The Wolverine- Spoiler free movie review

Hugh Jackman brought the Wolverine to the screen this weekend with his 5th film playing the character. I guess you could say 6th if you count his cameo in First Class. This take was much better than the last outing, X-Men origins: Wolverine. I know, how could it get worse? The good news is that the trailer is right; this is the Wolverine movie that fans have been waiting for. It isn't as light as Avengers and it isn't as dark as Dark Knight. It falls somewhere in the middle where I think it should. I can say that it was a more entertaining film than Man of Steel. Acting: Jackman was able to make the character seem somewhat fresh. After all these outings, that is fairly remarkable. The Japanese cast were very good as well. I thought the portrayal of viper was a bit over the top, but everything about that character was over the top. It was a contrast to the more human wolverine and not a different mutant every scene. The story borrows heavily from The Ronin storyline from the 80s, this is not a bad thing. It isn't 100% faithful, no where near, but you can tell they were trying and it was closer than anything else the Fox/X-Men franchise has put out. They even had the iconic image from the comics of Logan filled with arrows. The smaller scale fits the Wolverine character as a man that heals well and has claws can't really be expected to save the universe by his lonesome. Thankfully, this one isn't a cameo filled extravaganza where you have to try and figure out how Emma Frost is Silver Fox's little sister that somehow is deaged from the first class movie. It did manage to surprise me in a few spots. The movie was a lot of fun and you should stay for the stinger.

Real Steel(2011)- Movie Review

Not unlike most parents, I enjoy seeing my kids get excited.  The excitement wasn’t really there when I fired up XBMC and told them we were going to watch Real Steel.  What I got was, “XBMC random recommends Barbie and the Three Musketeers, lets watch that instead.”  Not to be dissuaded, I scrolled past all the Barbie movies and selected Real Steal. 

I am not sure at what point the movie captured the attention of my girls, but it happened fairly early on.  I think it might have been when Charlie refuses to let the girls take a picture of his robot.  From there the girls were watching, and laughing at the appropriate times, but once Atom enters the movie, they were completely sold. 

I don’t know if you have ever been watching a movie with kids so into it that they are jumping around and screaming while watching it.  Actually cheering for the movie.  If you haven’t, it is a pretty amazing thing.  How can you tell them to settle down when they are obviously having so much fun.  One of them looked at me and said, “I bet you are glad that you didn’t take us to the theater for this movie.” 

I think this will be my entire review.  I could compare it to Rocky or tell you about the acting, but I think the simple enthusiasm that it brought out in my kids is review enough.  Sure it is a movie about robot boxing, but it is a movie about robot boxing that two girls aged 7 and 11 fell in love with.  I liked it too.  I think growing up I would have liked it and reacted in much the same way that they did.  For a minute, while watching this movie I felt like a 10 year old again, and for that alone, this movie gets 4 stars.  Highly recommended.