As a former comic book collector, I am very angry and disappointed with the film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie is horrible in many aspects. What is so bothersome is that despite the talented cast and cameos of other X-Men characters, 20th Century Fox was able to rape facts from the real X-Men Universe and change things to whatever they like. None of the X-Men films have convinced me, because the Hollywood neanderthals CHANGE almost everything. I am sorry, but I refuse to see another X-Men movie under the direction of 20th Century Fox.

You remember the first X-Men movie? Well, it broke box office records at the time, but its was utterly retarded. At least, for someone that knows the characters from the mainstream comics. All the X-Men movies have had Wolverine as the protagonist…please, all Wolvie is, is a weapon for the X-Men. He is no leader in the comics, but since he is so popular, media companies try to make it as if he is a brilliant thinker and strategist. I like Wolverine, but he is no leader of the X-Men, just someone who will help the battle be won. They even have cartoons now, Wolverine and the X-Men. In these cartoons, it seems the roles of Cyclops and Wolvie are reversed, Wolverine is the squad leader and Cyclops has attitude problems..ridiculous. Back to the movies. Magneto…Ian McKellen? He was great as Gandalf, but as Magneto? In the comic books, Magneto looks as if he is in his forties and has a perfectly chiseled body, six pack and everything. He is depicted as an old and fragile senior citizen in the movies. Rogue? She has the powers of Ms. Marvel and is superstrong and invulnerable in the comics but in the movie she is a fragile teenager. Ugh.

In this new film, they have Sabretooth (a.k.a. Victor Creed) and Wolverine (Logan) as brothers! Not at all like the comics. I do remember there was comicdom speculation that Sabretooth was Wolverine’s father, but it was discarded many years ago. The Weapon X program was what trained Wolverine to be a killing machine and the source of his unbreakable adamantium skeleton; here, he doesn’t even get trained, they just give him the metal. The plot revolves around Colonel Stryker experimenting on mutants and using Sabretooth to kill former Weapon X members and capturing young mutants for other experiments. According to this ridiculous movie, Wolverine cannot beat Sabretooth if he doesn’t have adamantium skeleton and claws. Whatever. Wolverine can easily defeat Sabretooth without the metal any day of the week, I have the comics. X-Men Origins: Wolverine also seemed promising as the trailers showed the awesome merc-with-a-mouth, Deadpool (a.k.a. Wade Wilson), played by Ryan Reynolds and the character Remy Lebeau, or Gambit. More disappointment. Wade only appears briefly and then Stryker experiments on him and imbues him with not only a healing factor (as it is in the comics), but the abilities of many captured young mutants, like the teen Cyclops (a.k.a Scott Summers). Deadpool is the villain of the movie! Whoever wrote this movie has no love or knowledge of these characters, they were just interested in making money. Gambit didnt even have a cajun accent, and his powers? He charges cards with explosive kinetic energy and throws them at enemies but in this movie he appears to levitate the cards! Moreover, his steel fighting rod? Well, he taps the ground with it and the ground explodes. Those are not Gambit’s powers! Who are they trying to fool? This film’s Deadpool is an insult to the real Deadpool. In fact, I wish Deadpool was real and that he paid a visit to the people that made this film.

I give this movie an F-. 

There are some that are unfamiliar of how characters truly are in the comics and may, thus, like this movie. Mind you,  that is the only way you will like this movie, if you know nothing about the X-Men universe and never read comic books. I have hundreds of comic books and thousands of comic cards, I KNOW my superheroes. If you were or are a comic book aficionado, evade this movie like the plague H1N1.

ACHILLES

HECTOR

MAXIMUS

LEONIDAS 

Personally, I think Hector would emerge victorious against the other three contestants.

VS. Achilles-

Now, I know that in the Iliad, Achilles triumphs over Hector, and drags his body around in a chariot and then Priam asks Achilles for his son, for proper funeral rituals. We have all have seen the movie, or even better, read the book.

Achilles was a spoiled brat. His mother, the nymph Thetis, dipped him in the river Styx to make him invulnerable, but he held him by the heel! This, of course, results in his only weak spot. The god, Hephaestus, also made him a “special” armor, to face Hector and the other Trojans at the end. So, basically, the reason Hector lost to Achilles was because of the meddling of the Greek gods. If you have read Homer, you will see that when Athena appears to Hector as his brother, Deiphobus, it was all a ruse to favor Achilles. At the final encounter, Achilles, in fact, missed Hector, when he threw his spear. Athena had to “magically” pick it up and give it back to him for a second chance. When Hector threw his spear, the aim was perfect but Achilles’ shield stopped the edge of the spear from harming him. If we take away the meddling gods from Achilles’ side, Hector would win.

 VS. Maximus-

Maximus is great with the short sword, as we saw in  Gladiator, but Hector is much stronger and can win with a spear from far away. In close quarters, it would be an awesome battle with a sword, but I see Maximus tiring out a bit faster than Hector. Maximus was a great general, but Hector held back the Greek army almost entirely on his own for 10 years. Daily war would have him more physically fit for this titanic battle. It would be very close.

VS. Leonidas-

Leonidas is resourceful, but his greatest strength is military strategy. On a one on one battle, Hector will again prove the stronger man. Both are more than adept with the spear and shield, however, if Hector breaks Leonidas’ spear, he will dominate him with the sword, or spear. The Spartan king would put up a great fight, but his lack of body armor would make him vulnerable to Hector’s attacks. Leonidas also believes that death is glory, while Hector believes that there is nothing glorious about dying, nothing poetic.

Therefore, Hector>Achilles>Maximus>Leonidas

Am I wrong? Who do you think would win?

I sort of feel obligated to write a review on the film, Watchmen. Unless you have no TV or access to the internet, you well know that Watchmen was going to be a pretty big release when it came out March 7. The film is an adaptation of a 12-issue comic book series of the same title, created by the ever so talented Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons for DC comics in 1986-87. It is the only comic to receive a Hugo Award, and as a comic book fan, I highly recommend it to anyone that knows how to read.

The film is directed by the same director of the film 300, Zack Snyder. Remember, 300 is also based on a comic book by Frank Miller, who based it on an actual event described by the Greek Historian, Herodotus, this being the Battle of Thermopylae. Once again, Snyder stays true to the comic and produces a movie worthy of the comic’s greatness. Though not as powerful or good as 300, Watchmen is sure to have a place in any nerd’s DVD or Blue Ray library. The special effects are amazing, and the plot is very different from what you may expect in a “super hero” movie.

Watchmen are a team of super heroes that have been working in the United States fighting crime. The movie starts out in alternate 1980’s America in which President Nixon is in term for the third time, and the government has passed a law in the years prior which outlawed superheroes. The Watchmen are a team of 6 superheroes:

• The Comedian (Edward Blake)- A government-sanctioned superhero that is fascinating because he does horrible things, yet you still do not hate him. His assassination starts Rorschach’s investigation and the whole story.
• Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman)- An American physicist who gets caught in an accident with an Intrinsic Field Subtractor. He gets destroyed but is able to come back as the massively superpowered man dubbed Dr. Manhattan by the government. He is the only character to have superpowers but he is so powerful, he loses his humanity.
• Rorschach (Walter Kovacs)- A masked vigilante who narrates the movie and investigates the death of The Comedian. His mask shows continuously changing inkblots, hence his name. The protagonist of the movie, Rorschach hates society for the crimes they commit and his sense of justice is well placed, although his tactics and actions are extreme. He alone is worthy to watch, as he shows the duality of man. After the Keene Act is passed, he is the only vigilante active. He is a very good fighter and very astute.
• Nite Owl (Dan Deriberg)- A superhero a la Batman. Nite Owl dons a costume similar to Batman and fights crime with gadgets and pure fighting prowess. He is the typical nice guy in the story, but he is sort of impotent. Rorschach and Nite Owl are good friends.
• Silk Spectre (Laurie Juspeczyk)- The heroine of the story. Laurie is in a relationship with Dr. Manhattan, but she begins to fall out of love with Jon as he loses more and more his touch with humanity. She begins a relationship with Nite Owl, but Dr. Manhattan and her first need to have a chat in Mars as a form of closure. Silk just relies on her acrobatic and fighting skills.
• Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt)- The smartest man in the world, who is a self-made billionaire and just revealed his real identity to the world, as the retired hero, Ozymandias. Adrian is also interesting to watch, at the end, you will be like…ok, he is smart.

The Comedian is the key to the movie. The movie is rated R, so try not to take kids or little siblings. One thing I may say to prepare you is that the blue, strong, Dr. Manhattan is completely naked most of the time. Also, there are a couple of sex scenes. Nothing too scary, just not for the little kids. Oh, and I do recommend you read the comic so you can understand the film better. I give it a B++