Bad karma at Fox: Wolverine gets leaked

Fear not Gaabers.  There is such a thing as karma, and Fox has been bitten by it.  After Fox attempted to stop Watchmen’s theatrical release with legal maneuvers fans of the graphic novel sought to get as many people as possible to boycott the upcoming Wolverine film (made by Fox) in protest.  Well, it looks like the boycott has come to us.  A near complete version of the Wolverine film has leaked online and is making the rounds on Torrent sites.  Now, as noted by io9, this is not a complete version of the film:

“…this incomplete print is still missing a lot of the finished special effects, and some scenes are lacking, purely because the last elements haven’t been slotted in yet. By all accounts, it’s also an early cut, missing some scenes and without the final edits. You’ll have much richer viewing experience if you see this film in the theater”

io9 also goes into a lot of detail (and a lot of spoilers…you’ve been warned) about how this film may potentially suck:

“If all you care about is cool fight scenes and things exploding, then you’re good to go. If you want to care, even a little, about the people who are fighting each other, then this film needs a bit of surgery.”

Given that we were spoiled on character-driven stories from Bryan Singer on the first to X-films, Wolverine sounds like it’s shaping up to be a glorified stunt-fest.  That sucks.

Further, CrunchGear provided details on what happened with this work-print leak as well.  In contrast, they seemed to enjoy this rough cut: “My official stance is that the movie kicked ass and I want to see it in theaters.”

Strange.  CrunchGear also ran Fox’s official statement on the leak:

“The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law – the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts in the past. The FBI and the MPAA also are actively investigating this crime. We are encouraged by the support of fansites condemning this illegal posting and pointing out that such theft undermines the enormous efforts of the filmmakers and actors, and above all, hurts the fans of the film.”

I like that last part, “…hurts the fans of the film”.  Yeah, it’s like that time when a major movie studio *cough*Fox*cough* sued Warner Brothers in an effort to prevent Watchmen from being released to theaters, and in turn fans wouldn’t be able to see it.  Yeah, it’s exactly like that.  Nevertheless, this whole thing may be proof positive that the universal equation always finds a way of balancing itself out.  Suck it, Fox!

Lastly, in the interest of being consistent, I’m officially putting CrunchGear on notice.  We warned you once about treading on our geek turf, now you’ve done it twice.  Stick to gadgets or else we’ll [insert hollow threat here].