A review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine needs a fractal with an "X" in it. X-Factor has the requisite "X" (although it's way to pretty to represent a movie like this. Sadly, this movie lacks the "X-Factor" that makes a great super hero movie. So--on with the review!-
Readers of Wizard (THE magazine for all things geeky recently voted Wolverine as the "best Comic Book Character of all time." (Considering the many great Comic Book Characters out there it makes me wonder about the readers of Wizard--but maybe I'm just a curmudgeon.) The character who began life as a one-shot villain in The Incredible Hulk comic has since risen to epic proportions. Now we finally have the long-awaited "secret origin" of Wolverine. Too bad it wasn't any better...
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This post won't contain a plot summary of the movie. (If you want to know that badly buy a ticket and see it for yourself.) Generally I try to judge a movie on its own merits without considering the source material. It's hard to do that with the "X-Men" movie franchise. The film makers chose to create their own history without regard to established continuity: the result is a muddy mess that ignores decades of comic book history and increasingly defies logic (even in a milieu that uses "comic book" reasoning. The result in the latest movie is a mess that leaves anyone with half a brain scratching their heads going "huh?"
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Hugh Jackman had a certain charm and style in the first three "X-Men" movies and he was the stand out star. Now that he's the star of his own movie he still has the look but the script gives him little to work with. There isn't much more than grunts and growls that gets very tiresome very quickly. At least he's given a lot of truly amazing fight sequences to relieve the tedium. (Without the combat this movie would be completely unwatchable.)
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Liev Schreiber has the thankless task of playing Victor Creed/Sabertooth. He looks the part but I found myself wondering about the character motivation. (Why is he a homicidal maniac? Why is he working with the bad guys? Why is he so obsessed with Logan?) Ryan Reynolds is given even less to work with as Wade Wilson/Deadpool. I suspect both characters will be back in the next movie so maybe we'll learn a bit more about them. (Is it going to be X-Men Origins 2: When Wolvie Met Xavier--seems likely since Patrick Stewart makes a cameo in this flick...) Danny Huston is a cardboard villain as Col. William Stryker. Dominic Monaghan and Will-i-Am have brief screen time as mutants created for the movie. Taylor Kitch looks great as Remy LaBeau/Gambit (although his inclusion here makes no sense at all: I guess they felt they needed to add in some additional characters from the "X-Men" continuity.)
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My expectations for the "X" franchise lowered drastically with X-Men 3: the Last Stand and they weren't even met with this flick. LOVED the FX scenes but almost every other aspect of the film was a huge disappointment. (Of course I might be in the minority here: we saw the movie in a packed theater and most of the audience really seemed to enjoy the movie: guess we'll have to see how well the movie does against Star Trek next week.)
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FINAL GRADE: C- (and that's being very generous)
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