ampersand said:
I think the biggest problem with Wolvie wearing his comic suit in the movie would be that Jackman isn't even close to being as muscular as Wolvie is drawn in the comics. No matter what you do, Jackman in spandex will never look anything like this:
I'd rather see him wear street clothes or some kind of black ops suit.
Let me just clarify that I was essentially skipping over the reality that the current Movie!Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, is barely anything like the
real Wolverine, in terms of the character being distinguished from the vague, cliche'd archetype from which he's derived, and also that the upcoming movie is rumored to be a prequel.
I should have put more thought into it before I initially posted, because I was saying that's what the
real Wolverine should wear as an X-Man or agent for Department X, were he ever to be filmed (and by "
real" I mean
someone who looks like him and has direction and script that befits the actual character, as opposed to the watered-down teeny-bopper bait we've seen,
not a fictional character somehow magically come to life).
In other words, everyone who has said that the character they're presuming to call "Wolverine" in the upcoming prequel shouldn't wear a real superhero costume for the sake of continuity is absolutely right. Then again, if people were more secure and less ashamed of their interest in costumed superheroes and really wanted to see a costume, there's an easy way to make that happen. Movie!Wolverine doesn't remember anything beyond the past 15 or so years, right? Then there's no limit to what he could have worn beforehand. If anything, it could actually reinforce his dislike of costumes later in life, as an instinctive response to a repressed memory. But I would never insist on this, since no costume could make the man on the screen anything other than a Wolverine In Name Only.
If they really wanted to give us Wolverine, the actor would be a man who is very muscular, short and stocky in frame, not a 6'2" soap star leading man. Hell, Jackman was plenty muscular in the last two X-Men movies; it's not a matter of musculature, it's a matter of frame
and physique.
Don't anybody dare tell me that there aren't any people of that body type who can act, because there's no possible way to know or prove that, and only through a valid, honest casting call could it ever be tested. Like I said much, much earlier, there's no way to disprove
anything; you can only support the affirmative, not negate the negative.
My standards for this role are not subject to compromise just because people of limited imagination can't visualize it. Hell, if I was in extremely good condition, my frame would be right for the part, but I'm 5'8," so
only if there was a whole bunch of camera tricks or special effects that made me look 5 inches shorter would I even cast
myself (and believe me, I'd want the part... it's just a matter of what matters more, a person's ego or the integrity of the story). Wolverine isn't even as tall as Tom Cruise or Robert DeNiro, for God's sake, and they aren't as tall as me. His height is an essential characteristic, wheras other characters' heights have more room for variation (although there's no way that having Cyclops be shorter than Jean Grey and possibly shorter than Wolverine is at all acceptable... Cyclops is a full foot taller, and that's what cool about them staring each other down).
I've seen one or two martial artists in real life with body types very much like Wolverine's. None that were actors, as far as I know, but these people exist, and they can take on physical roles. The one that taught at my high school showed me how he uses his runty stature to his advantage. He had me try to trip him, and it didn't work because of his mass distribution. By the same token, he had trouble tripping me, since I also have a reasonably broad frame and a low center of gravity. This is just one reason why non-fans shouldn't be telling
real fans that Wolverine would look silly if he was at his proper height. A small man who takes down a bigger man is more remarkable and impressive than if they were of equal size or the other way around.
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't make any difference what
Movie!Wolverine wears. He's a generic, unremarkable, pale imitation, so he may as well dress the part. However, if a team of filmmakers decided they wanted to bring the
real X-Men and/or the real Wolverine to life, they would either give them distinctive costumes that resemble their comics counterparts, or they would put them all in blue and gold uniforms. If Wolverine is going to wear blue and gold, it should be in the design of his first costume, with tiger stripes, etc., not the revamped version of the original school uniform. However, he doesn't ever need to wear that, either, since there's a perfectly good brown and orange costume for him to wear.
Hell, I'd even be okay with Alex Ross' movie design for Wolverine (see below). It's the
only one of those designs that were the least bit appropriate for an X-Man, and it really does suit him. It matches his style for the most part and also signifies his team affiliation at a glance. If the back of it mirrored or resembled the front, this would be a perfectly acceptable Wolverine costume that was more black than not. The non-black area is supposed to be orange or brown, I think. the one problem is that the sketch below has Wolverine either not stocky enough or two tall. I've seen sketches of this that included Hugh Jackman's face, so the body was modeled after Movie!Wolverine, not the real one. Still, I'm sure it could look just as good on the correct frame.
i mean in the comics its cool looking but it would look kinda weird with what we have already seen in the first three movies...
