'Wolverine' vs. 'Star Trek'

The summer kicks off in earnest on Friday with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” It’s followed quickly by “Star Trek” the next week.

Both franchises are beloved totems of my youth.

I remember biking down to the 7-11 to get the latest X-Men comic just about as fondly as I do seeing “Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn” 13 times one summer at the local Edwards theater.

That makes me wonder which I want to see more.

There’s been very little, review-wise, on “Wolverine,” even given the workprint leaked online. But yesterday, Ain’t It Cool News posted a psuedo-review that sheds some light.

It breaks down to good performances, lots of action, good fights, and an incoherent story. Sounds like half the films released last summer.

From AICN:

The finished effects are lackluster, to say the least – some really bad CGI work made me groan numerous times (especially, but not restricted to, Patrick Stewart’s cameo). The scene with Stewart looks so much better in the workprint – trying to digitally de-age him did NOT work this time around…

Good pacing, good lead performances, and some cool comic book fights overcome a non-existing story, horrible dialog (including the classic “I’m so cold…”), and criminally underdeveloped characters. It’s a fun flick, but it will never be considered one of the great comic book movies of our time (like Iron Man, Dark Knight, Watchmen, etc.).

Then there’s “Star Trek.” (I have to note the irony here of Patrick Stewart in “Wolverine” going up against a Star Trek film.)

There has been endless promotion about this project, including a batch of 15 new pictures released today. Here’s one:

And though it opens a week after “Wolverine,” “Trek’s” reviews are already in and they’re generally rapturous (see the story I did on those here.)

Subsequently, I’ve heard from colleagues who’ve seen the film and say Eric Bana is, despite the chatter, good as the villain. They also say Zach Quinto gives great Spock.

In addition, I’ve heard from multiple sources that Simon Pegg, as Scotty, steals every scene he’s in.

All of which means bupkis to the moviegoing public.

Presales on movie ticketing service Fandango have the films in a virtual dead heat, with “Wolverine” accounting for 10% of all tickets sold and “Star Trek” 12%.

I haven’t seen numbers from competing service Movietickets.com but, according to The Business Insider, Movietickets has “Wolverine” outpacing last summer’s champ “Iron Man” by a 3-to-1 ratio at the same point before its release.