Wolverine & Gambit

So, my husband has just left to go to a showing of Wolverine, and he did not understand why I was disinterested. All of the wives were disinterested in the film, and so it is ending up being a “boys night out” for him (and he deserves and needs one) but he couldn’t understand why I would not go, particularly since Saturday-morning viewing of the outstanding X-Men cartoons is such a happy family memory.

I couldn’t speak for the other wives, but I explained myself without thinking, and ended up being -I think- right on the money (so much so that I tweeted it here). I said to him, “GCI has ruined movies for me the way some say the Designated Hitter ruined baseball.”

As soon as I said it I knew it was true. I wanted to like the previous X-Men movies, just as I wanted to like Van Helsing and other action films, but I just can’t, and it is the fault of CGI, or of directors who rely too-heavily upon the tool.

Instead of using a (relatively) small amount of CGI to enhance a story, too many filmmakers seem to use CGI to try to distract an audience from a weak story line or vapid dialogue, and it gets overwhelming. Instead of punching up the script, they overuse the special effects, and the end result is loud, often visually stunning and as satisfying as cold gruel.

When I consider the action movies I’ve thoroughly enjoyed in the last few years -enough to want to see the film again- it comes down to Iron Man, a film which managed to give precedence to character, plot and dialogue over special effects, and then used those effects brilliantly but unintrusively; the story was never overshadowed, nor was Robert Downey’s terrific performance.

I love X-Men and Wolverine, and I even like Hugh Jackman well enough. But the films have left me cold. Even being a fan of Gambit, the Cajun card-thrower and flirt extraordinaire, could not entice me to the theater, ma petites!