null, void

I was going to review Wolverine, honestly I was. But, other than a slight disposition to babble helplessly about how incredibly cool Gambit was, I can't really summon up an opinion. It was... a movie. Of the superhero persuasion. After an admittedly very nice credit sequence of Wolverine-at-war flashback, stuff happened. The general watchability of Hugh Jackman, appeal of Taylor Kitsch and reasonably well-staged assault on a Nigerian diamond facility was almost perfectly balanced by the flat, bland, cardboard lifelessness of the script, which no amount of entirely gratuitous violence and random death could overcome. The result was a no-event. I can't even say I hated it enough to work up a good snark.

The faint stirrings of interest occasioned by the multiple-hero attack on the Nigerian headquarters made me realise, though, that one of the keen pleasures of the superhero genre for me is actually its dramatisation of teamwork - it's not unlike the satisfaction of a perfectly-balanced role-playing party, abilities and specialisations dovetailing neatly for elegant functionality. I liked the assault because it was cool, it put superhero abilities on display in a series of nicely-matched interactions of problem and skill, and it allowed them to assume the classic superhero team pose which is ultimately appealing, abs aside, because it radiates self-contained confidence. It also explains why I love X-Men and have a sneaking fondness for Fantastic 4 despite the unalloyed cheese of the films - they push a button that all the Bat-brooding and Iron-manic flamboyance don't, because the latter feature solo superheroes. The prospect of Iron Man going all Avenger makes me a happy, happy bunny.

And Wolverine still has silly hair.