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Bootlegs of this leaked over the weekend, but none of them were that great in terms of quality.  I feel two ways about this movie.  The first, from a strictly fanboyish perspective is it looks interesting and fun and it’s good to see Hugh Jackman back with the Wolvie claws.  Secondly, though, is that it makes me sad that Jackman has never really escaped the role of Wolverine.

Yes, he’s been in tons of movies since the franchise launched his Hollywood career, yes, he’s been named Sexiest dude around by People Magazine. But it seems like he’s never had any success, strictly speaking box-office-wise, outside of this role.

I guess there are worse things to be known for than playing the iconic Marvel comic book character Wolverine.

I’m most interested in seeing how they handle the glut of mutants ranging from Gambit and Deadpool to The Blob. Liev Shreiber looks like a menacing Sabertooth.

Baz Luhrmann’s new flick, Australia has for a while now been considered an Oscar favorite.  Reviews are just starting to hit from the outback and they’ve been less than raves, even if Oprah Winfrey tried to ride in and save the crumbling buzz.

The early buzz was describing it as Out of Africa meets Gone With the Wind, but it turns out that was probably just studio PR magic.  Anyway, considering the movie comes out on Nov. 25 and Luhrmann was still tinkering with it only weeks ago, a decent to good flick may be the ceiling on this one.

But if you’ve got a lady friend you have probably already admitted to yourself that you are seeing this movie when it opens Nov. 25.  It’s penance for fantasy football.  I’ve never been a fan of Baz Luhrmann’s over-the-top audacity, never been much for his lyrical love stories and yet… I’m willing to give this one a chance.

Maybe because I like both Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman or maybe because I’m a sucker for audacious historical love stories. It’s just that Luhrmann has always struck me as a technical wiz-bang idea guy, rather than an actual filmmaker.  His stories just seemed forced or interesting ideas that don’t translate well to film.  With this one, I’m hoping he takes a deep breath, calms down and delivers some true magic.

Some Reviews:

David Stratton of The Australian: Like his earlier films Strictly Ballroom, Romeo+Juliet and Moulin Rouge, Australia shows Baz Luhrmann as a very theatrical director. He has a great eye for compositions and the film is beautifully shot by Mandy Walker, but there’s theatricality about the film which is a bit off-putting at the beginning. The early scenes, even the first 20 minutes or so of the film, are handled in a slightly artificial, arch manner which doesn’t sit well with the outback locations and the natural settings of the story.

It’s all very well to be artificial when you’re dealing with a theatrical concept like Moulin Rouge or even Strictly Ballroom, but it doesn’t really work so well when you’re doing the same sort of thing here, so there’s something that’s just a little bit off key about these scenes. Then once the cattle drive gets under way either you get used to it or that aspect of it is played down because the remainder of the film is much stronger in a rather conventional way.

Louise Keller of Urban Cinephile: The detail which Luhrmann has injected into this project is incredible and probably impossible to fully appreciate on first viewing. Even the inclusion of Rolf Harris’s famous wobble board plays its part as does the way the musical themes from The Wizard of Oz and Waltzing Matilda weave their way into the fabric of the tale. As the credits roll, we take with us the spectacular imagery of a unique, vast land, as well as the haunting face of an innocent little boy whose culture is becoming invisible.

From Anne Barrowlcough of the Times Online: In the worst Mills and Boon tradition, Lady Sarah – whose emotions are as frozen as Kidman’s forehead – and the rough neck Drover loathe each other on sight but, as they endure the harsh and rather dusty travails of the cattle drive they quite quickly fall in love. She even teaches him to dance. Under a boab tree.

But if it sounds shallow and predictable, Australia is, in fact, anything but.

The cliches are saved by little jokes and asides, as if Luhrmann is saying ‘Yes, I know, but what can you do?’ In an early scene, as the newly-arrived Sarah drives toward her station, Faraway Downs, with Drover, a herd of kangaroo lopes alongside their vehicle.

Only a scattering of reviews have come in so far, but it sounds like it could be an enjoyably mixed bag.

The leakage has been coming pretty fast from the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (still hate that title, very cumbersome) even though they are still just in the early phases of shooting.?

And despite the bloated cast of mutants running rampant throughout, we’re pretty sure if director Gavin Hood handles them deftly, then all will be okay.? Plus, Hugh Jackman owns as the character.?

You can’t tell much from the photo, but Jackman looks menacing as Wolvie.?

As for The Incredible Hulk, the picture below does little to change our minds that Universal is completely mishandling this movie.? It comes out in June and aside from a few production photos, like the one below, we don’t know anything about the flick.? We don’t even have a trailer yet!? It’s now coming up on March, three months shy of the movie’s release, and they’ve done absolutely zip on marketing.? What gives??

Director Louis Letterier does drop one decent nugget:

“We didn’t want to make a cerebral movie,” he says of comparisons to Ang Lee’s earlier film. “We wanted full action, Hulk smashing stuff up. But Ed Norton’s script has given Bruce’s story real gravitas ? Marvel has always made their superhero movies with great actors to make it tangible and Ed has nailed it here. Admittedly, I’m not the most adult director, but just because we’re making a superhero movie, it doesn’t just have to appeal to 13-year-old boys. Ed and I both see superheroes as the new Greek gods, so there’s a classical undercurrent to Bruce’s psycho-drama. It’s Prometheus, Pandora’s Box, Hercules…but with explosions!” That’s what we always felt was missing in the Greek myths.

The news is flowing fast and furiously on the upcoming Gavin Hood-directed X-Men spinoff X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Hugh Jackman is reprising the role that made him famous and USA Today had the first official pic of the flick.

He goes on to spill some beans that this would be an expansive mutant story. By the way, how do we not know if Hugh Jackman is on roids? Can someone in Congress investigate this?

Jackman is tight-lipped on plot details, though he says the film will hardly be a one-mutant story.

Wolverine’s nemesis Sabretooth “is going to play a big part in it. And there will be a good bit of cameos” of new and familiar mutants, he says. “But you can’t give too much away, because fans are pretty hard-core. Their expectations go up a level every time you come out with a new film.”

And shit he’s not kidding. We already know that Liev Schreiber has been cast as Logan’s nemesis Sabretooth and Danny Huston is going to portray a younger William Stryker (first seen as Brian Cox in X2).

IESB has reported that the role of Logan’s love interest, and the only female victim of the Weapon X program, Silverfox, has been nabbed by Lynn Collins and today we find out that they are openly casting for the role of the ginormous Blob, who’s skin and blubber are unpenetrable. Top that off with news, according to AICN, that Ryan Reynolds is jumping into the role of Deadpool.

UPDATE: According to Superherohype the role of Gambit, aka Reny LeBeau has been cast.? He’ll be played by Friday Night Lights actor Taylor Kitsch.? Kitsch is Tim Riggins on the show.? Whew, that’s a lot to digest. Also unconfirmed is a possible cameo of sorts by the ragin’ cajun Gambit. Though that is only conjecture on the part of the internet and I would argue that to inlcude him would only serve to bog down the film with too many mutants.

But back to Ryan Reynolds. Everyone talks about him as this guy who hasn’t quite caught the break he needs to jump into the A-List, but I would say in some regards he’s already there. Or at least on the B+ list. He can’t carry a picture yet or have a strong opening box office weekend based upon his name, but he’s a viable leading man under the age of 40.

He’s been making a name for himself for quite a while now and has already turned in a few solid performances (Van Wilder, The Nines, Smokin’ Aces, Just Friends). I think most people would agree that he’s a charismatic actor, and certainly has that smarmy-comedy thing down pat.

We also know that he got bulked up to play a very similar action role of Hannibal King in Blade Trinity. Same tone as that character, except Deadpool is a mutant assassin. And a third-tier Marvel mutant at that, commonly referred to as “the merc with a mouth.” Reynolds has been circling this role for the past five years and was originally attached with David Goyer to bring a feature film of the character to the screen.

So is this Marvel’s attempt to launch a franchise or merely a snazzy Easter egg for comic book dorks like myself? Probably both. Let me just say this now though, a Deadpool movie requires a steady hand to guide it to the screen, especially since the character is known to break the fourth wall and spout out snappy pop culture references and is also a psychotic and violent mercenary. And that means the movie could come off hokey or pretty awesome.

Only time will tell.