Tease.

Tights, Capes and Night Vision

I have finished 2 of my new games recently and my beautiful girlfriend spoilt me today and bought me the Wolverine game just beacuse she wanted to and i was going to buy it myself anyway. Made my day =p It's pretty damn good, no Arkham Asylum - but still good. You really feel the power of Wolverine when you literally rip people to pieces, especially the regeneration that you can watch as the bullet holes fill themselves in. It's wonderful to watch. Oh and HUGH JACKMAN!

Anyway let's see...

Batman Arkham Asylum is honestly the best game i have played in years. Everything about it was spectacular; the voice acting, models, level design, gameplay, sound design - the whole damn thing was worthy of the Batman name. I sincerely hope that there is a sequel along the lines of 'Batman Gotham City' - it leaves an opening there for it to happen. *please* Now to attack the challenge mode and see what downloadable content there is.

I finished it on the hardest difficulty the other night, one night after i completed ODST (Which i have raved about in a previous post) - it was an ending that i was quite satisfied with, especially the Legendary-exclusive epilogue.

Ryan Reynolds is Hal Jordan

A few days ago it was announced that WB had narrowed their choices for the role of the Green Lantern down to 3 actors; Justin Timberlake, Bradley Cooper and Ryan Reynolds. After reading this I thought the chances of Reynolds actually landing the role was rather small, especially with Marvel/20th Century Fox building a solo Deadpool movie in which he would play the titular character. It has been announced however that Reynolds has in fact landed the role, which will be more a popular film for him compared to Deadpool. He has proven with Blade 3 and Wolverine that he is definitely a man who can be an action star if need be, which and it is fantastic to see that he is being given the opportunities to do so. Hopefully the film is a success, WB’s previous superhero hits include Batman Begins and the The Dark Knight, but Superman Returns wasn’t the success they were hoping for and have had recent legal issues with the rights to the Superman franchise and now have a deadline (2011) to begin production on a new film.

X-Men Origins Wolverine Review

**SPOILERS FOLLOW**

I’m going to say straight off that I really enjoyed this film and found it a great addition to the X-Men film franchise. In terms of the film’s content staying true to the comic it wasn’t so strong but personally that’s not something that I mind. If you want to be elitist and stick to the original text and be unable to see past it you are never going to enjoy any film that is an adaptation.

As an origin story for such a beloved character the film served quite well, I did feel that the time that Wolverine spent in Canada as a lumberjack in hiding could have been shortened in favour of lengthening the time spent during the Weapon X years. This would have allowed the audience to connect with the characters more and care a little more seeing as they were to be killed off throughout the duration of the film. On that note Ryan Reynolds and Dominic Monaghan deserved far more screen time than they were given, not because of the interesting powers that their characters had but the fact that they are actors of a certain calibre – Ryan Reynolds remains a sumwhat untapped action star.

I was looking forward to the war sequences but I did approve of the execution, it displayed what was necessary – Sabretooth’s growing passion for violence as well as the number of wars that they participated in. Liev Schreiber was outstanding as Victor Creed/Sabretooth and introduced an imposing presence without too much effort his bounding during the fight scenes was spectacular. And keeping his obsession with gaining Wolverine’s adamantium was well done. Schreiber and Jackman’s fight scenes whilst short were wonderfully viscous and brutal and most definitely some of the most exciting of the film. Hugh Jackman performed perfectly as he usually does – a result of playing the role for 10 years.

Weapon XI was somewhat of a downer to the film – made for a cool fight, but there was no real reason for its inclusion other than having a big final fight in the film. I feel this is the case with the inclusion of Emma Frost, Cyclops and Xavier – although it was cool to see Prof X in Wolverine. Not that a child Storm was shown in the trailer but excluded from the film. Gambit’s inclusion was odd, longer than expected and basically a fan service.

On level with the other X-Men films I would rate it above X-Men 3, below X-Men 2 and possibly on par with X-Men 1.

Origins.

It is only one week away today.

WOLVERINE!

I won’t lie and say that I’m not looking forward to this movie. Looking forward to it so much that I am refusing to go and download the leaked version that I know is out there. There are a few reasons including the fact that there is nothing to be gained from an incomplete version of the film and also the support that I have for Hugh Jackman and the Australian Film Industry – which has been supported through Mr Jackman’s efforts in the production of this film.

Mr. Jackman is a producer on the film through his film production company Seed Productions. He also opted for the majority of the filming to take place in Australia and New Zealand – which is something that Australia definitely need after the Justice League of America film’s debarkle.

Latest trailer

The film looks great,- everyone loves the character and Mr. Jackman’s portrayal of him, but I won’t say that I will be going into the film without reservations. Despite the story focusing on Wolverine’s origins and thus his involvement in the Weapon X program, from the trailers it feels as though they might be trying to force too many X-Men characters into the film. Considering that they have cut so many possible inclusions from the previous X-Men films it is on one hand surprising that they have decided to include so many, but on the other it isn’t. It’s half and half. Some inclusions are necessary to the story but others such as a teenaged Cyclops seem to be a bit of a stretch.

Gambit also falls into this category but the impression given from the trailer(s) is that his appearance will be more a fan-service than anything else – X-Men fans wanting Gambit included since X-2.

My impressions from the trailer[s] and clips that I have seen is that the better parts of the films will obviously be his least recent history; his childhood, the 3 or so wars he participated in and his inclusion in Weapon X. That is my
personal opinion, I am far more interested in everything prior to Weapon X and I am psyched that they are including his bone claws! Realistically it was unavoidable but it is nice to see that they look good!

And on a random note this film will be the first time that Wolverine's real name will be used; James Howlett. Fun fact.

I’ll post up a review of the film after I see it, probably not premiere night unfortunately, but the following Tuesday.