As you’ve probably heard by now, an early rough cut of Fox’s big tentpole movie Wolverine leaked onto the intertubes. “In a case of piracy that some analysts called unprecedented, untold thousands of people watched a version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine online Wednesday, a full month before its scheduled theater release,” The New York Times reported. According to the New York Daily News, many top film sites took a stand, refusing to review the leaked version of the movie. “‘You're doing yourself a disservice if you see the film this way,’ said Jeremy ‘Mr. Beaks’ Smith, West Coast editor for Ain't It Cool News.’[The fans that download it] are going to make their judgment on what they see, and that's not how the director ever intended for the movie to be screened.’”

A CNN report on this story, however, has drawn some unwanted attention to a worthy but lesser-known movie site. As you can see in the clip - which I can't seem to embed despite CNN's claims that I can - a blogger’s review of Wolverine appeared on Spill.com, a site that features animated roundtable reviews by Korey Coleman and friends.

The Spill gang isn’t too happy to be showcased in this way for a large national audience, particularly considering that Spill member Carlyle had already posted an anti-piracy rant on the issue. “So let me get this straight...FOX isn't happy with the film and sets out to make it better and some internal douchenozzle steals the old version, puts it up online without any explanation of what people are going to see and tomorrow the internet will be awash in REVIEWS of the new X-men film? Um. Yeeeeeeeeeeeah…People are being cheated. And before you say ‘Couldn't happen to a nicer guy’ about FOX, keep in mind it is ultimately the movie and the filmmakers who will get shortchanged, not the execs.”

Coleman has now posted his reaction to the CNN piece. “Of course we don't condone what happened with Fox's property and support them in any course of legal action they take against the person or persons responsible for the leak. I guess that sentiment isn't easily resonated, though, when your page appears behind the quote of someone who illegally downloaded the film and publicly gave his opinion on the pirated copy… That said, let me be forthcoming and tell you I knew about the blog containing the movie review, and made it clear I didn't want it featured on the front page. In retrospect now maybe I should've deleted the post, maybe I should've thought more about the repercussions of such a blog.”

I’m a little biased because Korey and some of his cohorts are friends of mine, but I’m going with the “no such thing as bad publicity” theory here. The Spill reviews are often hilarious and insightful, and if this CNN report leads more movie fans to discover that for themselves, that’s all to the good.



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YouTube Film Critics: Spill and the Reel Geezers
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