The selection of Chris Pine to play Captain Kirk another one I questioned inititally because... well, with all due respect to Pine, he doesn't look much like Shatner to me, past or not. The decision to choose him was reported in Wikipedia as something like so "Pine recalled having difficulty with his audition, which required him "to bark 'Trek jargon'", but his charisma impressed director J. J. Abrams.^[35] Pine's chemistry with Zachary Quinto, playing Spock, led Abrams to offer Pine the role.^[35]" to which I agree wholeheartedly after watching the movie.The interaction between the two reminds me a lot the exchanges between Nimoy and Shatner but with a lot more zest.

The rest of the cast were not quite exactly how I would have pictured them being younger but close enough. The most prominent of which was Chekov's character now played by Anton Yelchin. Granted the accent was there but it was hard to correlate the similarity between looks. Then again, one would be find it tough indeed to find another, younger actor who can imitate the unique accent of Chekov and has the looks of Walter Koenig. The choice of John Cho of Harold & Kumar fame as the youthful Hikaru Sulu seemed to fit, though the tone and ring of Cho's voice differs from that of Takei's. The younger Nyota Uhura played by Zoe Saldana is admittedly a more alluring figure with the same confidence and inclination portrayed by Nichelle Nicols. The choice of Simon Pegg of Run Fatboy, Run and Shaun of The Dead fame as Scotty is another close enough for me. Though the portrayal of Scotty's character was more of a comic relief than James Doohan's was. And of course last but not least is Karl Urban taking on the role of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy with as much vest and essence to DeForest Kelly's original portrayal.

(WARNING: SPOILERS WITHIN!)

The Plot

The movie begins with a Romulan starship appearing from a 'thunderstorm' in space, which would be later revealed to be time-space warp, akin to a black hole. Encountering it was the USS Kelvin. Suffering heavy damage as the result of the Romulan assault, the crew abandoned ship, its captain sequestered aboard the hostile vessel, acting Captain George Kirk takes control to old off the enemy so that the others could escape. Devoid of photons and phasers after a brief retaliation of the Romulan vessel, George Kirk elects to do a kamikaze and ram the Kelvin into the enemy starship thus saving the crew members and his newly born son. The son, James T. Kirk, grew up to be an intelligent yet bitter young man. After a chance meeting with Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), Kirk chose to enlist within Starfleet Academy. Portrayed as a ladies' man (as with the the original character) he is seen attempting to chat up Uhura several times as well as going out with other women. Accused of cheating in the Kobayashi Maru simulation in his third year, Kirk begins to form an uneasy relationship with Spock.

During the hearing for Kirk's alleged fraud in the test, a distress signal was received from Vulcan and the Academy mobilizes to send aid to the United Federation of Planets' member planet due to the main fleet being engaged elsewhere in the quadrant. Kirk, under suspension was smuggled aboard the USS Enterprise by McCoy by injecting him with an easily treatable virus. During this time a 'more-than-friends-and-mentor' relationship between Uhura and Spock was also revealed when Uhura insists that she be assigned to Enterprise instead of some other ship and Spock relenting to her request. Whilst in travel, Kirk recognizes the conditions reported (thunderstorm in space) in the Vulcan distress signal to be similar to that of when the USS Kelvin was attacked when his father was in charge and pleaded with Captain Christopher Pike to stop. The Enterprise arrives in Vulcan space nonetheless only to find that the forward fleet had been destroyed by a Romulan vessel. Promoting Spock to Acting Captain and Kirk to First Officer, Captain Pike agrees to the protagonist Romulan, Nero's (Eric Bana) request to negotiate a 'ceasefire'.

With Captain Christopher Pike held hostage on board the Narada (Romulan vessel) and an unsuccessful attempt at foiling the Romulan attempts at drilling into the Vulcan planet's core, the Romulans deployed a batch of Red matter. This led to the creation of a black hole which would suck the planet into the dark abyss. Spock teleports to the surface to rescue his father and other elders but was unable to save his human mother. Upon his return to the Enterprise, Spock is seen lamenting that he is now part of an endangered species after witnessing the destruction of his homeworld. Nero is then seen torturing Pike for Earth's perimeter defense codes. After a heated argument on whether to save Pike, return to Earth or rendezvous with the remainder of the fleet, Spock uses the Vulcan nerve pinch, immobilizing Kirk and strands him on the planet Delta Vega. There, Kirk encounters future Spock (Leonard Nimoy) who explains the sequence of events which led to the destruction of of his home planet, the capture of his science vessel and his exile through the process of a Vulcan mind meld. Of which it was due to future Spock's actions that the planet of Romulus was destroyed in the future. Also explained was of how these events have created an alternate reality in which events flowed. In which the Kirk, having his father live and become a successful Starfleet Captain was the main inspiration to Kirk enlisting in Starfleet and creating his own legacy. Convincing Kirk to retake captainship of the Enterprise, both of them travel to a nearby Starfleet installation. There they meet a marooned and younger Montgomerry Scott or more famously known as Scotty (Simon Pegg).

Upon seeing Scotty, future Spock explains to him of how he would come up with the formula for transporting in midwarp and win an accolade for it. Future Spock then assists him in the configurations of the formula and successfully transport both Kirk and Scotty onto the Enterprise, midwarp. Both Kirk and Scotty gets captured by the Security team on the Enterprise and were interrogated by current Enterprise acting Captain Spock (Zachary Quinto). Upon getting Spock to show his anger and resentment at losing his homeworld, Spock relinquishes the position of acting Captain as per Starfleet regulations in which whenever a Captain is deemed emotionally compromised then he is not fit to lead. Taking on the role of acting Captain, Kirk sets an intercept course of the Romulan vessel heading for Earth. Spock returns to the bridge to lend his assistance in both the rescue mission and the assault on the enemy vessel after consultation with his father Sarek (Ben Cross). Scotty assumes the all too familiar role of Transporter Chief.

Spock and Kirk are to beam aboard the Romulan vessel and rescue Captain Pike, with the Enterprise berthed near one of Saturn's moons, using the radiation there as cover. Uhura's affections for Spock were made known again and for the last time prior to both Spock and Kirk being beamed aboard the enemy ship. Upon materializing on the enemy vessel both Spock and Kirk came under heavy fire from the Romulans there but were able to suppress their assailants. Mind melding with a fallen Romulan assailant, Spock discovers the whereabouts of Captain Pike and proceeds to rescue him. Along the way they found future Spock's science vessel and after some minor convincing by Kirk, Spock decides to pilot it, confident of his familiarity with it for some unfathomable reason. Using the vessel as a heavy hitting decoy, Kirk saves the severely injured Pike while Spock attempts to destroy the vessel from within and also destroys the drilling mechanism. With Kirk and Pike safely transported back onto the Enterprise, the Starfleet flagship in conjunction with Spock piloting the Vulcan Science vessel decapitated what remained of the now immobile Romulan vessel. The subsequent implosion ignited the remainder of the Red matter and caused the Romulan vessel to be sucked into black hole. A nice touch was when Scotty suggested to eject and ignite the warp core (a common practice in a lot of Trek episodes) to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole.

The end scene where Spock meets future Spock was a surreal and somewhat fitting moment in which future Spock attempts to convince his younger self to remain in Starfleet whilst rebuilding what remains of the Vulcan race. Added to this was also the now all too familiar (to Trekkers and Trekkies at least) scene of a crew preparing the Enterprise for launch in the last scenes of the movie.

The Critique

For fans of Trek over the decades and even those of more recent Trek serieses have grown all too familiar with the overuse of time paradoxes. Used initially in the Voyager series to great effect in the episodes, Future's End Part One and Part Two which explains the advancement in the level of technology on Earth in Trek reality through the reverse engineering of future technology, as well as Endgame Part One and Part Two it has become somewhat of a norm when reused frequently enough. As could be seen in several episodes in the Enterprise series as well as the Star Trek movie, Generations. It was even suggested that the franchise be renamed Time Trek given the current general direction. And one could be forgiven to think that with the arrival of this current movie that the suggestion was not too far off by any stretch of the imagination.

I am not against the use of time paradoxes per se but it does seem a cheap way to right the inconsistencies that have infested a long standing franchise by simply saying that "All those things that happened before....well...they didn't actually happen." Then again, it is understandable given that the original actors of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY are already aged and unlikely to withstand the test of time in reviving the franchise that it would be prudent to use a new cast, in a new setting under new rules. Though how detrimental this would be to the near fanatical following that Trek itself has garnered remains to be seen.

This movie does however set in motion a new era in possibilities of story telling in the Trek reality. Devoid of overused Borg and devoid of the once familiar Vulcan planet. With clear advancements in this alternate reality which would, I believe now be the Prime Trek reality as opposed to the previous one it would be interesting to see how future Star Trek serieses develop based on this. Perhaps a revisiting of the explorations of the Enterprise in this new environment akin to that of TOS. Something which I feel the big wigs at Paramount are eyeing at.

It was also more of a tribute to the character of Spock which has been somewhat of a pivotal figure of focus in the Trek reality. Nowhere in the movie was it more succinctly shown than in the end scene where young Spock met future Spock in a somewhat symbolic passing of the baton to a younger and arguably more different generation. And though Kirk's somewhat resurrection also plays a role but none more so than Spock who was more, I feel anyway, more affected by the occurring events than Kirk ever was.

Whatever the future or current implications may be, this movie in itself is a good watch if not for the CGI alone. The acting is an honest tribute to the original cast members of the TOS. The plot however may be lost to those who are not truly Trek fans in the first place but otherwise enjoyable and would certainly intrigue those who would bother enough to find out about what all this is in the first place. All in all, a good movie and worth top dollar to watch in a good cinema. And if I were to be honest, I'm quite ecstatic at the prospect of a Trek series or at least a spew of Trek movies based on this current cast.