Razer Naga MMOG Mouse

I’m a PC gamer. I grew up on PC, and the platform will always be my first choice when it comes to picking up the latest and greatest titles. Don’t get me wrong; I love my consoles too, but if there’s a choice between a controller and a mouse and keyboard, you know which route I’ll go.

I don’t have to tell you PC gamers are hardware enthusiasts. Whether it’s that sweet quad core machine we just built or the glowing array of peripherals on our desks, we’re always looking for an upgrade to improve not only our games’ performance, but our performance in those games.

Being a fan of Massively Multiplayer games since the mid-90s, I was very excited to hear about Razer’s new “Naga” mouse. Although it isn’t the first mouse designed specifically for MMO gamers (the poorly received SteelSeries’ World of Warcraft mouse holds that award,) it is the first non-specific MMO mouse, and will work in any you throw at it.

I should note that although Razer has released drivers for the Mac, and the mouse works great under OS X, the configuration software has not been updated to match the macro recording functionality of it’s Windows counterpart. I expect they’ll be updating the OS X software to support this soon.

Features

Aside from the trademark Razer sensor and response time, the Naga features 17 buttons (12 of which are on the mouse’s “button grid” on the left side) which can be configured in a variety of ways using the driver software. Razer has worked with addon developers to provide customized hotbar layouts for World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online, though they are entirely optional. Since I’m a big fan of the Bartender addon in Warcraft, I opted to continue using that.

Although the Naga launched with somewhat limited customizability for the 12 grid buttons- which was a big complaint amongst MMO players- the latest driver firmware allows you to fully configure the buttons, including recording key-press macros.

Comfort

Although the Naga looks a bit intimidating and bulky at first glance, I was surprised to find it a tad smaller than the Logitech G5 I had been using for years. The mouse slants ever so slightly to the right to make the button grid friendlier on the thumb.

Size comparison: Logitech VX Nano, Razer Naga, Logitech G5, Logitech Performance MX

Razer includes training bumps (I’m not sure what else to call them) which can be attached to the grid buttons to train your thumb for placement. I attached mine to the “2″, “8″ and a smaller one to the “12″ buttons and was able to get fairly comfortable with the grid layout after about 4 hours of play. Once you become accustomed to the layout, they are easily removed.

The overall feel of the mouse is superb, rivaling even my beloved G5 in comfort.

Configuration

As I mentioned, each of the keys on the Naga can be configured however you like using the driver software. By default each of the grid buttons on the Naga are assigned to your 1-0, – and = keys, just as they appear at the top of your keyboard, and are listed from 1 through 12 on the mouse. This means, by default, your button grid will click the corresponding hot bar entry in your game.

This should work great for most players in most MMOs, but you can record macros to change this behavior.

Real World Use

UPS delivered the mouse to me last Friday, which game me the whole weekend to adjust and tweak it before my Warcraft guild’s raid on Tuesday and follow-up on Thursday.

I installed the driver software but opted not install Razer’s customized version of Dominos, as I’m a big Bartender fan. There is no additional functionality Razer’s addon provides; it just has a action bar layout that matches your Naga’s button grid. I ultimately customized my Bartender installation to provide a similar appearance.

On my Rogue, I found my thumb growing tired a few dungeon runs in. Being a melee class that pretty much constantly spams our attacks, the default grid layout didn’t work out very well. Sinister Strike, for example, ended up being the 2 key on my mouse. I dare you to try spamming that with your thumb on this mouse and liking it. Worse yet, in fights that required me to be more mobile, I found the “thumb spam” made it difficult for me to activate the right mouse button and move in a timely manner.

Certainly, I don’t think Razer’s intention for the Naga was to use the button grid in this manner.

Realizing this, I changed my Naga’s grid to use macros of CTRL+1, CTRL+2, CTRL+3 and so on; these are my buff buttons, and although they are used often most have a cool-down of between 30 and 120 seconds, so it works out perfectly for this kind of setup.

My Bartender Configuration

I kept all my spammy attacks on my keyboards 1-0 keys, which I was already used to using my other hand for, and all my buff keys to the grid on my Naga. This meant even as I was casting my melee attacks, I was able to remain mobile and pop cooldowns as they became available. Boom! There’s the efficiency boost I was looking for with this mouse.

By the time raid night rolled around I was well versed with my new configuration, and definitely saw an improvement in my overall performance. More importantly, I *felt* much more efficient and comfortable.

On my Priest, who is sadly still far below raiding level, I saw similar improvements. I kept my more frequently cast spells on my keyboard, and moved most of my Shadow and less frequent Holy spells to the mouse. Fortitude and Shield, for example, was great for moving to the Naga’s grid specifically for Battlegrounds, as you’re constantly popping those on your allies as they respawn or make a break with the flag for your base.

Final Thoughts

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I’ve seen a definite improvement in my efficiency since I began using the Naga, and I expect this to grow as I become more comfortable with the mouse, and adjust my play style and what spells make the most sense on the grid.

Considering you can configure the buttons using macros, this mouse makes a lot of sense not only for MMO gamers, but PC gamers in general. I can’t wait to try out the upcoming Dragon Age mini-expansion with this mouse. Switching party members, popping potions, casting buffs, etc. should be a breeze with the Naga.

Likewise, I could imagine more than a few uses for those 12 extra keys in everyday applications, like Photoshop.

At $79.99 I can see no reason why every MMO player shouldn’t be using one of these. Whether you’re a casual player or a end game raider, you’ll notice a great boost to your efficiency in the game.

My singular complaint is that the Mac drivers have fallen behind in functionality, as I play Warcraft on my Mac quite a bit on the road; I suspect Razer will resolve this issue in the coming weeks, however. That issue aside, this serves as a fantastic Mac mouse as well. I’ve always had issues with my Logitech mice feeling a bit wonky in OS X, especially the scroll wheel performance, but the Naga works perfectly straight out of the box.

While the film starts out strong enough, the ridiculous finale spoils the whole affair.

Denzel Washington plays a mysterious vagabond who’s been roaming the desert wastelands of America for 30 years. He’s on a mission to deliver a bible… somewhere. He isn’t really sure where. A voice told him to head West, though, so that’s where he’s going. He calls it faith. I call it a lazy writer, but whatever. Apparently the voice also trained him to be a super ninja samurai bad ass too, because he’s really good at beating up cannibals and rapists without getting a scratch.

The Book of Eli

Long story short, he strolls into Oldman’s town looking to recharge the battery on his beat up iPod. It just so happens Oldman has something of a book fetish, and he’s been hunting for a King James Version for a long time. Oldman discovers Washington is carrying one, yadda yadda, insert cool gun fights, a few dozen heads getting chopped off and that hot chick from That 70s Show and you pretty much have the movie.

Now, for the most part I really enjoyed the action in Book of Eli. I loved the dialog between Denzel and Gary, and their casting was spot on. Oldman knows how to play one hell of a bad guy. Unfortunately, the last 10 minutes of the film completely ruined what was otherwise an interesting, albeit bizarrely bible-thumping adventure.

Seriously, if you’re going to make movie goers sit through 2 hours of low budget desert landscapes, give us an ending that doesn’t make everything that happened in the movie irrelevant. Twist endings are fun, but only when they don’t turn the film into a ridiculous pile of nonsense. Deus ex machina at it’s worst.

Great acting.
Fun action.
Shit script.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Anyway; I finished my first play through last night, coming in at just under 60 hours played. I completed more than 75% of the side quests in the game (according the achievement I got) as a City Elf Rogue, with Bard and Assassin specializations applied. I decided to give this go through the “good guy” treatment.

Dragon Age has a variety of companions you can befriend along the way

On the surface, Dragon Age’s theme feels fairly uninspired. An demonic force is trying to conqueror the land. The peoples (made up of humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) of the land are in turmoil and civil war, too distracted to prepare for the invading army. You are the unlikely hero who must bring these nations together and lead a campaign against the enemy. Nothing too shocking here if you have ever played an RPG before.

What makes Dragon Age compelling, though, is the detail BioWare has put into the world and it’s inhabitants. From the moment you become a Grey Warden you are thrust into an ugly world of political espionage, slavery and religious zealotry that makes for some very enticing storytelling. You have to make tough decisions that will have lasting consequences, for better or worse, and you are free to take the honorable route, which often ends up being much harder, or the morally ambiguous one and try to cash in on an opportunity.

Morality and Companions

Right and wrong isn't about a point system

I really enjoyed the fact that Dragon Age shed the ridiculous omnipotent karma meter that most RPGs follow. Your actions are not judged and calculated into a title of Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good, with points deducted for bad behavior. Rather, your actions are judged by your party members. You can earn or drop favor with your companions based on your decisions, and very often they will have competing views. Alistair, for example, is a good guy through and through. You do something bad, he’s going to frown upon it. Morrigan, though, has a much more opportunistic view of he world. She’s OK with getting her hands bloody if it means getting something useful out of it. Most of the companions do not have a black-and-white view of the world, but if you talk with them and learn about their back stories and personalities you’ll get a good idea of where they stand on things.

Your companions involvement with your cause isn’t set in stone, either. (Well, except for Shale. Har har.) If you make a decision they really disagree with or anger them too much over time, they’ll leave you. The game is flexible enough to change course and compensate for different team configurations, so losing members is no big loss to the story. In fact, if you drop central characters like Alistair you’ll encounter a very different end game. Likewise, you can become romantically involved with some of the companions, which opens an interesting relationship meta game. You can go on quests for some of the companions to learn more about their history, and in the process open up all sorts of interesting content to explore. Shale was a particularly entertaining companion in this regard.

Combat and Specializations

When you create your character, you’ll have access to few base classes. As you play through the game you’ll have opportunities to unlock new specializations, either by buying manuals for them, completing quests or by earning favor with companions who already have the specialization. Morrigan, for example, is a shapeshifter, and Alistair is a Templar. Some are easier to acquire than others, but they all bring something interesting to the table. As I said, I decided to specialize my Rogue as a Bard at level 7, and an Assassin at level 14. The Bard gave me access to party-wide buffs and a few crowd control abilities that came in handy. Assassin likewise gave me mostly personal advantages for opening weaknesses in my enemies defenses and increasing my damage.

Combat in Dragon Age functions much like an MMO

Disappointingly, unlocked specializations don’t transfer between play throughs. It would have been nice to be able to start a fresh character as a Ranger or Blood Mage, even if they started with a more generic origin story.

Combat in Dragon Age feels very MMO-ish, or Neverwinter Nights minus the dreadful cast-per-day cool downs. You have passive abilities, activated abilities, sustained abilities (like stances) and attacks and spells, and a power pool to draw from. As you level up you can assign your stat points and unlock access to new skills and abilities. As I mentioned further up, you’ll have an opportunity to specialize twice; once at level 7, and again at level 14. If you don’t have a specialization unlocked yet you can go back and assign it at any time. Companions level in the same manner, and you’re able to assign their stats and abilities in the same way.

Although you can choose to micromanage your companions on the battlefield and assign their attacks and buffs, Dragon Age really shines for it’s talent system. With it you’re able to design the behavior of your party by creating a prioritized list of conditions and actions. For example, I kept Morrigan as my only caster throughout my entire play through, so I ended up specializing her as a spirit healer. With the talent system, I told her to use a knockback if she is surrounded by two or more enemies, and heal herself or the rest of the party if we fall below 75% health. As we leveled up I gained access to more tactic slots, and was able to get more creative with their behaviors. By half way through the game I never needed to switch characters; I had my companions’ intelligent enough to operate on their own.

Questing

There's no shortage of quests to explore

No RPG is complete without a plethora of side quests to keep you distracted, and Dragon Age is no different in this regard. The vast majority of my time was spent exploring the world and completing the side quests I picked up along the way. There isn’t much all that ground breaking here, really; harvesting, killing, capturing or rescuing X of Y made up most of questing formulas, as you might expect. Still, the quests provide a lucrative source of income for purchasing potions, armor and weapons that will come in useful. Several times I ended up acquiring very powerful armor sets for Alistair and my Rogue that outdid anything the main story arch rewarded me with.

As I said, the main storyline feels fairly uninspired on the surface, but the combat mechanics, top notch level design and art direction really make up for this. The environments feel incredible and huge, even while most of them really aren’t. The bosses can be very challenging, and the characters you’ll come across will leave a lasting impression. If I can make one suggestion to you it’s this: push them. Ask questions and make use of the Persuade mechanic to learn more and uncover the secrets behind what they’re telling you. You’ll be happy you did.

Final Thoughts

Dragon Age is not without it’s problems. I’m not a big believer in “replay value,” but if you’re into that sort of thing I wouldn’t expect much in that regard. The DLC we’re seeing from BioWare right now is just tiny bits of content; a handful of new quests to complete and places to explore. That’s all well and good if you just bought the game and are doing you first play through, but who will want to start a fresh character after the fact just to play the latest $5 microexpansion? I’m doubtful I will be doing that.

Some might find replay value in the toolset, allowing people to create their own custom campaigns to play through. This was, after all, the strength of Neverwinter Nights and it’s sequel. Sadly, the lack of a multiplayer component to the game really hinders this- for me, anyway. As a game designer I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty and building some fun content, don’t get me wrong; I just wish I was able to explore it with my friends.

Slaying the Chess Dragon

Of course, Dragon Age isn’t bug free, either. You’ll encounter crashes, an awful path finding system, and a few broken quest lines (namely, quests that become uncompletable due to storyline progression but don’t disappear from your journal.) Nothing terribly show stopping though, thanks to the auto-save system. Just be prepared for the occasional frustration.

By and large, however, I loved Dragon Age, and it’s earned it’s place as one of my top 5 favorite western RPGs. The game is truly epic and entertaining, and I hope BioWare continues to expand on what they’ve done here with some proper expansions (I want to see the Orlais!) and multiplayer support down the road (unlikely, I know; but I can dream.) If you’re looking for an RPG that doesn’t disappoint, I can’t recommend Dragon Age: Origins higher.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

'Hot' is a summary of the most popular topics from the feeds you follow

So, what makes Fever different from the horde of other RSS readers? First, like many of Shaun’s projects, it’s self-hosted. You need your own web host (or a friend who will let you use theirs) running a recent version of PHP and MySQL. Before you purchase Fever you’re required to download a small package which will detect if your server will support Fever. It’s very simple to use, and aside from telling it your database details is pretty much upload and go. If everything passes, you’re given a code to use to purchase Fever, and you’re good to go.

Shaun not only requires people test their server configuration before letting them to purchase Fever, but couples Fever’s installation with that test package. It’s brilliant, cuts way down on install hassle, and I’m sure saves him a lot of “Help! I bought Fever but it doesn’t work on my server! WTF?!” emails. Kudos, sir.

Next, while Fever can behave like your average feed reader and just display your news in chronological order, it also offers a wide variety of ways to view and filter these updates on a site, group or feed-specific level. You can see full content, or just excerpts, or just the text without images, you can have news ordered by news or oldest first, and so on. Shaun’s introduction video to these options on the Fever homepage does a great job of describing why this is a must-have feature that you never knew you even needed.

Finally, the real headline feature of Fever, “Hot.” Hot is the dashboard of Fever, and it essentially analyzes the popularity of a particular link or topic amongst the feeds you follow and gives that topic a weight score temperature.

So, let’s say you follow a lot of gaming blogs (as I do), and yesterday was Sony’s big announcement of the PS3 Slim (not to mention the price drop on the PS3 line.) I follow a lot of gaming news and blog sites, but most of what they cover is redundant; I don’t need to see the same information about the PS3 Slim 15 times over.

'Kindling' view functions much like a traditional RSS reader

So, here’s the genius of Fever; blogs that you favor the content become “Kindling”- stuff you really want to read. Now, for those 14+ other blogs that are usually redundant, you subscribe to those as “Sparks”. Sparks are blogs that don’t usually have content you want to explicitly read, but still want or need to know about. Sparks are the core of the weighting system in Fever, and each time a duplicate Spark topic is discovered Kindling feeds with matching topics get their temperature knocked up on the Hot page.

Make sense? No? Well, let’s think about it using the universal Digg analogy; your Kindling is your topic, and Sparks are users digging that topic further towards the homepage (or, in Fever’s case, the Hot page.) The more diggs (sparks) the topic has, the hotter the temperature (the higher up on the Hot page it appears.)

I’m probably not doing the best job of explaining it, but here’s what it boils down to: Fever makes sifting through a lot of feeds dead simple. It makes skimming through the day’s news dramatically faster than other RSS readers, including Google Reader. Likewise, the amount of keyboard control you have with Fever overshadows even Google Reader; you never even have to touch the mouse to navigate your news. Fantastic.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Overall, I’m in love with Fever. It’s changed the way I get my news, information and pointless web comics.

Really the only faults I can find with the software are features that I miss from having used Google Reader for years; in particular, there is currently no way to share content you come across with your Google Reader (or other) contacts, and there is no way to save a feed item to your Instapaper without first navigating to that page and using their bookmarklet, or adding it manually.

I’ve contacted Shaun about these faults, and he assures me an API is in the works, and sharing functionality will be the first plugin out the door. Hopefully we won’t have long to wait, but until then I’ll suck it up and deal with these disadvantages. Fever is worth it.

Decided to throw together a quick video review and demo of MediaMall PlayOn, a software packaging for media streaming to the PS3, Xbox and other products compatible with the protocol. It supports a wide variety of local file formats, and streams video from sites like Hulu, CNN, CBS, YouTube and more. The plugin architecture allows developers to add support for additional services, and there’s plenty available for sites like Adult Swim and Gametrailers.

Aside from the handy streaming support for Internet video sites, they recently introduced beta support for local file sharing. Unlike TVersity, it worked with every file format I threw at it including the ever-frustrating MKV. The only issue I have is that embedded subtitles don’t appear to be working yet.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

You can pick one of 8 Demigods to play as. 4 of these choices are Generals, and the others are Assassins. The Generals are primarily support-type Demigods and buff up their allies, and rely primarily on their minions and allied Demigods to do the damage for them. The assassins are all about direct damage and getting out on the front lines. In either case, as you capture objectives and kill enemies you earn XP and level, and can then spend points in a talent tree to beef your Demigod up with boosted health, increased hitpoints and powerful abilities.

For example; Oak, my Demigod of choice, is a General that isn’t all that impressive when you start a match. However, after leveling and spending your talent points appropriately, he has the ability to capture the souls of nearby defeated enemies and turn them into ghostly, flying units at your command. He can heal all the allies around him when he kills an enemy. He can even become an invincible killing machine for a short time if he’s defeated, giving you a few extra seconds to beat the shit our of that player you were just chasing down.

The maps are straightforward, but beautifully designed and offer ample room for strategy. You always have at least a few routes into the enemy’s base so if a choke point starts to form you can reroute and try to sneak in from a different angle while the enemy is busy. There are also two portals equally spaced between the opposing factions, which frequently become a point of heated conflict as the sides fight over those spawn points for their minions.

Hell hath no fury like a Demigod scorned

The single player and multiplayer experiences are virtually identical, with the exception that the Demigod-based achievements and trinkets you buy don’t carry over between the two. Although there was negative press about the multiplayer experience at launch, I glad to say that I haven’t encountered any issues and am in fact very pleased with the performance in both the networking and engine. Likewise, I’m very impressed with the visual quality and polish to the mechanics of the game.

The only thing I can honestly nitpick about is the limited selection of maps. Will Gas Powered be offering us more for free, or with an expansion? It seems logical that they would, perhaps along with the rumored 2 additional Demigods in development. I’d love to see them release a map editor so the community could develop new offerings, too.

If you’re looking for a fun departure from the everyday RTS and enjoy RPGs, you’ll love Demigod. It’s a brilliantly designed game with a lot of replay value. The digital download is $39.95, so you can’t beat the price either.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

OMG Napoleon what are you doing to Ivan?!

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian takes place 2 years after the first film. Larry Daley has started a successful “As Seen on TV” invention company, but he misses the fun he had with his possessed inanimate objects at the Museum of Natural History so he visits every once and awhile, bag lunch and all. He shows up after having been busy with work for a few months, only to find the whole museum is getting boxed up and moved to the Smithsonian; the exhibits are being replaced by digital reproductions.

The next evening, Daley gets a call from Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson); the tablet has brought Kahmunrah, Ivan the Terrible, Al Capone and a handful of other baddies from history back to life, and they’re running a muck in the Smithsonian. It’s up to Daley, as always, to save the Museum from itself and put things right.

Amelia Earhart was apparently kind of hot.

So, yeah; the premise is nothing new. Museum comes to life. Havoc ensues. Daley ultimately saves the day, but not without causing trouble along the way. The formula worked for the first film, and it’s still pretty satisfying this time around. The new characters were fun, especially Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah and Alain Chabat as Napoleon. The only major disappointment I had with the film was their very brief use of Jonah Hill as the Smithsonian security guard. The trailers left you thinking he would have a larger role in the film, but all he has is one scene. Could have been way more entertaining if they’d used him throughout the movie.

Even so, my opinion on Battle of the Smithsonian matches that of the first film. If you’re looking for a solid, humorous, and family-friendly movie you can’t go wrong here.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The future is serious business.

Terminator Salvation is the 4th movie in the franchise, and although the trailers would lead you to believe it’s a story centered around John Connor, the main character of this story is decidedly Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington); a convicted murderer who is (kind of) executed by lethal injection in 2003 and wakes up 2018 at the height of man’s war with the machines. Though he isn’t aware of it for a time, SkyNet has turned him into a cyborg. His mission, if he even has one, is a mystery to him; he is just trying to figure out what’s going on. In time he befriends Kyle Reese (who is sent back in time by Connor in the first film, “get’s it on” with Sarah Connor, and in true paradoxical form end’s up being Connor’s own father) and a child named Star.

Long story short Reese, Star, and countless other humans are abducted by SkyNet and taken to it’s HQ for- presumably- experimentation towards grafting human organs and tissue ontop of and inside Terminators like Marcus Wright. Wright get’s pissed, decides to rescue them, and encounters the absurdly hot Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) along the way. She turns out to be directly under the command of John Connor, and things progress pretty much exactly as you’d think from there on out.

Christian Bale got a whole 20 minutes of screen time!

No surprises in this film, really. About a third of the way through the film you’ve already figured out how it’s going to end, and there aren’t any twists to change that. You see Bale every other scene or so, acting depressed and yelling a lot. You see a lot more of Wright… hell, you see a lot more of Williams for that matter… and the ending is even more infuriating because of it. This film was a huge disappointment overall. The action was decent, the acting was great, but without a script worth the paper it was xeroxed on it all goes to shit. On the bright side, at least it wasn’t as bad as Rise of the Machines.

Oh, and spoiler alert? You know who totally makes a (heavily CG) appearance.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Cast

This Star Trek film is unapologetically a prequel to the original television series, but they’ve managed to pull it off in a way that is both satisfying and fresh. The new Enterprise bridge, for example, still feels like it would exist in the original series’ universe and time, but is attractive and comfortably modern at the same time. This art style along with Nero’s unique and fearsome ship design left me very comfortable with the film’s “feel.” Something that always bothered me about the atrocious and short-lived “Enterperise” series was that the ship design felt completely wrong in the time period and chronology. It felt too modern, and wrong. Abrams managed to pull this off flawlessly.

Star Trek Cast

I was pretty shocked by the events that took place in the film, and how willing Abrams and the studios apparently were at rewriting Star Trek’s history. Make no mistake: we aren’t playing in Gene Roddenberry’s universe anymore. This reboot has noticeably altered the entire Star Trek timeline, changing 43 years of novel, film and television work. We are now in an alternative timeline, which I think is fantastic. This means Abrams is free to change things as much as he wants with future films; he can reboot the franchise properly. There are no expectations now, nothing the Star Trek geeks can raise red flags about. Abrams has saved Star Trek. Finally the studios found someone capable of doing the job.

Zachary Quinto as Spock

I’m weary of breaking down the plot here as I’d honestly hate to spoil the surprises, but let me say this: if you have even a hint of love for science fiction in your body, you need to see this movie. There was nothing about it that didn’t satisfy and frankly blow me away – and that’s a rare thing indeed.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Wolverine vs Deadpool (Comic)

Wolverine’s origin is complicated and anything but brief, so going into this film I was concerned as to just how they’d be able to pull this off in 107 minutes. Overall I was pretty pleasantly surprised, though I was a bit surprised at how different this Origin was to the one I read when I was a kid. Marvel is anything but afraid of dramatically altering their character’s identities, and this story told in the film is a shining example of revisionist history. I don’t follow the comic anymore, so I can’t say if it follows the “new” Wolverine origin, but I certainly doesn’t follow the classic one that I loved. Still, Marvel kept the fundamentals true, and the new origin (or at least the one presented in the film) was definitely a good choice for movie goers.

Hugh Jackman as Weapon X, after receiving his adamantium skeleton.

As always, Hugh Jackman delivers a fantastic performance as Wolverine. He was born to play the part, really. I also really enjoyed Liev Schreiber as the new, old Sabertooth (the part was played by pro wrestler Tyler Mane in the earlier film) — he’s probably one of modern film’s most under appreciated actors, in my opinion — and Danny Huston was a damn fine Will Stryker. The CG was pretty outstanding, with a few minor exceptions (whoever did the Patrick Stewart touch up work for the younger Xavier should be fired.) My biggest complaint with the film is that it felt too rushed, which is what I expected given the amount of content they had to cover. Every other scene was in a different time period and a different country. It wasn’t confusing so much as it was tedious.

Overall though I think they did the best job they could telling this story in the time they had, and they did a pretty thorough job of it at that.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars