Wolverine, where art thou?

When word about a Wolverine spin-off movie hit the interweb, I was just as excited as next guy. And let's face it, a Wolverine movie would be for men and men only. I'm sorry but I've tried to explain the metaphorical and allegorical properties of his infamous berserker attack to many women and none of them really get it. As I see it, his devastating attack is a commentary on the damaged modern male psyche - a condition only explicable if you were part of a secret government weapons project or raised by a single mother. And as I see it, there really isn't much difference between the two.

Then came the title – X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It's a great title because immediately you start thinking about other titles in this possible franchise. X-Men Origins: Gambit, X-Men Origins: Storm, X-Men Origins: Magneto, etc.

Then came the cast – Hugh Jackman reprising his role from the earlier X-Men films, always a good sign. Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool which may or may not be the greatest casting decision in comic book movie history. I think Reynolds is the only ripped-up model type actor that I can take seriously as both a bad-ass and as a solid comic presence. Muscles and humor never go well together.

Like (as bad an example as this is) Carrot Top. While not the funniest guy around, if he stopped working out, lost his shredded physique, I might be able to laugh at his jokes. Maybe. I just can't take him seriously as a comic and believe me, I totally get the paradoxical nature of that comment.

You're destroying what little career you have left, sir.

But about Jackman, I mean, personally, I wasn't too happy seeing him as Wolverine in the first film. Wolverine is supposed to be 5'3". Jackman is like 6'1". But he somehow made it work, at least for me. I grew to appreciate his take on the role. But the casting of Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth – that decision was very brave. In the first X-Men film, Sabertooth is played by someone who could actually be Sabertooth in real life. But he didn't have much presence other than his size and physicality. And Schreiber is tall but he isn't imposing by any means. I think casting him was a good decision only because he can become Sabertooth. And since this is an origin story, it works.

So obviously I've been pumped for a long time.

And then this giant dark cloud casted on the set and all the people involved. Buzz about Gavin Hood not being in control of his set and a series of re-shoots and Fox Studio execs changing things around had flooded the internet. It did not look good. And now I just read about ANOTHER set of re-shoots for Wolverine. The movie is due out in a few months. This does not bode well.

And the thing that is kind of unsettling about the whole thing is that, I don't really care. I went from being really excited for a movie to not caring at all about it. I remember reading about all the terrible things and then watching the trailer and thinking – meh. And then I started asking why I thought that. I should have been really excited for it. Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting older and I just don't get excited for things like that anymore.

The Little Problem with Taoism

I can't help but be in a constant zen-like state at work because I don't really do anything. I usually get all the work I need to get done by 11:00 a.m. so I'm mainly sitting around reflecting on my life until something I need to do lands on my desk.

And in my time of doing nothing today, I thought about taoism and being zen and how it may be the best thing for people. Taoism insists that people stop getting all worked up over the crap that drives them bonkers. There's a principle of Taoism called wu wei, which can be easily defined as "not getting in your way". For example, I would be much more content if I were to casually walk down the street with no destination in mind then if I were to have somewhere to go. If I had a place to be then I would be in a position to stress out about it. Maybe there's traffic and I can't cross the street. What if I'm late? What if I'm meeting someone? What if they aren't there when I get there? What if I'm going to the wrong place? But if I'm just outside walking around, there is no issue.

But as I thought about it, I realized an inherent contradiction in Taoism and wu wei. As it turns out, not having a goal is still a goal. If I say, I'm not going to have a goal today, then I did in fact start a goal. Knowing me (a neurotic defeatist), if my goal in life was to have no goal, I would stress out about not being able to accomplish it. I imagined myself as the person aimlessly walking down the street. I'd be so paranoid about accidentally doing something of significance. Like if I walked into a store and thought that maybe this was my subconscious goal. Then I'd leave in a haste and wonder if it's a goal of mine to leave here quickly in an attempt to preserve my original goal of not doing anything. It's a vicious circle.

But like I said, Taoism and wu wei are good for people because most people are normal. Unfortunately, doing nothing in my book is monumentally important.