X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Review

Shtink! Has any character shot right to the top as a fan favorite as Wolverine since his first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181 in late 1974? He’s just one of those characters, neither good or bad, just treading the waters of uncertainty. He’s filled with uncontrollable rage, flaws, and remorse; a complex character of perfection, a Superman-like hero (dare I say that?) with indestructible bones and a healing factor that makes him hard to kill. Add a cigar, and a wise-ass attitude, and what’s not to like, bub?

His popularity almost overshadows the X-Men themselves, ever since writer Chris Claremont added him to the team in the late 1970s and he’s been the stable of every adaptation in any medium since. It wasn’t rocket science to see why he was the focal point in the three X-Men films and he was due for solo adventure. So here we get the oddly titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the chance to see Wolvie do what he does best…unfortunately, its not the best the filmmakers could do with him.

It’s frustrating to watch this picture for a handful of reasons, some uber-comic geek stuff and some just for the sake of entertainment, but this almost feels like a thrown together effort. What doesn’t work is the fact that the film wants to tie this film into the first X-Men film. I don’t think it matters if it did and since it does, it opens up its shortcomings. Oh sure, it takes place 15 or so years prior so we’ll get more solo adventures to keep this franchise going, but it really hinders this film with its need to tie everything up towards Singer’s film.

That might have been forgivable if the film didn’t feel like a montage of Wolverine’s life. The film is wildly predictable; first ten minutes we get his discovery of the claws, a while later we start to set up Sabretooth (here Victor) as the villain, start of the Weapon X program, Wolverine breaks loose, big fight with Victor, end movie. The problem is that they felt the need to show everything in his early life, with little effort to show what leads up to anything. It’s hollow and paint-by-numbers, if they created something like that for scripts. I think everyone wanted to see the Weapon X program and how it pertains to Wolverine’s life. It’s treated as an after thought like much of everything else in the film. For my money, the handling of Weapon X and Wolverine’s past was handled well better, even in its brevity, in X2: X-Men United.

Remember how awful it was to see in Spider-Man 3 the handling of Venom and how they shat him out on screen and how they tied Sandman’s character into the development of Spider-Man’s origin? It happens in this film with Deadpool and Cyclops. Deadpool is one of those characters where people either love him or don’t understand why he’s a fan favorite. He’s handled worse than Venom was in Spider-Man 3, sadly, because you know Fox is dying to franchise this character. He’s nothing like the fans loved and the casting of Ryan Reynolds seemed ideal for his physique and attitude, but he’s given jack and shit to do and jack left town. Plus, he was an ability that is so cringe-worthy, I automatically feel sorry for his fans. Cyclops is pointlessly here, except for one aspect that relates to what I’m complaining about. Don’t get me started on Blob. Its corny, and he’s in the film’s worse sequence. In fact, the scene is so bad, I wished I could have run into the projection booth and trimmed his scenes from harming future audiences.

The few things they did get right is Sabretooth, nicely played by Mr. Schrieber, an actor I thoroughly enjoy every time I see in a film. He captures the right level of good friend, better enemy to Wolverine as well as the right amount of menace and villainy. It’s almost a shame to think how weakly Sabretooth was handled in the first X-Men film, since Schrieber gives a fun performance. Of course, Hugh Jackman is great, although the script never gives him the rage or the beast he needs. He seems to mellow what happens to him. Gambit is cool here too, even though his character is a plot device.

I think there was a few nice ideas within this mess, to hopefully build into the eventual sequel. The script is so generically written from dialogue to set-up, to themes of the character, that it leads to immediate disapproval from the true fans, and offers little on what non-fans knew from the previous X-Men films. The movie leaves us with two laughable scenarios: one I cannot reveal since its a spoiler but it doesn’t work as well as it should have, and the second is they almost forgot the Wolverine loses his memory. They’re answer to how he does, well, let’s just say, they put a bullet into this reviewer’s head instead.

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