Danny Huston Effect

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I agree with the other guys. This could be a problem. It's the growling and the grimacing, for the most part. I don't need Wolverine-Jackman to scream and flex and make his blood vessels pop. I just need him to be cool and sardonic and do the thing like it's no sweat at all. I want him to be a smart-ass. Instead, this trailer has convinced me that the film -- whatever it actually will be -- is totally generic, and will surprise me not.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 5, 2009 at 12:39 PM

comment #1

Sabina E says ...

Yeah, that's not the Wolverine I want to see onscreen. Like you said, i want to see him calm, cool and collected, with lots of dangerous rage, anger, and hatred simmering underneath.

I feel like Hollywood has ruined the X-Men for me, especially the awful Halle Berry casting for Storm, one of my most favourite superhero characters of all time.

Posted by Sabina E at March 5, 2009 1:07 PM

comment #2

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

Wolverine isn't Wolverine without berzerker rage. He shouldn't have it all the time, but it wouldn't be true to the character if he never had it.

Posted by Luke Y. Thompson at March 5, 2009 1:24 PM

comment #3

Jason says ...

I closed the browser window when Jackman walked away from the explosion. I guess running from explosions (remember that?) isn't cool anymore.

I came close to closing my browser window when the camera craned up from Jackman, howling to the heavens, with his dead (?) beloved in his arms.

But if you walk away from an explosion, your time is up.

I don't understand Jeff's repulsion to Danny Huston. I don't think he's ever liked him.

Posted by Jason at March 5, 2009 1:25 PM

comment #4

Geoff says ...

Thank You.

Bryan Singer seemed to get it right when we were first introduced to his character. This close up we keep seeing of a pissed off muscle exploding Wolverine is not really what he's about.

Posted by Geoff at March 5, 2009 1:26 PM

comment #5

nemo says ...

Why is this post called the Danny Huston effect? What does Danny Huston have to do with any of this?

Posted by nemo at March 5, 2009 1:29 PM

comment #6

actionman says ...

he's in the film. but what he has to do with jackman's rippling muscles and veins is anyone's guess.

danny huston is fucking awesome.

Posted by actionman at March 5, 2009 1:40 PM

comment #7

nemo says ...

"danny huston is fucking awesome."

Agreed. Danny Huston does moral cheesiness better and more entertainingly than anyone else out there. It's always a pleasure to see him.

Posted by nemo at March 5, 2009 1:50 PM

comment #8

Nick Rogers says ...

Danny Huston IS awesome. This trailer is not. It just solidifies my belief that this movie will be as dumb as "Electra," but with a much larger budget. I realize each project has a totally different tone and approach, but alongside the great "Terminator" and "Public Enemies" trailers posted this week, this looks especially stupid.

Posted by Nick Rogers at March 5, 2009 1:59 PM

comment #9

hcat says ...

While Danny Huston isn't that great of an actor he does have good taste in movies and has appeared in some of the best films of the decade.

This, however, does not appear to be one of them.

Posted by hcat at March 5, 2009 2:05 PM

comment #10

Breedlove says ...

The Wolvrine trailer I've seen shows him with claws as a kid...didn't they show him in a previous movie getting the metal shit put into him as an adult? How would he have claws as a kid?

Anyway, not too interested in this. I smell a turkey. The title is incredibly annoying.

Posted by Breedlove at March 5, 2009 2:43 PM

comment #11

D.Z. says ...

I think what he had were healing powers, and the claws were a latent thing. But the metal was injected into him. It's been awhile since I saw that cartoon...

Posted by D.Z. at March 5, 2009 3:50 PM

comment #12

JChasse says ...

If Jeff has to drop his pants and take a Dairy Queen-softee swirled crap on a comic book movie, why couldn't he have chosen this one?

Posted by JChasse at March 5, 2009 4:28 PM

comment #13

Chicago48 says ...

Jackman can do way better. I don't know why he's not getting better scripts and working with better directors. He's such a comedian type, song & dance man type. He would have been perfect for Nine. Maybe he's not kissing enough ass in Hollywood....he's clearly the last one on the list of director's favorites. I don't want to see this. It's goofy looking and he's done Wolverine so many times in the X-men series...he needs to move on.

Posted by Chicago48 at March 5, 2009 4:46 PM

comment #14

Gordon27 says ...

Breed - in the comic continuity, his claws are bone, and are one of his mutant powers. When the adamantium was grafted onto his skeleton, it was grafted onto the claws too.

It actually makes more sense than the alternative, that they grafted him with adamantium on his skeleton *and* added the claws.

Posted by Gordon27 at March 5, 2009 4:51 PM

comment #15

mtgilchrist says ...

In spite of your spectacularly condescending attitude towards anyone with any familiarity with or affection for comic book properties, I actually agree with you, Wells, that Danny Huston may be a bane of cinema. Ever since I saw him in Silver City, that rancid latter-day political satire by the previously-great John Sayles, I have almost invariably hated him in every role in which he's appeared. In fact, the only reason I didn't hate him in Children of Men was because the rest of the movie is so goddamn good that it overcame his short appearance.

Posted by mtgilchrist at March 5, 2009 7:01 PM

comment #16

raygo says ...

I dunno. Danny Huston doesn't seem so short.

Posted by raygo at March 5, 2009 8:45 PM

comment #17

MovieBob says ...

It's moronic, but in the books they eventually decided (after the character had been running around for like 20 years) that the claws were part of his skeleton - a secondary offset of his mutation or some gibberish like that - and that all the military guys had done was cover them with metal like the rest of his bones.

Whatever. It was dumb then, and it's REALLY problematic in the movies since we've seen X-Rays of his skeleton multiple times in both movies that very clearly showed the retracted claws as a mechanical implant in his forearms (they're even on a kind of "hinge" mechanism.)

Both trailers look hopelessly goofy. Mixing the black-rubber, no-costume, steel-slick cinematography asthetic from Singer's films with what looks like a spot-the-mutant cameo fest ("please! please! please like us again, fans! we'll give you Gambit! look! he's even got a pole!!!") just doesn't fly. NOBODY who knows who Emma Frost (diamond-skin girl) is gives a shit unless she's in the outfit - she's a blank character, no depth or (usable) story worth, they JUST want to see a big-tittied blonde in snow-white dominatrix gear. THIS is why the Watchmen guys are all still wearing bright-green armor and neon spandex, some stuff is just SUPPOSED to look a certain way.

Posted by MovieBob at March 6, 2009 1:28 AM

comment #18

actionman says ...

Danny Huston was blistering in The Proposition. He also nailed his cameo in The Kingdom.

And Silver City -- that was a really funny movie.

Posted by actionman at March 6, 2009 10:38 AM

comment #19

actionman says ...

Huston was also great in Birth, The Aviator, The Constant Gardener, Children of Men, 21 Grams, Timecode, Ivansxtc -- the list just keeps going and going. Damn this guy has good taste -- or an amazing agent.

Posted by actionman at March 6, 2009 10:40 AM

comment #20