Bromance in Review: Wolverine

My housemate was fortunate enough to catch the film a few days before me and reported back with these inspiring words, "It was okay...I was a little disappointed with Gambit." Now what this managed to do (other than crush any hope I had at the prospect of a live action version of one of the cooler mutants in the marvel catalogue) was damper my expectations enough that I was pleasantly surprised by the latest offering in the franchise.

Others may disagree, but what I have found with the X-men films is that they have never shied away from showing the flaws in order to build the character of each film's cast. The result-- or so I believe-- is that the audience becomes much more involved in the fight scenes. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is no different, taking the time to carefully develop the tenuous relationship between James and Victor (Jackman and Schreiber) so that when they do clash later in the film it is with much more force and understanding.

I know, I know, it's an action flick. Who wants character development? Well, clearly most action fans don't so the film cleverly hides a lot of its development in random snippets of dialogue during fight scenes or in a well developed opening title sequence (à la Watchmen opening sequence).

All in all a solid romp in action-land. But I would caution against seeing the film in a digital projection theatre. I was able to visit the new all digital theatre at Yonge and Dundas for this film and while the clarity is incredible, the special effects do not stack up in the higher quality. Nobody wants to see Wolverine's claws shifting back and forth across his knuckles...

See it on film instead and enjoy the well choreographed fight scenes without all the distraction of bad effects.

Bottom line: An action-adventure bromance with teeth that far surpasses the last X-Men (even if Gambit was an even bigger disappointment than my housemate let on).