'Wolverine' packs theatres

By Sarah Sluis

I was a little worried about X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which releases today in 4,099 theatres, when most of the reviews involved plot descriptions that spanned multiple paragraphs, and involved references to the Civil War, mercenaries, globe-trotting to Africa and Canada, and that dreaded third act device, amnesia. The biggest impediment to Wolverine's success may not be the fact that untold numbers of people watched an illegally downloaded copy of the movie, but whether people can buy the convoluted plot. For our reviewer Frank Lovece, Wolverine has "that indefinable something that keeps what's magical from looking silly or self-conscious," but apparently that feeling has not extended to all those who have seen the film--on RottenTomatoes, it's currently tracking at a middling 37%. Over at the New York Times, A.O. Scott called Wolverine "shorter and less pretentious than Watchmen, but almost

programmatically unmemorable, a hodge-podge of loose ends, wild

inconsistencies and stale genre conventions." Ouch. Some expect Wolverine to match Iron Man's $98 million open from last year, but Fox is countering that with a lowball $70 million estimate that they will likely exceed.

For those not interested in a mutant's trek across time and continents, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (3,175 theatres) will take you back through the history of a cad with a winning smile, Matthew McConaughey. What sounds great on paper--"A Christmas Carol, but with love!" fails in execution, as critic Kirk Honeycutt called it "the lamest and easily the worst revisionist take on this classic story. Last year, another re-tread romantic comedy, Made of Honor, made $15 million in this spot against Iron Man, so Ghosts of Girlfriends Past should be able to count on as much.

On the animated 3D front, Battle for Terra opens in 1,159 theatres, and will likely experience slightly boosted grosses due to the higher ticket prices of the format. However, the animation isn't pretty, and its overly rounded CGI faces brings to mind low budgets and another animated flop that released earlier this year, Delgo. However, if you can get past the animation, the environmentally aware message earns the film major points, as does its willingness to break with tradition and make humans look bad. In the film, humans who have ravaged their planet try to take over Terra, which is inhabited by a peaceful, faultless species. As Honeycutt put it, "the story...generates a shock of chagrined recognition along with divided loyalties. Do we root against the warlike humans and for the peace-loving Terrians?"

From Seattle, documentary and festival favorite A Wink and a Smile releases. While our reviewer Daniel Eagan called it "skin-deep," its regular-women-do-burlesque premise has one thing going for it: sex sells. Moving from hot to cold, The Limits of Control, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tilda Swinton, is an "anti-thriller" that's so cold "the soul shivers." Finally, mild haunted house thriller The Skeptic releases at IFC, which might be a good choice if you prefer your scares in small doses.

Monday I'll circle back with the box-office grosses, and answer that looming question: how much money will X-Men Origins: Wolverine take in?