Oh no Hugh di'n't

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. THE READER. So we usually end up being homers it seems and write about movies that we liked. So I thought I would mix it up a bit. Also, I will have to say that this might be the oddest combination of movies I have chose to review but as I started it about Wolverine (TRAILER) I didn't want to just write about how it sucked and was acknowledging that it's major flaw is also found in The Reader (TRAILER), another rather lame effort.

So first, Hugh's folly (and no, I don't again refer to the musical number at the Oscars). Let me get out of the way the obvious reasons why I don't recommend spending $10 to see the movie. OK first to be nice, I like Hugh Jackman, it had some good effects and it was in a way mindless entertainment -- but I think if I want that I will just wait for DVD. So it was the kind of movie were there are constant inconsistencies and pieces that just don't make sense (why did he fight in the Civil War if he is Canadian? Why is the guy who he finds out is not his actual dad in the first 5 minutes of the movie played by Jackman? Why does he age to exactly Jackman's age and then stop? How does he get a motorcycle back after a big action scene?) and I'm not one who generally catches all of these sort of issues in movies. Bad dialogue. A scene where his claws looked really fake. Oh and the lack of any characters other than Wolverine that we care about.

Aside from that, the big problem with the movie partly results from being a sequel: We know how it is going to turn out. I thought X2 actually did a pretty good job telling the background of Wolverine and I'm not sure we needed even more buildup to what we found other in that movie. I think there might have been a way to do it, though, if the filmmakers hadn't made the glaring mistake of forgetting that we know what will happen. In order for an action movie to work, there has to be some tension and there are a number of reveals that it builds to that amount to a shrug because we already know what will happen. He gets tricked into being transformed. Knew that. He picks the name Wolverine. Who didn't see that one coming? He doesn't die in any of the big battles and neither do characters we know show up in later movies. Duh? If they had tried to build the story around issues for which we were already not aware, the movie might have stood a chance but it might be that there just wasn't enough story to build a movie around anyway. As painful as it is to give positive recognition in this case, I was discussing with a coworker today that not building to surprises in known plot elements is something that George Lucas did well in the Star Wars prequels. So as you can see it does not necessarily ensure quality.

Wolverine might be OK for a rental when you just want to not think about things but I can't endorse it too much when there are other comic book movies being made, like Ironman, that are able to be entertaining and still contain some level of quality. I can't say, however, that I hated the movie completely.

So how does this connect to The Reader, a movie which in two years will only be remembered as the one that finally earned Kate Winslett an Oscar? (side note: As much as I like Winslett, she in no way deserved a Best Actress recognition for this movie as there is not way you could convince me this was a leading role) Like Wolverine, there are a number of flaws in the movie -- including the fact that it is dull -- but the biggest for me was that the crux of the whole movie was something that supposedly was a surprise about Winslett's character but it's kind of in the title and just about anybody seeing the movie knows it already. It seems like such a let down when you realize that is going to be what everything hinges upon. This is a very mild SPOILER ALERT that I think you probably already know but if you are really paranoid and think you might actually be unaware of it, skip to the end of the paragraph and read no more. We are supposed to be surprised that she can't read and somehow this is supposed to change our interpretation of the character in the past and what she does in the pivotal part of the movie. But we already know so it's printer much a shrug that makes it about as fulfilling as the rest of the movie.

So there's my connection of these two movies. I love finding a way to connect two movies that are dissimilar by finding a connection like this. Especially when it means I can write about two recent movies I saw at once (score!). Also, I think it could start some conversation if you have any thoughts on movies that try to treat known facts or obvious events as surprise events in the movie. It is a bit of a pet peeve of mine in movies and one that I think we see way too often by lazy screenwriters. Any movies that bring this to mind?