Hugh Jackman, sexiest man alive, was supposed to entertain us with his newest movie Wolverine last night at its premiere in Brussels. A slick trailer and good memories of the other X-Men movies had us prepared for a nice guys’ night out action movie but still hoping for at least a clever twist. Batman Begins is part of our collective memory as a success in reinventing the superhero. A great character played by Hugh’s opponent in The Prestige, Christian Bale, who really shows us that Marvel translations can be made not solely relying on special effects.
And this is where Hugh made a big boo-boo. His character had the depth of a colliflower and the effects were sprayed on us like a dog coming from a rainy walk. Up to three times (if not more) he and his brother (played by Liev Schreiber who, by the way, plays a lot more convincingly) are set in a narrow alley running into each other with claws and nails and their supposed-to-be-scary fangs. The result was boredom seldomly experienced in my cinema history. Close to, but not as bad as, Superman Returns (but hey, the Teletubbies put on a better show than the latter). If you’re an X-Men fan, stick to the boxset you bought a few years ago and spend your money on chips and beer instead of the origins of the sexiest man alive with fangs.
