X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Directed by Gavin Hood
Twentieth Century Fox
By Brian Last
Jackman's 'chops had their own contract.
The much anticipated Wolverine origin story clawed its way into theaters on May 1st, and was up against a barrage of obstacles. The story of Wolverine is a complex one that spans across three centuries and could hardly be contained in the X men trilogy, so they gave the character his own movie with Hugh Jackman back as the gruff, hot tempered mutant from the great white north. Director Gavin Hood gave it the old college try to do the character justice, but where to start on a story like this? Well for starters, get the Canadian history right!
James Howlett (Wolverine) and his brother Victor Creed (Sabretooth) flee the Northwest Territories at a very young age after young James kills Thomas Logan, Victor’s father. It is there they make a promise to each other always to stick together. Together they fight in the American Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Vietnam. It is in Vietnam that they are kicked out of the army and put into a holding cell. Here they meet William Stryker who invites them to join Team X, a black ops team comprised of mutants. On a mission in Nigeria, they interrogate the locals for meteorite rocks and when they say there are none, Stryker orders Victor to kill the chief. Howlett is appalled and quits the group. Six years later, Victor is back in Canada and on the war path. Stryker comes in search of aid to take him down. It is here they do the test for adamantium and Howlett is given the skeletal form we all know today. With adamantium on his bones and revenge in his heart, he goes to track down Victor.
To properly evaluate a movie like this, you have to evaluate it on two fronts. The first is as an action movie, plain and simple. As an action movie it was very entertaining, with traditional over the top sequences punctuated by big explosions. The first half was fantastic and flowed really well, but by the time it got to the third act, it fell off somewhat. The movie was like a race car that ran out of gas before the end. While we were treated to a few good fights, you could feel them struggle for an ending that left the door open for a sequel.
Now, as a comic book movie, the ground is shakier. There are some similarities but quite a few liberties taken in terms of Wolverine and Deadpool’s origins. This is not pleasing to fanboys or general fans as we were under the impression they gave Wolverine this spin off to do justice to his dark, complicated history. But what is the point if you aren’t going to do it properly? That said, what the movie will do is spark viewer curiosity to go back and read the source material to see just where the similarities and differences lie. Apparently there is talk of a sequel where Howlett is stationed in Japan, which is actually true in his origin, but, given this picture, who knows what direction they would take it in.
One major pitfall that this film (as well as X3) fell victim to was getting bogged down with mutant cameos. We all know why they did it, because some fan favorites didn’t make the cut in the first trilogy, so they wanted to squeeze them in here. What they should have done is taken a step back and remembered whose origin story it was they were telling and focused down the story accordingly.
You Marvel boys drooling or spewing?
Still, it was a solid cast up and down. Ryan Reynolds stole the show for the brief time he was on screen and Liev Schreiber was thrilling as Sabertooth. But with Hugh Jackman, you got much of the same as you did with the first three films. As he’s now the central character, you’d expect a little more. The cast was rounded out with really good background support from Will I Am, Taylor Kitsch, Dominic Monaghan, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston replacing Brian Cox as Stryker.
A decent start to the summer blockbuster season, Wolverine succeeded as light entertainment. Never did it rise above the confines of a fun diversion or work for me on the level that Dark Knight or Iron Man did. The X-Men franchise has been taken in a positive direction and fans can feel like a little bit of dignity has been restored after the widely panned X3. No matter where they take the next Origins film, one thing is for sure: they will have an ace up their sleeves if they’re willing to play a bigger gambit.
I think this one went from a “maybe” to an, “it can wait” to a “likely never.” Was this movie bad enough that it could get scrapped like Ang Lee’s Hulk?
No, it wasn’t as bad as that Hulk movie, not even close.
The story was, for me, what they did right, keeping in mind the change in format between comic and movie, what they kept of the origin and what they changed fit the movie x-men universe.
Gambit helping out Wolverine is the only thing that doesn’t make sense to me…
I wasn’t really happy with the story changes. The method in which Logan loses his memories is a pretty foolish one…it makes much more sense the way they do it in the comics. And Deadpool was so, so wrong they might as well have used a different character entirely and called him something else.
I’ve got tons and tons of complaints about this movie, but to be honest it wasn’t terrible. I thought it was okay, and it had some pretty cool parts. Just not nearly as good as it could have been.
caesar