Yes, I know. For most people, it’s the other way around. I don’t understand why, but people just hated Origins. Maybe it didn’t fit with their favorite comic book version of his origin story, I don’t know. I’m sure his origin has been retconned 30 times by now. At one point in the comics, I think they even planned for him to be an actual super-evolved wolverine. But I digress.
I recognize the movie had flaws. It had bad special effects (especially the claws, for which there was no excuse), a terrible version of Deadpool (total waste of a great character), and some minor continuity errors pop up when you try to work it in with the rest of the movies. I personally dislike the “laser guided amnesia” trope, with Wolverine having his memories erased by a bullet. I don’t mind that it worked, I mind the fact that Stryker knew it would work.
But none of those flaws really add up to a bad movie to me. It still had a lot of great action scenes, decent pacing, and all the flash and flair that makes these movies fun. It wasn’t Shakespeare, nor should it have been. I still walked out thinking, “I want to see that again.” I know it wasn’t one of the best X-Men films, but I don’t see why it gets all the hate it gets. Meanwhile, “Logan” was apparently loved by everyone who saw it.
I hated Logan. It was dull, boring, long, and depressing. Two hours of a whiny geriatric Xavier arguing with a depowered Wolverine in the desert. It had a few good action scenes, and I really liked Laura/X-23. I wouldn’t have minded seeing a sequel about her, but that’s off the table now. I just can’t understand is why Logan’s so popular. And that’s where Introspection Illusion comes in. Because the plot holes seem bigger in movies I hate. I can forgive the amnesia bullet in Origins, but I can’t forgive the tree branch going through Wolverine’s adamantium spine in Logan.
Yes, that’s right. They establish that his powers are weaker, but his skeleton is still fully adamantium. In fact, that’s relevant to the plot, since the adamantium is poisoning him. So when he’s thrown against the log at the end, and the branch pokes through the center of his chest, I was a bit annoyed. Even if it went slightly to the side of the spine, it still should have been blocked by his rib cage.
I don’t care that they killed off the character; he’s not one of my favorite X-Men. I care more about all the X-Men who are killed off-screen before the movie started. And maybe that’s another reason I judge the movie so harshly. I don’t care about Wolverine, so I can’t accept him in a more dramatic role. I watch the X-Men movies so I can be awed by all the super powers and special effects, and so I can catch all the references to the comics and cartoons. One of the reasons Origins worked for me is because of all the cameos of other X-Men characters. “The Wolverine” was less fun, partly because it had fewer cameos. “Logan” was worst of all, because not only were most of the X-Men dead from the start, but even the living ones had fewer powers.
But that’s all just rationalization. The truth is, I liked Origins because ooh shiny, and hated Logan because zzzzzz. It’s a gut reaction, and all the flaws in the world can’t ruin a movie if it keeps me entertained.
It’s not just a movie being more (or less) than the sum of its parts, it’s more like a movie being almost completely unrelated to its parts. That’s the paradox – all the flaws in “Origins” add up to an entertaining movie, while all the serious drama in “Logan” add up to a snoozefest.
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