X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ Proves That Classic Characters
and Epic Action Will Always Be Worth the Price of Admission

-----In ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ we discover the past of the mutant that dominated the ‘X-Men’ franchise of films. The mystery surrounding our beloved hero and his claws dates back to 1845, where the film begins. As we learn of his history with Sabretooth and a man known as, “William Stryker”, the pieces begin to come together, and we discover just how Wolverine came to have his skeleton laced with adamantium, and why this makes him so angry.

-----Hugh Jackman lives up to the standard we’ve come to expect from him as he shows once again how perfect he is in the film’s titular role of Wolverine, a character he's become so synonymous with, the movie poster only requires him and his claws, no title necessary. His brilliant blend of animal fierceness and human vulnerability reminds us why we love the character as much as we do. Without him, the movie’s not bad, but with him, the movie is pure action delight. Joining him is the skilled Liev Schreiber (who also starred alongside Jackman in 2001’s ‘Kate and Leopold’) as Wolverine’s longtime enemy, Sabretooth. Playing the character in a style long departed from Tyler Mane’s small turn as the character in the original ‘X-Men’ movie, Schreiber’s is a more complex character mainly due to his relevance in the story. Nonetheless, Schreiber fits into the role with a skilled ease. Sporting only lamb chops and pointy teeth, he effectively captures the essence of his character, and provides a quality villain performance. Lynn Collins plays love interest Kayla Silverfox. She finds just enough chemistry with Jackman to set a solid emotional basis for the film’s plot to revolve around, and looks great while doing it.

-----Danny Huston plays a younger William Stryker than the one seen in ‘X2,’ with a surprising likeness to Brian Cox, who previously portrayed the character. He does a good job of playing the evil guy behind-the-scenes, not missing a beat from Cox’s solid performance in ‘X2.’ Making smaller appearances in the film are the much publicized Taylor Kitsch as Gambit, and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. Kitsch bears the likeness of his comic book counterpart, and has a good chemistry with Jackman, despite limited screen time and not much to do in the film. Ryan Reynolds is excellent as Deadpool in a small role that acted primarily as a marketing tool and perhaps a pilot for a spinoff movie. Reynolds plays a scene stealing, hilarious character who I hope to see in more movies soon. Stay after the credits and the notion of a future film for the character is only reaffirmed. Rounding out the cast are very small turns from Will i Am as a teleporter, Kevin Durand as the humongous, “Blob,” and Tim Pocock as a young Scott Summers (Cyclops). Pocock follows suit with Cox and looks a good deal like the older actor in the original ‘X-Men’ films who played Cyclops, James Marsden.

-----‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ works for a number of reasons. Firstly, the action is fun, frequent, and awesome. People are going to enjoy the film’s thrilling sequences as they will quickly let out a sigh of relief, filled with the knowledge that they’ll be getting what they paid for. Secondly, Jackman is great, and the character he’s portraying is great. Is there a more charismatic and dominant lead in Hollywood right now? Probably, but Jackman is nonetheless one of today’s best performers, consistently finding common ground to win the audience over with. I could watch this guy play Wolverine in 12 more movies, enjoying every minute of it. I can’t imagine anyone else in the role, nor do I want to, and that is a tell-tale sign of an excellent portrayal of a timeless Marvel character. In the wrong hands, Wolverine would be a joke, but Jackman is an artist at work in this, the role he was born to play. He adds depth to a potentially shallow character, giving the film much needed moral dilemmas, namely how far on man can go before becoming nothing more than an animal.

-----Thirdly, the film works due to its relevance to the previous ‘X-Men’ films. While it can’t begin to cover all of the ground in the thousands of comics featuring the character, it does cover all of the ground relevant to the films it acts as a prequel to. Tying up many loose ends and connecting the dots in many places, the movie does a great job of telling Wolverine’s story, and showing the early years of mutant-kind. Finally, the film works because of the fact that it is pure fun. You’ve got super-villains, legendary heroes, revenge, humor, action, cameos, drama, effects, excellent acting…did I miss anything, or did I just name every single element we all go to the movies for? Not to mention a surprising amount of top notch humor that will consistently have the audience laughing. I’ve seen a good number of comedies that don’t dish out this number of unanimous audience laughs. While Reynolds provides most of this in his small role, the humor continues throughout the rest of the film in bits and pieces. Yep, two hours in the shoes of Wolverine are two hours well spent, and people will get what they want from this movie.

-----From a technical standpoint, the film is sufficient to admirable. Many of the effects were really cool, with others merely serving their purpose. I didn’t find fault with any of them, though some were agreeably stylized. There is the occasional awkward airborne stunt, but nothing that greatly hinders the film. However, those looking for realism should leave that notion at the door, because the movie comes off as a comic book action film, so it’s hardly supposed to be real. Other than that the action is pretty consistently amazing, only occasional slipping into the trend of unnecessary one-second shots. Though hardly technical, I’ll take a moment to talk about the plot. It’s what you’d expect, providing a solid basis for the action, only momentarily convoluted here and there, with some small continuity issues I’ll get into later. The locations were chosen excellently, with some great scenery that lends to the down and dirty cinematography; primarily composed of a blend of calm close-ups, and epic bird’s eye view shots as frequent tools in its storytelling. The musical score is as you would expect from just such an action movie, primarily not the focus but always in the background urging our protagonist on.

-----I do, however, have a few minor concerns with the overall movie. While it is a prequel, it relies a bit more on tying into the other films than I thought was necessary. I would have liked it to be a bit more of its own film, although it is more standalone than most prequels. Also, I thought some of the characters could have used a little more or less screen time than others in certain areas. While the movie did do a nice job of throwing in some characters left out of the original trilogy, I just wanted a little more time with some of them (though in the case of Reynolds character, a lot more time would have been great). Finally, rounding out my small hesitations on the overall excellence of the film was the occasional continuity issue with this movie and the first ‘X-Men.’ Namely that of Sabretooth’s radical, though necessary, difference from his appearance and character in the original ‘X-Men’ film. There’s also some question on the circumstances of Wolverine’s break-out and how that compares to flashbacks from ‘X2.’ However, on the whole, none of these were valid enough reasons in substantially subtracting from my enjoyment of the movie, continuity aside.

-----I think the majority of people looking for a good time will have a lot of fun with ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine.’ If you liked the other ‘X-Men’ films, you’re certain to get a kick out of Wolverine’s solo tale. Fan-boys are sure to get added pleasure in the number of comic book characters given life and homage in the movie. While it may not be as epic as the impossible hype called for, it’s still a film superior to most, and will give audiences a great time worthy of the price of admission. And despite my minor qualms, the more I look back on the movie, the more I appreciate it, and look forward to seeing it again. I’ve decided not to let my preconceptions get in the way of a truly fun film, and have forgiven the excess advertising of minor, though entertaining characters, not letting them impact my enjoyment of the movie. I urge the viewer too, to go in open minded, understand it is a prequel, and enjoy a fine entry in the ever-growing franchise of ‘X-Men’ films. The bottom line is I had a great time with this movie thanks primarily to Jackman’s efforts, plenty of action, surprising humor, and of course, the potential for more great movies in the ‘X-Men’ franchise.

Official Trailer