Hope he leaves this turkey in the rear view mirror and moves on to the next thing fast.

If anything, I was disappointed because they had the chance to make a hell of a film, if they took the time & wanted to be true to the comic book character.

I suppose I was hoping for a stand alone Wolverine movie. Instead we got a movie that was pretty much like the X-Men movies, but let's face it, the main audience for this isn't comic book fans, it's X-Men fans. It was made under the X-Men banner afterall. It could have been so much better, but I've seen worse.

That would have been so much better...

Plus, Ebert is also right that he has no vulnerabilities. Batman, Spider-Man and Punisher can all be killed or hurt, even by a single gunshot. And even characters much more powerful than him have some sort of Achile's Heel: Superman has Kryptonite and his love for his friends and family, you can go after Lois and the Daily Planet to get to Superman; the Hulk has his low intelligence and his outsider status, and his alter ego is as weak and mortal as any human; and Iron Man has a bad heart and can be caught with his pants (or armor) down.

Wolverine, nothing can hurt him physically or emotionally. He has become a boring character.

I know it is based on a comic book about a regenerating mutant with claws, but this is where I begin to have trouble suspending disbelief.

I think Wolverine is in the same state as Batman was before O"Neill and Adams, bogged down by all these gimmicks and unnecessary elements and far away from what made him popular to begin with. To many bad writers have put unnecessary and crappy elements into the Wolverine myth. He is pointlessly complex and excessive.

As I have said before, Wolverine is like a Christmas tree that too many ornaments have been put on - the branches are starting to sag and the tree just looks ridiculous and ugly.

I guess that makes him number 7 - Kitchen sink.

Not everyone can be born rich like Batman.

And I am not saying he isn't a five. I am just saying he is a 5 with elements of 1.

I love Cap's origin, but you could of gotten rid of the entire super-soldier formula and frozen iceberg and it wouldn't change how he fights or acts at all. He still functions like a 1 - plenty of fist and relying on his training.

Not saying a #1, but he is more than just a guy who "accidentally" gets his powers. Cap earned them to a certain degree (and he still had to undergo training and survive a war).

Lets be honest, if we all had the super-soldier formula few of us would be using it to help our fellow man or pushing themselves to be the best fighter we could. And almost anyone here on this TB wouldn't be using those gifts to fight against al-Queda or against the Taliban, or against any injustice, they would just use those abilities to win Gold medals and get on the cover of Kellog's. Cap ain't selfish.

Now, Batman is selfish. Guy thinks he is above the law and can operate without any being held responsible to any sort of authority accept his own. You want to fight crime Batman? Get a badge.

And I guess I have a soft spot for Cap being an ex-grunt.

I can't really call them the greatest generation (I think racism and some of the hypocrisy of that generation prevents me from doing so), I will say that they climbed out the Great Depression and then volunteered to face possibly get slaughtered oversees against two very dangerous foes, despite the fact that neither foe would ever be able to really reach us. Even if China fucking invaded Hawaii I think you would be hard pressed to find as many people willing to enlist and fight nowadays. I used to be in the Army, but I am the first to admit I am a big fucking coward. After 9-11 I thought about joining up again, but I decided that I got other things I wanted to do.

I know you are being tongue in cheek, but it is hard for me to mock and laugh at another group of people who obviously risked and did more than any of us ever had.

Now, Capone... let's answer your questions... about the beginning... Wolverine lived in a mansion, raised by a rich man with rich-kid ideals. His 1/2 brother and real father were groundskeepers. They lived the gritty life (not shown, but in the comics, Victor was often chained in the basement). This scene shows that Wolverine used to be constantly sick, but under the stress of seeing his 'father' murdered, it triggers his mutation, and we get the claws and healing factor. Plus, it establishes that James and Victor have to rely on each other. THAT'S the importance of the scene.

Will.I.Am is a black cowboy because his character John "Kestrel" Wraith was a black cowboy. It's keeps in character.

The reason Stryker did the adamantium to Wolverine was to see if Wolverine's healing factor could compensate for it. That's important because they take Wolverine's DNA to add to Deadpool (just like the comics) to give him a healing factor that can equal Wolverine's as well as allow him to survive the bonding process, thereby creating a new super soldier.

The meat of the movie seems to take place in the late 70's early 80's, which fits in nicely with the late 90's of the X-Men films. Fits perfectly.

As for characters not "fitting in together based on the comics", you should know by now that the films do not follow the comics, but are merely BASED on the comics. That's why you can have Blob in Team X. That's why Sabretooth works for Magneto. That's why Phoenix is a repressed Ego rather than an alien power. It's a different take. Like Ultimate X-Men, or the Transformers movies.

As I said earlier, this is easily the best of the X-Films. It's not a laughably bad as X3. Not as boring as X1, and not as "WTF are the odds of all this coming together?" as X2.

is why I really liked it. I mean come on, it's the macho-est movie I've seen in a long time. I thought we liked that stuff? But anyway, about Stryker. He seemed fairly paranoid. He wanted to get rid of the mutants because of the future threat they posed. But he also wanted to make a weapon out of them. He wanted to use them if he could but he was superscared of them too. That's why at the first sign that his new and improved Wolverine was uncontrollable he wanted to get rid of him. His scaredycatness won out over how much he spent on improvements.

"...and Blob from the comics doesn't look like Fat Bastard from Austin Powers"

Really? Blob was a big fat idiot, and here, he's a big, fat idiot. Looks the same to me.

The people here are bitching like the little girlie fanboys at tfw2005.com about Prime having flames on the cab, or no yellow Spandex on Wolverine, or that Venom wasn't a 400lb drooling behemoth in Spider-Man 3...

The movies are NOT the literal translation of the comics, they are re-interpretations of the source material. No one whined about the changes in Spielberg's Jaws or Jurassic Park. No one whined about the changes in Demme's Silence of the Lambs. Time to get the sand out of your vaginas and enjoy the films...

It's not Ben Hur, but I honestly enjoyed it more than Iron Man, and I loved Iron Man. I honestly can't wait for the Deadpool spin-off movie. (he reattaches his head after the credits - classic Deadpool to not stay dead, and he "shhhhh"'s the audience, breaking the 4th wall, again classic.)

New paragraphs are lovely

Why not try one someday.

about damn time.Quality is shit but I'd have liked that better than Wolverine drinking saki with a transvestite.

I'm kind of torn in that this shows that even so-so execution can be profitable; on the other hand, it continues to show that "superhero" flicks are a solid genre. We can only hope the producers attempt to be true[er] to the source material.

The Spirit gets love from some quarters, but not Wolverine? Okay.

Back in the old west days, a guy goes to work on the rail road. It's a shitty job. A lot of work. Back breaking day. Crappy paycheck. He staggers back to camp exhausted and dirty, only to be treated to a horrible dinner, almost unpalatable. He loudly proclaims "THIS FOOD TASTES LIKE SHIT!". The cook yanks off his apron and throws it on the guy.

"Good luck, buddy," he says. "You're the new cook".

The guy discovers that cooking is actually worse than working. So that morning he wanders out into the forest and finds the biggest, steaming fresh moose turd he can find, and he bakes it into a beautiful pie with the perfect flaky crust.

The guys working on the rail road stagger back to camp and they're all happy to see a beautiful set of pies for dinner. One guy takes a huge spoonful and shoves it into his mouth.

"HOLY SHIT, this is moose turd pie!.... but it's good."

My dad told that story to me when I was a kid to illustrate that I should shut the fuck up if I'm not willing or able to get in and fix whatever it is I'm bitching about. So we all bitch and whine and complain about Wolverine. What can we do to fix it? It's already made 87million dollars so the public has spoken. We're all at the mercy of Hollywood when it comes to these types of well established beloved characters. The fact is, the fans are in the minority and all we can do is hope and pray that our favorite [insert character here] is passed on to a decent writing and directing team. None of us are in the position to dictate that directing/writing team, that's why I don't get all worked up. It's pointless. All I can do is support the current Wolverine and HOPE that the next one is better.

I said I liked the movie, I did. It was like another installment of the comic book except this time it's on the big screen with live actors. Even the fans have to admit not all the Wolverine stories have been good, but we move on and hope that the next one will be.

One of the things I'm liking in the Whedon Astonishing is the notion of Beast looking to take the cure not to be normal but because he feel he might be 'devolving' towards a more feral state and would loose the things he loves, using his mind, his friends, etc. I think this would be an aspect of contention with Wolverine as well. How he really is a berserker and not a crying guy who yells at people. He's on the verge of a murderous rampage almost every time he goes into heavy combat. As in the possibility of killing someone he loves. Someone wrote that in the house scene with Prof X that Wolvie would have gone totally berserk and destroyed the house and likely the neighborhood.

THAT is what makes him interesting. His seeming physical omnipotence is balanced out by his mental scarring, battling id, and loss of memory. He doesn't know if he's the monster raging beneath the surface or the collected warrior/samurai with fury disciplined to a fine edge for combat prowess.

True, it's not really enough to make him the quasi main character for 4 movies, but certainly there's enough there for talented script writers to give us something? Look at Singer's approach with the whole gay thing, being an outsider, being the object of fear and ridicule, etc...was that featured in the comic? There's always material there if you care to, or are talented enough, to find it...usually.