Taylor Kitsch has signed on to star in Battleship — yes, Battleship as in the board game.

The film, directed by Peter Berg, is a loose adaptation of the popular board game in which a navy fleet must fight to defend Earth from an invading alien force. Written by Jon and Erich Hoeber, the movie has been described as “a massive naval adventure across the seas, in the skies and over land.”

Kitsch, who was seen last summer as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, will play Alex Hopper (a role previously looked at by The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner) who is the C.O. of one of the destroyers in the human fleet. Among his shipmates are the as-yet-uncast Executive Officer, the Chief Engineer, and a female Japanese commander. Part of the film will be told from the aliens’ point of view, but no word yet on who will be portraying/voicing them.

It sounds like the movie is straying from its roots, but it really has to, considering the simplicity of the original game. Hopefully, the movie will give us some awesome naval action when it splashes into theater May 25, 2012.

Source:

Well, this is unexpected — Bryan Singer, the director of X-Men and X2 who abandoned the series to embrace the failed Superman reboot and direct Valkyrie, is considering a return for X-Men IV. This is great news for everyone who sat through the mediocre X-Men: The Last Stand and the abomination that is Wolverine.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“‘I’m still looking to possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it,’ Singer said at a talk at South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival. He said he likes to ‘trick audiences into thinking they’re seeing fireworks, but they’re learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say.’”

This is far from a commitment from Singer, but nevertheless is a great sign for fans who adore the comics. If it does happen, though, The Last Stand will forever be a weird black sheep for the series, which is always annoying to me. After Wolverine last summer, Singer is just the shot in the arm that the series needs.

However, I’d take it with a grain of salt until he signs a contract — Singer’s a busy guy, with projects in development ranging from Excalibur to Jack the Giant Killer and a potentially unnecessary reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Hey, everyone.  After a long freshman year at college, I’m back full-time to review summer movies.  Let’s start with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Many people’s hatred for this fourth film set in the X-Men universe has been made abundantly clear by now.  However, I for one found this summer kick-off which focuses primarily on Wolverine to be an entertaining ride.  Basically, if you’re more of a movie buff than a comic one and couldn’t care less about how characters like Deadpool are portrayed, for example, or if you just enjoy Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of the tough-as-nails antihero with indestructible talons of steel, you should like this movie.

It tells the story of James Howlett, a.k.a Wolverine, who grew up confused and unsure of himself.  You can’t blame him either, since sharp bones grow out of the skin between his knuckles whenever he becomes angry.  One fateful night, James’ father dies and this event sends him off into the world alongside his half-brother Victor (played by Liev Schrieber in his later years).  Over the course of many years and many wars, James and Victor develop a close bond; the pretty nifty opening credits track their movements through the Civil War, WWII, the Vietnam War and so on and so forth.  Curiously, James and Victor stop aging once they look like Hugh Jackman and Liev Schrieber, but we’re not supposed to question things like that in a movie like this.

It’s not until after all these endless wars when James and Victor are approached by mysterious military man William Stryker (Danny Huston), who wants them to join a top-secret program that brings together various mutants.  Their task: to search the globe for a certain meteorite Stryker wants to get his hands on.  But the violence this mission entails eventually unnerves James, who believes innocents should be given a second chance.  As you can expect, he leaves the team.  But six years later, after James, or let’s just call him Logan now, the temperamental Victor, or Sabertooth, is hunting down the former team members for some unknown reason.  And after tragedy befalls Logan after Victor comes for him, he temporarily joins forces with Stryker once more so that he can become Wolverine and put a stop to his rogue half-brother once and for all.

It’s a given that films like Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” have re-shaped the mold for today’s comic book adaptations, and “Wolverine” recognizes this and promptly structures itself to fall perfectly within that outline.  This is perhaps my 2nd favorite of all the films in the “X-Men” franchise because for the first time, it deals with what makes a hero like Wolverine tick.  The script delves into his personal life before he became the amnesiac wandering the snow-covered streets in some distant place he was when we first met him in Bryan Singer’s “X-Men”.  Sure, there are some inconsistencies in the timeline leading up to that film, but not once did I let that detract from my entertainment.  The same thing goes for a brief 2-second shot where there’s a plasma TV screen in the background when the story is set sometime in the 80′s.  What I did care about, and what took center stage thanks to director Gavin Hood, was Wolverine’s inner turmoil and how it shaped him into the person we know from the “X-Men” trilogy.  Oh, and of course the entertaining action as well.

As expected, Hugh Jackman is at his snarling best as the mutant with claws of destruction.  If there’s a type of character Jackman is adept at playing, it’s the badass loner of an action hero who, in his words, comes for blood with “no law or code of conduct”.  Whenever he goes into his destructive mode, it’s relatively easy for us to buy it.  But I think I should also discuss the supporting actors, who are relatively good as well.  Liev Schreiber makes for one teeth-gnashingly despicable bad guy.  His power is extending those yellow nails of his into lethal weapons that would make anyone wanting to give him a manicure instantly shut up.  But if those nails weren’t enough to help sell him to you as the villain, he’s always clad in a black ovetrcoat that screams “nefarious”.  Danny Huston is also pretty decent as Stryker, who’s the real bad guy and is secretly developing a weapon that fans of the “X-Men” universe will no doubt recognize.  The rest of the cast is delegated to much smaller roles, each of which probably totals up to under 30 minutes of screentime.  but the ones worth mentioning are Taylor Kitsch as the card-wielding Gambit and Ryan Reynolds as Deapool.  Reynolds’ role is so small, in fact, that it would seem fair to say that if you blink, you may miss it.

The director, Gavin Hood, is treading unfamiliar waters here.  Until now, he has helmed more character driven pieces such as “Rendition”, but he surprisingly pulls off the big action sequences quite well.  Of course, this may partly be attributed to one of the film’s executive producers, Richard Donner, who it is said lended a helping hand to the visualization of these huge set pieces.  If you like big explosions and some neat hand-to-hand mutant combats, you shouldn’t be disappointed by the action here.  But nevertheless, Hood’s ability to capture human emotion remains intact.  “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” clearly isn’t in the same league as films like “The Dark Knight” or “Spider-Man 2″, but the ruminations it does make about the thin line between heroism and cold-blooded murder  do carry some weight.

At the end of the day, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” does its job.  It entertains, first and foremost, but it also paints an interesting portrait of a tortured antihero who just wants some piece and quiet.  And if that means cutting down a few bad guys and decimating a few buildings in the process, then so be it.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

The first big summer release of 2009 delivers big action, big special effects and big mutants. Unfortunately it doesn’t address some big questions. How are Wolverine and Sabertooth growing up as kids at the beginning of the film, but ageless after the first 20 minutes? How does adamantium change the shape and look of Wolverine’s claws? How many Twinkies did the Blob have to eat to get that big, that quick? And why, every time I say or hear ‘Wolverine”, do I think of Red Dawn. (Which I just learned is set to be remade next year.)

Wolverine is Sharp

Look, the bottom line is this: if you love comic book movies, you’re going to love Wolverine. If you’re a comic book purist and pick apart every comic book movie, you’re going to be frustrated and complaining about the demise of the franchise. I loved the movie. I thought it was fun and had great pacing to the tension between story and action. It gives you just enough back story to make it worth telling. And it introduced some new (to the movie goer, not the comic reader) characters that were pretty awesome like the well played tough but mysterious Gambit (Taylor Kitsch, Friday Night Lights TV show), an interesting but too quickly disappearing  Wraith (Will Am I of Black Eyed Peas band fame) and the makes-the-movie fun, wise-cracking Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds, Adventureland and Van Wilder). But overall it focuses on Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, X-Men 1,2 and 3, and Australia) and his brother/buddy/enemy Sabertooth (Liv Schreiber, Defiance). Here’s hoping that we get to see a future film with a lot more Gambit and Deadpool involved in the story. Wolverine and Sabertooth get top billing and do a great job carrying the movie. But Gambit and Deadpool give it the intrigue that gets a little lost as they focus on one hero.

There are a ton of great action sequences beginning with a fantastic war montage at the beginning of the movie that shows you just how old Wolverine and Sabertooth really are. The fighting continues as you see a special unit of super heroes formed for a secret branch of the military. And then the darkness begins as the true nature of what is being done is revealed. As the gap between the X-Men movies and Wolverine’s story is bridged, there is plenty of brooding, anguish and destruction to keep you from feeling like this is just a fun stroll down memory lane for our hero.

But memory lane is what Wolverine is searching for in his X-Men role. And while Origins provides some clarity to the audience, the answer to Wolverine’s amnesia at the end of the movie is pretty weak. I left wondering how Colonel Stryker is able to shoot so confidently that he can erase Wolverine’s memory of his past, but not impact any other brain functions…So, there are definitely some plot holes. But if you are looking for tight plot lines and deep congruent stories, you probably aren’t a comic book fan in the first place.

Go see this on the big screen. It’s meant to be enjoyed for what it is: an action packed escape from reality.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Marvel seems to own the first weekend of the Summer Movie Season. It all started in the long, long ago of 2002 when Spider-Man came in and swept up audiences and the box office alike. With few exceptions, Marvel has been the studio this decade we’ve relied on to jump start our summer and provide us with the spark to ignite the oncoming blockbusters. Why shouldn’t we? It wasn’t until Fanstastic Four that Marvel started to show its ugly side that’s carried into all of their subsequent films. Whereas Marvel would have had three great flicks to every one bad one, it now seems we’re getting three bad films to every one good one they give us. While I don’t agree, Iron Man was the last film they did that both sides of movie-goers (critics and audiences) enjoyed – but look at what they gave us over the whole time span. All of this brings us to their latest venture, X-Men Origins: Wolverine which isn’t as bad as the last film (few comic films are) but is still a cluttered mess of a film that’s sure to have the fanboy community calling for someone’s head.

Let’s start with the few positives that there are. Like Gambit. Admittedly, I think the character is overrated and here he’s really just showing up to please everyone who has whined for Gambit to be in the X-films. In one of the film’s key scenes, Gambit and Wolverine go head to head in a game of Texas Hold’em poker. I guess this scene was also meant to appeal to the legions of online poker nerds too, because the scene also features poker pro, Daniel Negreanu. It’s ironic Wolverine isn’t the best thing about his own movie and it’s even more ironic I’m giving praise to a character I’ve bashed to high heaven elsewhere. Taylor Kitsch is just perfect in the role, capturing everything fans have loved about the two-d Gambit and even adding a little bit of his own charm to the character. It’s a shame he’s used solely as a plot device because they could have done so much more with him and if Marvel chose to do a spin-off, I’d be on board. The other plus is Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, and I’m focusing on Wade Wilson because his character goes to hell when they introduce Deadpool (more on that later). He’s given a handful of scenes, but he does a grand job of invigorating Wade Wilson. I hope, with a rewrite, that he continues to play the character and he’s given the proper justice.

To do that, they’d need better writing than this film provides. Actually, the first half of the film, while rushing through the actual “origin”, does a formulaic but decent job of showing how Logan settles down and channels some of the panels Frank Miller gave us from his Wolvie mini-series as well as the 90′s animated show that captivated every youngster with enough sense to twist the channel knob. In this section of the script, the movie is basically one of those “hit man leaves the business” stories that’s been done oh so many times before – but this time with mutants! It works, even if it has all been done before, because it’s having fun with itself. Sadly, any good will the film has is destroyed the moment John Wraith (will.i.am who, as much I loathe BEP, didn’t annoy me here) is reintroduced along with The Blob. To state it bluntly, the movie goes from being Death Wish: Wolverine to Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Characters are shoe-horned in for the sake of being in the film, and then killed just as quickly to hide the evidence. The biggest atrocity the script commits is the handling of Deadpool. Weapon XI, as he’s called here, is nothing more than a blatant rip off of Baraka from the Mortal Kombat games. Honestly, all he’s missing are the razor sharp teeth and someone to shout “ROUND ONE, FIGHT!”

Gavin Hood has proven he’s a competent director which leaves one scratching his head over what went wrong. The action scenes, save for two, are shot and/or edited poorly and if these are the finished effects, then I shudder to think what that leaked work print looked like. Final Fantasy IV on the DS (and DSi) has better animation than most of the big effects scenes in this movie which come off laughably bad. Something simple as Wolverine’s claws, which looked real in the others, come off as eye-rollingly fake. It’s understandable if a big sequence doesn’t appear too real, but when something so simple as six claws can’t be done you know the film’s in trouble. If that’s not enough, continuity never was a big priority in this universe, but characters in a film that’s based in the 1970′s, maybe 80′s, have plasma screen televisions? It’s shown the filmmakers didn’t care a bit when stuff like memory-wiping bullets come into the fold – but showing technology from today is amateur.

The other person making sure this movie never approaches the level of decent is Danny Huston. Brian Cox gave us a William Stryker who was cunning, villainous and an outright bastard. Huston appears to think Stryker is Jame Gumb and utters every line like he’s ten seconds away from kissing whoever is in the scene with him. What’s even more tragic is that will.i.am is doing a better job here than Huston. It makes one wonder if Danny got the same script everyone else did as he plasters the screen with his drivel. By contrast, Hugh Jackman seems to be the only one, aside from Taylor Kitsch and Ryan Reynolds, trying to make this film remotely good. He’s what we’ve come to expect of him in this role and is a great leading man. But even he, and all his mighty goodness, can’t overcome the crapola that surrounds him. A great lead can only do so much when the majority of his co-workers even tries.

The film’s purpose is simple: Tom Rothman needs to do the film world a favor and leave it for good. He’s taken a franchise Bryan Singer showed a lot of care and passion for and turned it into this generation’s Batman & Robin. He’s convinced us time and again that he has no clue as to what he’s doing and each subsequent film Fox releases under him gets progressively worse. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a waste of talent, time, and money. In these tough times, we need to be more choosy about what we see and my advice is this: save your money for an IMAX ticket to a certain science-fiction film coming out next week or the dystopian future film coming out little while after that.

But I’m serious, Mr. Rothman, you’ve made Fox a joke and should quit. Now.

Rating: ★½☆☆☆ 

Last week we introduced a few of the mutants that hang out with or try and kick Wolverine’s ass. l today we have three more to show you. I think after the leaked version storming the Internet a month or so back, Fox has done a great job of recovering from the leak. The marketing has been great. Everything from a Got Milk ad to these character profiles. They really have played a fantastic catch up game.

Below we have the latest in mutants. Check them out and let me know what you all think.

Emma Frost
[flv:/trailers/emma.flv 512 319]

The Blob

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General Stryker

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We will have the review for the movie here on opening Friday so make sure you bookmark us and come back. I know we will have an opinionated group for sure.

Please try and checkout my Buddie’s latest venture over at ireel.com. It is a fabulous, very legal site backed by the studios, showing movies from the 1950′s to the present. Check them out!

Atomic Podcast

I am not sure you can tell but we now have our new fantastic logo all setup and looking pretty damn nice, if I say so myself.

While we do love hearing ourselves speak into cheap mics, we do actually love you all listening to us even more. Tell all your movie freak friends about us and help us out here will ya!!

This week on the Atomic Podcast we went on and on about:

• The infamous Wolverine leak
• Star Trek Secret Screening in Austin
  • Responses to the reviews
• PBar is pissed about Fast and Furious making a “ton of cash”
• Terminator: Salvation will be PG-13? No Boobs for you!
• Movies coming out this week
  • Observe and Report
  • Hannah Montana
  • Dragonball Evolution
• Max laughs like a small girl after PBar misspoke. And a very small girl.

Stay tuned next week for up to the minute news on your latest Movie cravings. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to tell your friends all about us! We are highly sensitive about being left out.

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The boys over at MTV have brought us 5 quick but great looks at some of our favorite mutants. With Wolverine being abuzz throughout Hollywood, due to differing opinions about the film, the internet leak, the Deadpool conspiracy and much more, it looks like Summer will hit hard come May 1st!

Make sure you swing by our Wolverine Poster Contest and sign up. Its easy and the posters are sweet looking!!

Wolverine is a story of a mutant, who is hell bent on seeking revenge against Victor Creed (who will later become Sabretooth) for the death of his fiance, and ultimately ends up going through the mutant Weapon X program, becoming Wolverine!

Below you can view some pretty badass Character Bio’s for those of you out there that have no idea what Wolverine is, or where he buddies came from.

Enjoy

X-Men Origins: Wolverine in theaters everywhere on May 1st this summer.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!