Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

What can I say about one of the more anticipated movies of this summer season? I was disappointed.

Wolverine is a movie with several things going for it, but it just doesn't seem to take hold of any of them. Fans of the comic books will have various issues on top of those presented by the movie. Regular fans of the X-Men will feel short-changed. It's like the bonus scenes at the end of the movie, neither is worth the time you spend waiting to see them.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is indeed a well produced movie. There is CGI and explosions to fulfill the testosterone needs, and more than enough scenes of Hugh Jackman without a shirt off to pass the time of most who enjoy that. Jackman has worked out a lot for the film. The explosions happen almost every 15 minutes with fights mixed in between to keep everyone busy. There is even a loose bit of plot woven into the whole thing to keep your mind stimulated, a little.

But it just doesn't work. Here is a problem, we start the film proper with Logan and Creed part of a secret superhuman squad of assassins. This is after an introduction explaining that they had been part of every conflict and battle America had since the Civil War (Interesting to note that both Creed and Logan were in Blue). We are introduced to every member of the group as they do their thing against some ambiguous African warlord with a stash of diamonds. Then they are all gone, essentially.

Zero, has one scene where we get to see he is really fast and accurate at firing a gun, and about 45 seconds throughout the rest of the film. Blob gets the scene against the tank, and another in the boxing ring. Then he is gone. Wraith gets about 10 minutes, of which only 1/3 has him talking. But he does get to be in 3 locations before he is gone. And Wade Wilson - well other than his opening scene, nada. Hey Ryan Reynolds got paid a likely $200,000 plus for 5 minutes of screen time. I don't hold that against him. It's a great job and life if you can get it.

Suffice to say, everything in this movie is just thrown at you, then tossed away. You barely get enough time to understand who a character is and what they might be able to do, before they are gone. So you never really get to care. Except for Wolverine and Sabertooth. Which you either like or not from early on in the film.

Plus you are left with a lot of why in this movie. Why are some mutants killed, others held captive, and yet others frozen in block of ice. Why don't certain people, besides Wolverine, remember what happened in the subsequent movies this is a prequel of. Why does Wolverine lose his memory even though he heals from all injuries perfectly. Why doesn't Sabertooth use any of the past on Wolverine in the X-Men movies?

And on and on.

You don't get a lot of time to ponder any of these questions. The movie keeps the pace high enough that you never get enough time to consider these questions. But you are left with the feeling that nothing is resolved. And once the film ends it just hits you like a brick.

As much as I was looking forward to the film, it just never got to a point where I was satisfied. Especially my interest in the Wade Wilson/Deadpool character. As a fan of that comic book character I was left with a Tim Burton Batman movie introduction and end to the character.

Bottom line, Don't see this in the theater. It will be a nice DVD, especially if there is extra scenes that expand on the characters and what they can do and/or give more details about them.

Let's hope that the ret of this years crop of summer movies just get better from this point on.

Movie Review: Dragonball Evolution

If for some reason you found yourself bored and wondered if you should go see a movie, don't make it Dragonball Evolution. If you are a fan of Dragonball and/or Dragonball Z, or even GT don't see this movie. In fact if you are above the age of 5, are of normal intelligence, can draw stick figures, or know what a circle is, don't see Dragonball Evolution. Anyone else not covered by these things should see the film or buy the DVD.

I hoped that the preview of this movie would be wrong. With 68 million fans worldwide you would think that the producers might have bothered to watch the entire series. Or at least more than commercials for the show on TV. But that is not the case.

In fact I find it hard to explain how bad this movie is. It's slow paced to start. It has a plot that has the creativity of a mouse. It follows the storyline the same way that a Ferrari is akin to a Yugo.

I was so insulted and bored by the movie that I almost feel bad trashing it. Still the producers of the film did this to themselves. They trashed a great cartoon series, loved internationally.

Yet the worst movie has some positives. The fight scenes in the film are interesting, at least compared to the rest of the film. The kid playing Goku almost looks like he has hair like the main character in the series. There are Asians in the film. ChiChi is in the movie and is Goku's love interest.

The net result is the answer to the question is this worth paying money to see in a theater? The answer is a simple, no. In fact I would almost demand that I get paid to watch this film again. So would I pay to have the DVD? Again I would say no, if it costs more than a dollar.

If you are in any way interested in Dragonball from the cartoon series, buy a DVD of that and watch it. It is infinitely more interesting, better written, has deeper character development, better fight scenes, and entertaining. If you do pay to see this movie, you can now only blame yourself.

Angelina Jolie banned in England - sort of

In news that is not so sad, there is the announcement from Britain that Angelina Jolie has been banned. Well not her directly (only British-friendly entertainers like Snoop Dogg get that treatment) but rather the ads for the film WANTED.

The situation goes like this. Gun violence is bad. Movies with gun violence are even worse as they make it sexy and glorified. So the ads that show Jolie blasting baddies with shotguns, and pistols, and so on is on the top of the hit list. Which I would respect except for one thing.

The movie came to Britain some time ago and the DVD has been actively on sale for about 6 months.

So this is a waste of time and mere polispeak for some politician or political group that wants to look good to constituents. It's hypocritical and there are few things that are worse. It makes me bitter and twisted.

I understand that England looks at guns very differently than America. We are the land of cowboys and action movies of course. So I can see how this might upset some of the English sensibilities. But to bellyache after the fact is just stupid and insulting.

If this ad is so bad, so instrumental in magnifying gun violence in England, why the hell did they let the movie and DVD get released? Which says nothing of the fact that all of 59 murders were committed in all of 2007 in England. What gun violence do they have? Binghamton NY has probably half that number in 2007, and there are only 150,000 people here.

Look, the second multi-stage bullets are recovered from a crime scene I'll understand the hysteria. But until then I think the British government needs to get a grip. Besides, I would think the impression that Amy Winehouse is giving the young women of Britain is far more detrimental and immediately more urgent than Angelina Jolie in an action movie.

Movie Preview: Pandorum

Well at least Hollywood is consistent. That’s the first impression I get from the movie trailer for Pandorum.



Instantly you get the feeling that the movie is a mix of sci-fi horror movies – specifically Alien – and the recent rash of video games. The fact that the producers of the movie are also the ones responsible for the Resident Evil movies just adds to the sense of a video game conversion.

The movie trailer is supposed to give you the feeling of impending doom, yet I just get the memory of the movie Doom. It’s filmed in dark shadows to emphasize the danger. I just think it’s harder to see what’s happening. The big question in the film is whether or not the main characters are really living through this horror or are they just imagining it all. The trailer doesn’t really make me care.

Obviously the film will be doing a series of flashbacks, to show how the crew all met their demise. Likely there will be some video record to show how they inevitably went to some planet, and picked up something. That something became the object of suspicion as crew members died. If this sounds familiar, it should be. Countless numbers of video games and movies has used the same plotline, from Alien, as their theme.

Now I could be completely wrong. And the movie could be quite good. But appearances don’t seem to support those possibilities. More likely this film is perfect for those that want to sit in a theater and have a couple of gotcha moments for an hour and a half. It will be like playing an ok video game without any of the effort. Something you can forget completely once you get up from your seat. Which is not always a bad thing.

Suffice to say I am not impressed yet. I am surprised that Dennis Quaid is in the film. Normally he is pretty good a picking his films. Which means that either the trailer was put together badly, and the film has far more potential than what is presented, or they paid a lot of money to have a name attached to the film and Quaid will barely be in the movie.

There is still time for more trailers to come out. More of the storyline will be seen and either I am right in my gut instinct that this is a good $5 DVD bin movie, or it will be a decent horror sci-fi film. At this moment, I have to go with my gut, and recommend seeing the DVD of Dead Space until this hits the DVD in 6 months or so.

Product Review: Toshiba Regza 46” HD-ready LCD TV

As I mentioned previously I recently bought a new house. So of course I’m in the process of trying out new products. One of the biggest expenses in a new home is the purchase of furniture, and electronics to fill a room. That is also true of my house.

Now I want to mention that I am 40. That means that I grew up with a 13” black and white television, that had a knob to turn the channels. I got that TV when I was about 12, after my mother got herself a color 20” TV. Throughout my life I don’t ever recall having ever owned a television set that was bigger. So I decided that it was about time to see what all the rage is about with the larger flat screen sets.

I purchased the Toshiba Regza 46” HD-ready LCD TV, model number 46rv530u. And it is big. Very big. In fact if you own a sub-compact car you better have it delivered. It won’t fit into a 2-door car, and it’s best if you NEVER lay the set on it’s back if possible. If you must lay it down, do so for a short a period of time as possible, and be very sure to have the TV lay on a couple of soft thick blankets. If not you will likely ruin the screen and will have wasted your time and money.

But once you get this over-sized TV into your home the next problem is where to put it. I decided that the idea of placing it on the wall neither fit with my room design, nor do I find that a comforting though. So I had it go on the entertainment stand I also bought. I think it looks great.


So you have the big monster now. Is it actually worth the equally large price? And by the way Toshiba has a msrp for this model of $1799. I have seen it priced as high as $2400. So keep an eye out, because I did find a deal and got mine for under msrp before taxes of course. And that is not a refurbished set, I mean new.

Well yes it is. The picture is crisp, even when the full screen setting is being used. And there is nothing like say V for Vendetta in a mini-silver screen let me tell you. The options for the color settings are pretty good too. The Sports setting seems to be most crisp, with a bit more red emphasis. The Personal setting is more emphasized to the blue spectrum, and the movie setting is an even balance but tends to look like a soft lens was placed over the entire screen – softening all the edges but also dulling the picture quality a bit. For my own taste the sports version seems best overall.

The sound on the system is fantastic. It’s loud and resonating without the tinish sound you may be used to now. The base is quite good as well. And this is all done without a single round speaker. Amazing.

Hooking up cable is simple as the system will automatically recognize and configure itself once you plug in the cable line. The remote control is likewise very intuitive. Without reading the extensive manual I was able to set up my dvd player (using a 3 prong red/yellow/white connecting cord). I didn’t hook up one of my computers as the hdmi – dvi connection cord cost $59 which I find to be outrageous.

Overall I am very pleased with the quality and ease of use. I find it to be worth the money, and difficulty to install. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.