Science Fiction Double Feature

Neither of these can really considered “Science Fiction”, but they were a double-feature nonetheless.

A few weeks ago, some friends and I drove up to Warwick, New York for our annual drive-in trip. Unfortunately we did not plan this trip well around the new releases, but our impossible schedules. Just when we thought that we were going to seize a chance to see Pacific Rim in the full glory of the countryside and night sky, the weekend’s movies were posted and we were left with…pretty uninteresting and unusual pairings. Of the choices, we opted to stick with screen 3, which was showing a billing of The Wolverine and Turbo.

Usually the drive-in pairs similarly-rated or genre-ed movies together, but this was one pairing we could not figure out. The Wolverine is the sequel of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and as the title indicates, took a great departure from everything related to the X-Men. Being a familiar and generally well-versed with comic book lore and characters, The Wolverine confused me to no end in plot and execution. Canon characters and plot points were used independently and poorly. Fleeting references were made to the Wolverine’s canon background and history, but it was otherwise disappointing to see them not built-up with the utilized history. The events of The Wolverine take place after X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), a movie that one cared for and really wished to re-live again with any follow-ups. That being said, the best of this came in the credits where a clip alluded to the 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past movie, the next addition to the X-Men series – which also marks the return of early X-Men film director Bryan Singer and utilizing one of the most epic stories in comic book history (To be as big of a comic book nerd as possible…).

Coincidentally, at the same time that Turbo was playing, Ryan Reynolds’ other summer movie R.I.P.D. was playing on screen 2 and we enjoyed flipping the radio stations in-between the two audio broadcastings as we weren’t invested in Turbo. Granted, Turbo is marketed for an audience a bit below our age ranges, but I’ve watched plenty of other G-rated movies that made clear, interesting and logical sense. Turbo was clunky and contrived. Some fun could be found in the throwback references to Youtube sensations and autotuning, but otherwise it was definitely not for us.

And like that, the annual drive-in pilgrimage was made and remembered. We’ll always have a lasting memory of watching the strangest movie pairing ever.

The Wolverine: 0 re-watches

Turbo: 0 re-watches