Web White Noise

While I hang desperately to see this movie, being that it’s still in production it could be some time, so not holding my breath is a good idea.

No question about it. Let’s look at the facts. (Now don’t worry, we aren’t going to spoil things for you. We just want to give you a better idea as to what everyone’s favourite mutant good guy is up against.) Wolverine will suffer the consequences of battling Juggernaut, Dark Phoenix, and (though he may have a slim chance of survival) going one-on-one with the man himself, Magneto – not all at the same time, of course. So, yeah, X-Men: The Last Stand will be downright torturous for Wolverine.

Now you might ask, how can we be sure Wolverine battles Magneto? Well, IGN FilmForce was on X-Men’s gargantuan Golden Gate Bridge set, watching Magneto use his metal-warping ability to torture Wolverine. The scene takes place at night on Alcatraz.

Magneto, you see, has taken one end of the bridge and attached it to the island. Where the roadway meets the land is a panorama of destruction – an ascending bluff of fragmented concrete, with auto-mobiles upended and crushed within. As the scene is filmed, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine lies on his back in agony, yelling, his blades scraping at the dirt, as McKellan as Magneto holds his gloved hand over him, palm outward. In between shots, Jackman gets to his feet and dusts himself off. “He’s destroying me, breaking my pain threshold. I really hate that guy.”

On the other hand, what Jackman loves is the character Wolverine. He jumped at the opportunity, and the challenge, to play him again. “You want to be able to do it better and take it further,” he says. “You want to show more.” Though he wasn’t contractually bound to return for a third film, he was inspired because “everyone wanted to be here. Ian [McKellan] was saying and [director] Brett [Ratner] was saying, ‘We’re all proud of it.’ I think we have the best script to start with of any of the three.”

Central to X-Men: The Last Stand is the matter of a scientific breakthrough. A young boy (Leech) is found to have the power to nullify the abilities of other mutants. By studying the boy, a pharmaceuticals company, Worthington Labs, has developed a drug that will effectively make any mutant “normal.” Magneto, of course, wants to use the boy for his own evil purposes. (You know, like subjugating mankind and any mutant who opposes him. That sort of thing.) His reign of fear and destruction is such that, now, every mutant must ask themselves: Will you stand for the good of mankind?

For Wolverine, Jackman says the new circumstances elicit an “interesting progression” for an archetypal reluctant hero. Wolverine is “not a political beast in any way shape or form. I think he starts as someone with very little opinion about the cure, except for what it means for him.” Wolverine’s viewpoint is: “You do what you want to do and I’ll do what I want to do. If you want to take the cure, you take the cure. If you don’t, whatever, I could give a s***.”

Jackman says what Wolverine must now answer is: “Will he join the X-Men? Will he be a part of it? What role will he play? Will it be an issue of leadership? Will he be a real team player?” And in tackling these questions, “he’s forced in the course of this movie to actually work out what the cure is; politically, socially, and what his view on it is.”

Also playing into Wolverine’s decision to “step up and take action” is his relationship to Jean Grey. With Jean’s reappearance, Wolverine pursues her assistance only to find himself up against someone who, let’s say, isn’t really who she used to be. The havoc he receives from Dark Phoenix is reason enough to take a stand. (And so too is it for Storm, as she faces Dark Phoenix. Yeah, we’re talkin’ wind and fury.) Or, maybe Wolverine is convinced when he assists Kitty Pride in her attempt to break Leech out of Worthington Labs? There he gets a fist to the face from Juggernaut. (Does getting thrown across the lab, and smashed through a glass partition, also constitute having the sense knocked into you?)

“This cure is the source of the battle that’s going on,” says Jackman. “You have to eventually take a side. That’s what I think is great about this story. For Wolverine, he works that out. There is a lot at stake in this movie. I think that there’s going to be a lot of shocks in store for the fans.”

Article From News Limited