WOLVERINE & THE X MEN: BREAKDOWN
May 2nd 2010 21:38
Category: Videos, Television
Based on the Marvel comic character Wolverine created by Lee Wein & John Romita Snr
Director: Boyd Kirkland
Head Writer: Greg Johnson
Producer: Jason Netter
Starring: Steve Blum (Wolverine), Yuri Lowenthal (Iceman), Liam O Brien (Nightcrawler/Archangel), Kari Wahlgren (Emma Frost), Jennifer Hale (Jean Grey), Jim Ward (Professor X), Fred Tatasciore (Beast), Tom Kane (Magneto), Susan Dalian (Storm), Kevin Michael Richardson (Bishop), Clancy Brown (Mr Sinister), Roger Craig Smith (Forge), Nolan North (Cyclops), Graham McTavish (Sebastian Shaw), Gwedoline Yeo (Domino), Mark Hildreth (Quicksilver), Phil LaMarr (Gambit), April Stewart (Selene), Liza Del Mundo (Polaris), Richard Doyle (Senator Kelly), Kate Higgins (Scarlet Witch), Danielle Judovits (Shadowcat), & Kieren van den Blink (Rouge)
Released by: Marvel Entertainment & Magna Pacific
Running Time: 168 minutes Rating: PG
As I had managed to get hold of the first volume of the first season of this particular cartoon series it was natural for me to try and track down any other volumes. After all Wolverine & the X Men: X Calibre had been an enjoyable viewing experience, as with all such things to do with serial productions for sale here in Port Macquarie there was no other volumes other than the final volume of the first season. This is rather a common phenomenon in this town, you get the start and the end, or the start and somewhere smack bang in the middle or you get the middle and then the end of a series, never a clearly delineated sequence such as 1, then 2 then 3 etc. I have been over the years suspicious about this and have pondered whether or not there is some kind of cabal at work here, or if it’s just down to incipient stupidity…ah the mysteries of life.
When we last touched based with Wolverine and his mutant buddies they were engaged in trying to find their fellow team member Jean Grey as well as receiving cryptic messages from their comatose leader Professor X or Charles Xavier as he is more commonly known to the general public at large. Things were going well to a certain degree and Wolverine had managed to track down several former members of the team and brought them back into the fold to aid his efforts. The major thorns in affairs was the Brotherhood and the Master of Magnetism, Magneto with is island paradise of Genosha on one side and the Mutant Response Division and Project Wideawake lead by Senator Kelly on the other. It was these competing factions that would bring about the downfall of all human society and its enslavement at the hands of the Sentinels lead by Master Mould, the prime sentinel.
Hmmm machines dominating a post apocalyptic world and eliminating all other forms of sentient biological life sounds rather familiar…Actually the difference between this and Terminator is that there is no physical time travel and that the conflict is being simultaneously fought on the future and past fronts rather than being waged first in the ‘future’ then the ‘past’. If the X Men are unable to prevent the events that will lead to the eventual rise of the machines and their sinister leader then all of humanity is doomed, and mutants in particular, a rather common kind of theme that constantly crops up in the whole superhero genre. Although the fate of the world is at stake fortunately we the audience are treated to stories that don’t solely focus on this impending apocalypse, it’s not all the end of all as we know it for two hours plus thankfully.
In fact if you wanted to shoebox this particular DVD into a single overarching theme it would be the old maxim of the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You see Jean Grey is the root of this, within her lies the tremendous power of something known as the Phoenix Force. This tremendous power rather than diminishing with time only grows ever more powerful especially when it resides in a telepath of Jean’s potential. Magneto realised this potential and attempted to recruit Jean to his cause, Professor X though persuaded her to join his institute instead and she ended up becoming part of the X Men and romantically involved with Scott Summers aka Cyclops. Of course this didn’t mean that the Phoenix Force disappeared, far from it, but what Professor X managed to do was put blocks and inhibitors on it so it would not eventually consume Jean Grey.
But as we learn from Emma Frost the Phoenix Force will only be temporarily halted by such blocks, over time it will eventually erode such impediments and consume its vessel – unless the force is released into the atmosphere from the vessel and rendered inert. What Emma doesn’t realise is that in attempting to save Jean from a horrible catastrophe she is playing into the hands of Sebastian Shaw and Selene, her two sinister cohorts who want to unleash the Phoenix Force to reign down hellfire and damnation as it were on their foes. Like I said about that road leading to the infernal realms…
When the dust finally does settle the world is relatively safe, albeit a bit beat up, and the vast bulk of the key players in the X Men have reunited ready to continue fighting the good fight. But it seems that they have only replaced one opponent with another more deadly foe – where the future was dominated by the machines and Master Mould with the extinction of all mutants an impending reality now we have a world dominated by the villainous Apocalypse and his henchmen. This aspect means that the entire show is constantly devoted to thwarting a future menace, the face of said menace changing with each season’s conclusion. This kind of storytelling is bound to get boring very quick and would be best ditched as soon as possible or else the whole thing will become in danger of fading into obscurity as viewers turn to something more engaging such as Iron Man or Bleach or Naruto or heaven forfend; Masterchef…the horror…the horror…
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