"Post No. 629"

"MOVIE REVIEWS:"



(Yes, there could be some spoilers).

X-MEN ORIGINS: Wolverine Starring Hugh Jackman. This could possibly be the best effort in the X-men movies so far. I've liked them all, but we get away from the spandex and into the character's mind more in this flick. Several things are told about Logan, which, not being a big fan of the character I never knew (but then, I never read the Origins limited series which supposingly explained his true origin).

For one thing, I always knew that Logan was a lot older than other Marvel characters, but this makes him trying to close in on 200 years, fighting an an adult through The Civil War, World War I, etc.

Next we see that, although not called as such (or, maybe I just didn't hear it), "Sabretooth" turns out to be his brother and has been by his side, fighting, for over a hundred of those years. As I recall, it was hinted way back in Marvel's Wolverine V1 #51 that Sabretooth may be Logan's father, but that was changed over the storylines in the following years. In one of the X-men flicks, Sabretooth was in allegiance with "Magneto" and his band of evil mutants.

Magneto's nowhere to be seen in this flick, however, but we do see "Striker" who has a very important part in the way Logan went from a mutant with a bone structure which protrudes claws from his hands and a great healing factor, to the "Weapon X" type origin we read when shown in the pages of several issues of Marvel Comics Presents. We see scenes of the adamanium metal being injected into Logan's skeletal structure, making him nearly invunerable.

The special effects are, as usual, very good and we see a few other familiar X-men characters, both heroes and villians, along the way, and this movie ties into the beginnings of the X-men team.

KNOWING, with Nicolas Cage, is one of his better flicks and has many a suspenseful and heart-touching moment. This story begins 50 years ago when a group of school children do drawings of things the think the future will be like, and these are buried in a time capsule. One girl, instead of drawing a picture, does a page full of numbers which seem to have no obvious meaning until Cage finds this after the capsule's been removed. He discovers that these are dates and coordinates to disasters that have occured. The big "thing" about it? The last one isn't finished. What comes next??? No big spoilers here as this is one that needs to be seen fresh, and I highly recommend it.

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE is yet another offering of a Marvel character to film. As usual, The Punisher is wrecking havok and killing as many criminals as humanly possible. This time it's his old adversary, "Jigsaw". The Punisher screws up by accidently killing a federal agent and attempts to make up for this sin and find some redemption in his goal of wiping out the criminal element. Lots of shooting, lots of blood-shed, lots of "is this all worth it" moments in the typical Punisher style, and the best attempt they've done thus far to adapting the character to film. Ray Stevenson (no; NOT the singer) as "Frank Castle, with a fun performance by Wayne ("Seinfeld") Knight as "Linus Microchip Lieberman".

"Happy May Day, Everyone!"