A Ghoulish Look Back at 2009 Summer Blockbusters: 'Star Trek' and 'X-Men Origins'

'Star Trek' 1/2

I don't know if you have seen, but if you YouTube "Worst Fight Scene Ever," you'll probably encounter the cheesy scruffle between Captain James T. Kirk and some lizard monster (Tell me what its called, Trekkies). When you see this new film, it won't take you long to realize that Star Trek has come a long way. A looooooooong way. And really, that's what makes you appreciate J.J. Abram's film. Not only was it fun, action-packed, enthrallingly good and pulpy science-fiction, it also rejuvenated the spirit of a spanning, enduring cultural phenomenon. It was well-acted--Bana played an excellent pissed-off Romulan adversary--and the story actually made some amount of sense. It still had its cheesy moments, like that whole future Spock thing (don't worry...left it vague enough to not be a spoiler...he's even in the tv spots), but overall Star Trek left me wishing for more spacefaring adventure in another feature length episode. I'm sure they're working on it.



'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'-

>Snikt<. Ooo, shiny. Shiny indeed. At least, in terms of big-budget action sequences and overall loudness.

While it's certainly not as fun as last year's Marvel summer blockbuster Iron Man, Wolverine still qualifies as an entertaining action film. Origin mythos, in order to be fully true to such a classification, need more character development: something that gave way to action sequences and was somewhat lacking in this film when compared to other members of the genre, such as Batman Begins. They also tend to focus on one character...and, well...there were enough supporting roles to make several more such standalone origin films as this one.

That being said, Wolverine still had a viable plotline and while there certainly was not room for the necessary amount of character development, one could still feel for Logan's character as he struggled through the throes of his vengeful past. The film did its job of connecting things correctly to 2000's 'X-men' and its respectful sequels. Deadpool, according to some rumors, might be getting a spin-off film which I think is well-deserved as he was one of the more complex of the other supporting characters. Overall, Wolverine exposed the other side of Marvel Entertainment--in contrast to the good-natured, verbal spars of Tony Stark, Wolverine proved to be a darker, more dramatic thriller--perhaps a demonstration of the versatile nature within Marvel's universe.


Have you seen these movies? Give them a zombie-head rating in the comments below this post.