Well, it seems, just from the new “epic” (FirstShowing.net’s words, not mine) trailer for X-Men Origins Wolverine, that the Donner’s company and Marvel may just have sounded the death knell for superhero flicks.
Now, before you get all heated on me, and yell at me for not having seen the film or that 2003′s Hulk was bad, or Daredevil was atrocious or Ghost Rider was the nail in not only Mark Steven Johnson’s career (which it wasn’t), but superhero movies in general (don’t even start the argument that Ghost Rider isn’t truly a superhero), I have only to say this:
No matter how bad or poorly-constructed those movies were, they all concentrated on one mainly single character, and everything that came with that character along whatever specific journey the character took and there was something specifically worthy that ultimately could be gleaned from each movie.
When there was a movie with ancillary characters like X-Men and Spider-Man, the latter which, no matter how fun and well-constructed a movie it was, it still seriously dropped the ball on the Green Goblin. Had it shown any of the weakness that just the trailer for the new Wolverine shows, there may not have been an Iron Man or even Spider-Man 2, a strong contender for best modern superhero flick.
However…far from the daring choice Bryan Singer was for X-Men, Gavin Hood appears, again, simply from the terrible final preview, to be an inferior cousin of Mark Steven Johnson, who, for all his weaknesses, may have chosen Michael Clarke Duncan, but at least knew enough to capture the “essence” of Kingpin, no matter how lame the final “showdown” was.
Hood has taken some massive liberties with characters and, in the trailer, shown us a seriously misguided Deadpool, some seriously wonky CGI and a Sabretooth that seems both banal and utterly toothless and really tries to make a strong dramatic-action hero out of a guy who uses playing cards to fight people. Okay…for all his shortcomings (I mean, a teleporting blue circus freak?), Singer made Nightcrawler integral to the beginning of the story and gave him an introduction that none of the other characters except him needed. Deadpool and Gambit seem to be central to the main conceit of the movie and are even given weird capabilities that don’t fit with what the character is or has been. What the hell was Deadpool, in this movie incarnation, doing spinning in the air? Who but a dedicated fanboy can look past Ryan’s stupid sleeveless shirt and accept what they see? And then accept the wonky CGI on a criminally mis-used Liev Schrieber as Sabretooth?
Many of you will watch this movie and tell me I have to eat my words, but I stand by this and believe that the Avengers movie and Captain America movie listed after this one will not only suck in theory, but the final Avengers movie will not only not make it to theaters, butwill fail to even get made.
