Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a movie that comic book geeks around the world, including myself, have been waiting a long time to see. In my opinion, this movie does not disappoint since it has a great story and all the action one would expect from an X-Men film.What I like most about this movie is that it not only delves into Wolverines past, but it also introduces the audience to a whole team of new mutants such as Gambit, Deadpool, and Wraith. However, X-Men fans have found a number of inconsistencies with this film as it relates to the comic books its derived from. In my opinion, these inconsistencies don’t really take anything away from the movie as whole since it is filled with some great action sequences and tells a great story.

Click this articles title to see my verdict on this movie and to check out some of its secret endings!

Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #2

This issue of The Amazing Spider-Man contains two stories, one a little better than the other in my opinion. The first story, Anti-Venom Returns by Dan Slott and Chris Bachalo, is where the good action is. Anti-Venom starts off as a vigilante, fighting the good fight against Mr. Negative and his Inner Demons. The twist at the end leaves you wondering what Anti-Venom will do next. The second story, A Night Out With Wolverine by Zeb Wells and Paolo Rivera, shows us a side of Wolverine that we do not often see. In it, Wolverine tells Spider-Man, in his own special, drunken way no-less, that he should not let any opportunity pass him by or he might miss a big one. The question I had in my mind throughout the story was, “Why would Wolverine want to go to a bar with Spider-Man of all people?” The answer may surprise you.

Below are the details of each of these stories, so do not read ahead if you are planning on picking up this issue!

SPOILER ALERT!

Anti-Venom Returns!

By Dan Slott and Chris Bachalo

Anti-Venom starts out as a vigilante, saving a young, drugged-up chick from herself by removing the poison from here veins and getting her to go to the F.E.A.S.T Center. He then goes after the people who sold her the drugs in an effort to rid New York City of their kind. In doing so, however, he runs into Mr. Negative and his thugs, known as the Inner Demons. He finds them in an OS-CORP truck loaded with drugs and is ready for a fight. Fortunately, he finds out that they were hi-jacking truck and never intended to deliver the goods to OS-CORP. So Anti-Venom and Mr. Negative are on the same side, but Anti-Venom believes that Mr. Negative is poisoning the city. After a quick-n-dirty fight with the Inner Demons, Anti-Venom vanishes and Mr. Negative orders a search. The truck is then taken to the F.E.A.S.T warehouse, where Mr. Negative is discovered. After finishing his business with his associate, Mr. Negatives changes back into….Martin Li! After having seen this, Anti-Venom goes nuts, later realizing that he’s the only one that knows the truth behind Martin Li and that since he’s a monster no one will ever believe him.

A Night Out With Wolverine

The story starts with Spider-Man and Wolverine walking around New York on a cold, winter night. When they arrive at a bar Wolverine takes off his mask. Spider-Man refuses to do the same in order to preserve his secret identity. The two walk in and get a table, and then Wolverine tries to hit on a chick at the bar. Her boyfriend takes offense to this and approaches him. A fight quickly breaks out, and once its over the chick walks her boyfriend out of the bar. Wolverine grabs a whiskey meets Spider-Man at their table. After downing a few shots, Wolverine tells Spider-Man a story where the morel is  not to let any opportunity pass him by, or him might miss a big one. The angry boyfriend then returns with a shotgun and blasts Wolverine in the head. It doesn’t phase him of course, but the Spider-Man grabs the dude’s gun and saves him from a pissed-off Wolverines claws. Once he came to his senses, Wolverine apologized for what he had done. The two then exit the bar and Spider-Man asks why Wolverine had chose him as his drinking buddy, especially since he doesn’t drink. Wolverine replies saying that it was his birthday and that he didn’t want any of his X-Men friends to judge him.  Happy Birthday Wolverine!

81st Annual Academy Awards

Wow, what a show right? From start to finish, the best Oscar’s show I’ve seen in a while. This year the academy did away with the tried and true formula for awards. You know the one. Two presenters come out, do a b it about the category, present the nominees, announce the winner, and then the winner gives a speech. It was different, and in my opinion better, today than normal. For the supporting/lead actor/actress awards the presenters were five winners from the past. For Best Lead Actor, the presenters were Robert DeNiro, Adrian Brody, Micheal Douglas, Anthony Hopkins, and Sir Ben Kingsley. Each of the presenters spoke magnificently about one of the nominees, and then they opened the envelope and presented the award. When the presenters were speaking, you could rally feel the emotions in the room. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) did a great job hosting, and I really enjoyed his opening performance.  I’ll add it below when it hits the tubes.

When it comes to awards, it was apparently a great year for Slumdog Millionaire. It won eight out the nine awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture. It was really nice to see all the film’s young actors up on stage at the Oscar’s. I can only imagine how much of a dream come true it must have been for them to be there. I’m also glad that Heath Ledger got the Best Supporting Actor award, albeit post-mortem. When he was announced as the winner, I was totally geeking-out. Being a Batman fan since childhood, I thoroughly enjoyed his portrayal of The Joker in last years The Dark Knight. It was a well-deserved award for the late, great actor.

All in all, the 81st Annual Academy Awards was a great show this year!