The Claws Are Out

Wolverine has half-brother, and in this film which is set roughly twenty years before the film X-Men, focuses on the violent past of Wolverine and on

his relationship with him.  With his 18-inch metal claws glinting in the light, Wolverine is back and ready to kick off the summer movie season with a growl, a slash and a bang.  It will take more than the swine flu to keep audiences away from “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” opening in 4,000 theaters this weekend.

“I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn’t very nice.”   -- Wolverine

He’s an unstoppable, immortal killing machine in a perpetually foul mood.  But, the first three “X-Men” movies offered a kind of watered-down version of one of the most cheered of anti-heroes.  This time the bad-assy Wolverine is back.  According to Marketcast tracking data published in last week's issue in Ad Age, “Wolverine” is on track to hit the $100 million ticket sales this weekend, which would make it the biggest opening of 2009 so far.  This year's current box-office champion is "Fast & Furious" which opened on April 5 with $72.5 million.

Fandango.com stated that by 5 p.m. Wednesday, 65 percent of its ticket sales were for “Wolverine,” and Movietickets.com reported Wednesday afternoon that 200 screenings of “Wolverine” have already sold out.  Over one quarter of which are for the midnight shows on Thursday.  Marketcast’s report indicated that women under 24 could be a key factor in “Wolverine’s” success.  38 percent of women in that age group said they have a “definite interest” in seeing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine for the fourth time.

After "The Dark Knight", long-held perceptions of the superhero genre have shifted.  Movie audiences are starting to see the same grit and level of drama that comics readers have known of for years.  It has been said that the "Iron Man" film is an ideal example of the genre being captured perfectly on film.  Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of the billionaire Tony Stark was regarded as pitch perfect, giving us a hero with much more than just the two dimensions.  

The comic book film genre says something about how fragile we are as a society.  It reminded us, that as soon as we elevate someone to hero status, the clock starts ticking on how long it will take us to tear them down.

About The Author:
This article was written by Mark Soveign who writes for
Wertheim Communications LLC as well as for Mooker.Com