Today is the day. I will be visiting the cinema this evening to see the most eagerly anticipated movie of the year, for me anyway. At 8.30 tonight I will be sitting on the front row of Screen 1 in Mile End Road’s Genesis Cinema. Guess which film it is. Go on. No, not Hanna Montana. Tonight is my Star Trek night. Will I be disappointed? Probably. Will I think it is one of the greatest films ever made? Hopefully. Tune in tomorrow.
Last week I went to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I enjoyed the first two X-Men movies, with their political subtext of discrimination, mistrust and intolerance. However, the third movie was rather rubbish and dreary. I went into this film with very low expectations and rather enjoyed it for its spectacle, vision and combat set-pieces. Sadly though, Wolverine is not a great film.
It is difficult to discern who this movie is aimed at. Anybody who has seen X2 will have seen the Wolverine origin story and newcomers will be confused by the half-drawn characterisation of the bit part mutants; Gambit, Deadpool, Cyclops and the Blob. There is a lack of any emotional resonance - all the main characters are indestructible and it is impossible to invest any real interest or empathy when you know no one will be hurt.
It is not all bad though. Liev Schreiber brings charisma to the talon-fingered Sabretooth, brother of Wolverine, and Huge Action is always fun to watch, although he does make a rather camp Wolverine and not the bruising, hellraising and Berserker raging comic book hero.
The highlight of the film is the title sequence – a brutal, stylish and thrilling montage of the immortal brothers during various global warfare scenes, from the trenches of the Great War to the beaches of Normandy to the madness of Vietnam.
Ultimately, this is more death knell than reboot. Let’s hope there will still be a Magneto movie.