X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first of these movies, is a perfect example of the power of a bad fanboy movie. The film is far too full of cheap-looking special effects and dialogue that seems ludicrous outside a cartoon bubble to be really absorbing. But Wolverine has far more to say about its chosen subject, the scientific manipulation of the human body, than, for example, the romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past has to say about relationships between men and women.

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Wolverine was bad not just because of the crap dialog and cheap effects but precisely because it doesn’t say anything about anything. The first two X-Men movies were so good because they were a subtext for outsiderism, the third one was so awful because it ignored all of that nuance and character development in favor of blowing things up. Wolverine yelled a lot and basically ignored trying to make a point. Good science fiction is both thrilling and a light on the present. Bad science fiction – and Wolverine was most certainly that – uses worn out ideas as a crutch and an excuse to not have to think.

I love a good comic book movie – seriously, love. But most of them are the dude equivalent of bad relationship movies. For every Spiderman or X-Men 2 it seems like we get three Fantastic Four’s, Electra’s or Wolverine’s.