X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

The Wolverine has finally given us some trailers.

US Domestic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Yu9uwHLVI

International: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z88fLD1rjU

What have we learned from these trailers?

Logan has been living in Canada (likely) and basically bumming around, feeling a bit lost and empty after the events of X3. Yukio then finds him on behalf of ‘her employer’, Shingen Yashida, who is dying and wants to thank Logan for saving his life long time ago during the war.

Now, in the comics, none of this happened. For one, Shingen was a bad guy who did not approve of Logan and Mariko at all… so this ‘life debt’ just came out of nowhere and is almost the opposite of the comics dynamic of the relationship between them. Now, Shingen does tell Logan he can make him mortal (cause Logan obviously suffers from Highlander-syndrome) and that could actually be Shingen being evil. Instead of it being ‘a mercy’ it could be “I’m gonna steal your healing factor to save myself and I’m okay with whatever happens to you”.

Shingen does die (or pretends to) and the funeral is attacked by ninjas and Mariko is taken. However, Logan apparently gets dosed with the ‘cure’ anyway (Which, yeah, didn’t we see this in X3?) as he’s not healing properly. It’s a safe bet he didn’t know he was dosed because he acts very “what is happening to me” in the trailer. The question is, did Shingen do it or Viper on her own or on Shingen’s behalf? This would be more like the comics where Shingen has Logan poisoned.

Speaking of Viper, she’s apparently a head scientist for Shingen which means no HYDRA. She also seems to be playing around with hallucinogens because she appears to trick Wolverine Mystique-like in the Domestic trailer and then she starts to literally shed her skin. I’m thinking hallucinogen makes he look all snakey like or they made her a mutant who actually sheds her skin. She is getting all the face time, villain wise, in these trailers.

There are some very big fight scenes and the one that I thought was ‘on a plane’ is actually an elevated train and looks pretty cool the way they use the momentum and jump above road signs and stuff. There is also another very Kung Fu looking fight with ninja’s coming out of the woodwork in a snowy village setting. Yukio also gets her share of action in the trailer as well. So far no complaints in the action department, it does look really good.

What we don’t see?

For one, there is very little attention paid to the love story between Logan and Mariko. The International trailer doesn’t give even a hint of it while the Domestic only has a few split seconds and almost no specific reference to it at all. Mariko was one of Logan’s greatest loves, he actually cried when she called off their wedding. I can understand that they don’t want to make the whole trailer look like a romance movie but almost ignoring this important plot point… not sure if that was a wise move. Maybe we’ll see that in a second trailer. Or… maybe they don’t hook up in the movie? I have said she seemed a little young for the role… and Logan is an anti-hero… hhmmmm…

In a flip from above, the Domestic trailer has absolutely no Silver Samurai while the International only has a small glimpse. They really are keeping a tight lid on this character and I have to wonder why. Is there a twist they are trying to hide? (In the comics, Silver Samurai is the half-sister of Mariko.) Doesn’t quite make sense to me, maybe they think it would be too much for a trailer? Make it look too campy or comicbooky as they are really going for a Ronin look in the trailers?

My personal opinion?

The style is about what I was expecting, very on par with previous X-Men and Marvel super-hero movies only a little more on the darker side. It actually doesn’t look as ‘dark’ as I was thinking it could be but I’m not going to complain there. The fact that Shingen’s relationship with Logan is changed and the lack of Mariko and Silver Samurai does have me a tad worried, but above all, I’m still about the same I was before the trailer. I do want to see this film, it has the potential to be so awesome!