X-MEN – Why Did It Choke?

Tarkas says:

Haven’t listened to the podcast (yet!) but I had to comment on the “lack of Wolverine” thing. Quite apart from his presence screwing with the movieverse continuity, I am fed up to the back teeth with the Hairy One’s omnipresence in anything X-related. The X-Men did exist before someone thought up Wolverine, remember? And I for one am not convinced his inclusion was an improvement, bub. The character has become, and was never that far from to begin with, a mess of overdone cliches, and has dated badly from his first appearance.

As for the movies, well, he dominated them in a way that just got worse and worse as the series went on; Last Stand was just ridiculous that way; other characters like Cyclops and Professor X (!) were shoved to one side and then summarily killed off so that Wolvie could “shine” — oh, and kill Jean.

First Class was refreshing in its lack of Logan, and I didn’t miss him. Whether the Hugh Jackman fans did to the point of depressing the film’s takings is debatable — I’m more inclined to think that there were too many comics blockbusters out this summer, and a prequel was less interesting to the general audience than the fresh stuff — but if an X-Men movie has to have Wolverine in it to succeed, then IMO we’re better off resting the franchise for a while.