Beast in its tracks

Hung out with 74; Zaftig is out of town with the kids, so we saw the new Wolverine movie and then got some apps and drinks.

I enjoy those laid-back evenings.  I'm old now, and I have a little money and enjoy trying out new cocktails in a quiet bar where you can sit and eat.  I still hang out with Friar pretty often, but it's drag that now, twenty years later, his idea of fun is still going to the same old dive to drink well liquor at a rapid pace for five hours, with occasional smoke breaks, at a bar known for its frat-boy clientele.  I have no interest in that, and it's sort of a sore point between us if he texts me to see if I'll meet him at the Hangout, and I demur.  It's hard for him not to take my reluctance as a condemnation of his choices --- which, in a sense, they are.  We're past forty.  Tossing back endless double-tall whiskeys amidst douchebag college kids trying to pick each other up... well, at this pint the novelty of it has gotten a bit worn, hasn't it?

Anyway, "The Wolverine" was a pretty good action film.  Probably pretty chaotic and confusing for normals --- they need a sign such as the ones outside carnival rides, but saying "You must have read or watched this much X-Men to enjoy this movie."  For the nerdscenti, however, it was a solid self-contained adventure.  I was surprised by a few of the director's choices, though.

• Using Hugh Jackman to play Wolverine for the scenes set in the present and Peter Dinklage playing him in flashbacks was visually arresting at first, but ultimately baffling.
• The scene where Wolverine romances Mariko on the beach by playing a ukelele and singing Syd Barrett's "Wolf Pack" in a tremulous falsetto sort of cost him badass points.
• Constantly saying, "Ignorance of the claw is no excuse!" just before he pops his claws out and then stabs someone is corny.
• I realize they need to reel the ladies in as well as the geek guys, but Wolverine doesn't wear a banana hammock!  I don't care how warm it is.
• The scenes set in WWII were action-packed and showed that Wolverine ages very slowly, but I don't they ever explained how the Reverse Anti-Hitler lived through Wolverine''s assassination attempt.
• Wolverine doesn't need a side-kick at all, let alone the character "Li'l Wolfie" who is far too cutesey.  His spring-loaded claws looked like barbecue forks.
• Why on earth did they let Patrick Stewart sing his lines in his cameo appearance?  That was just jarring. 
• Was the scene where Mariko shaves Wolverine's back supposed to be erotic? It was just creepy.