Anthony Ricardi‘s review of…
What’s in a title? Sometimes the key indicator of just what’s wrong with an entire film… In this case, the unwieldy handle this flick carries connotes the movie working against itself in an attempt to deal with the earliest incarnation of the X-Men (it’s a prequel), but also to serve as an examination of the history of that group’s most troubled member, the irascible Canook Cuisinart, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Problematically, the film also tries to cover several other subjects, all of which detract from the core story – which is the relationship of Logan/Wolverine with his half-brother and fellow mutant (but in this movie, who isn’t a mutant of one sort or another?) Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber). Jackman goes a long way towards imbuing Wolverine with a range of emotions (not simply anger), but even with all his talent and charisma, his struggle is ultimately doomed by the movie around him, which is consistently inconsistent and distracting in terms of setting any type of tone. Schreiber is also on-the-edge good, putting out just the right vibe of menace that a sadistic wildman like Sabretooth should project… but, once again, this often subtle (believe it or not) performance gets lost in the shuffle of carnage, CGI and concussive explosions (not the best venue for nuanced character acting).
Our saga (and this time it really is one) begins in 1845, in the Province of Canada, where we meet the scrawny, sweaty, bed-ridden child James Howlett (also known as Logan) and his big half-bro, the surly Victor. James becomes horrified witness to the slaying of the man he believes is his father. This trauma and the resultant rage causes his latent mutant powers of regeneration (he gets well, fast – and ages very slowly) and boney claw growth to manifest, allowing him to exact hasty revenge for the first time. Revenge is a constant, running (actually, running at one another, full tilt) theme throughout the film, with Logan pitted against Victor, over and over and over again. However, at this nascent stage of the story, the duo are as close as brothers can be, bonded by their mutual mutations, and a shared, primal bloodlust. Turns out that Victor has most of the same powers his half-brother has, except he has some long, nasty nails instead of claws, extended canines and he is a bit stronger. Victor is also eeeevil, as we shall see…
There follows a wordless montage showing the rather logical progression of Logan’s and Victor’s lives, as both choose to enlist in the army and fight (good for releasing those pent-up ya-ya’s) in a progression of this nation’s wars, side by side. From the Civil War (both Durn Yankees), to WW1 and WW2 (how is it possible to have a film that is based in the Marvel universe, has scene of D-Day in it and not at least have a cameo by Captain America… c’mon) to ‘Nam (we don’t see every conflict – Korea, for example – but it is assumed they were in every one) the brothers run rampant, violating both codes of conduct and military regs regarding excessive facial hair. It is in Vietnam that the first schism between the formerly inseparable sibs occurs, when Victor goes out of what passed for control on his part, and kills his commanding officer with Logan attempting to stop him. Both Logan and Victor are then “executed” by firing squad (good luck with that), regenerate and are recruited from the guard house by the mysterious Colonel Stryker (Danny Houston) to join his squad of mutant mercenaries.
This initial group of ‘muties’ (Team X) would have (and probably should have) been enough for any movie (later on we start to lose count of the number as more and more are introduced). They are a charming bunch; a brutal, amoral and highly effective cadre that can overwhelm just about any opposition (sort of a Dirty Half-Dozen with superpowers). There are, besides Logan and Victor, the merc with the mouth, charismatic and cocky blademaster Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) – who will become fanboy fave Deadpool, the wry, low-key teleporter, John Wraith (Will i Am) – aka Kestrel, the nearly invulnerable Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand) – who will pack on the poundage later, becoming The Blob, ruthless, pistol-totin’ marksman David North (Daniel Henney) – Agent Zero, and the quiet channeler of static electricity Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan) – codename Bolt… (please don’t sue, Disney). When Team X (particularly Victor) starts executing villagers to obtain info on a mission to Africa, Logan reaches the limit he never knew he had, and literally walks away from the merc lifestyle. This is the final straw that separates the brothers along moralistic lines, and will later set up the perfect superhero/supervillain arch enemy thing… Too bad so much other intervening stuff has to go down between the bro-battles..
Returning to Canada, Logan hides out for the next six years (which appears to be about six months in terms of his aging process) working as a logger (“I’m an X-lumberjack and I’m OK…”) and building a relationship with the sensuous, spiritual Kayla Silverfox/Silver Fox (Lynn Collins), who stops the movie dead in its tracks with her cooing blather. Domestic bliss doesn’t translate to audience bliss as fever-dreams, felled logs and flannel are not arresting imagery in a super-flick. Thank goodness Victor/Sabretooth (and what remains of Team X) shows up to shake things up. You see Victor has been a busy, be-fanged, boy, killing off former members of his old team who, like Logan, attempted to drop that line of work. Hey, you don’t quit Team X… they quit you. Thus begins a slam-bang series of scenes culminating with Logan actually volunteering to rejoin Colonel Stryker so as to undergo a procedure that will enable him to finally take out his bigger, nastier brother – Stryker’s goal; to turn him into Weapon X. Logan endures the unendurable as his skeleton is infused with that only-in-a-comic-book compound Adamantium (even dying, a little bit) and he emerges as fully complete, almost impossible to kill, metal-clawed Wolverine. Then things go downright berserko in an instant when yet another betrayal is discovered (man, our hero gets NO breaks in this one, except a boney claw or two, that is).
Many (too many) adventures follow from this point, and along the way Wolvie meets/fights/allies with the criminally suave, gambling ladies mutant Remy LeBeau, aka Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) who is far from the kitschiest thing in this one, actually. Eventually, in the final act on Three Mile Island (which everyone knows is a secret lab for mutant experimentation) we run into Sabretooth again and a severely modified former member of Team X, now known as Weapon XI. Most entertainingly, we also get to see the X-men when they were kids, having been gathered from around the world and now being used as little mutant lab rats. These kids are a movie in and of themselves(especially Kid Cyclops, who can bring it, even in his tender, formative years), but they get no decent screen time. And here is the problem…
As is so often the case, we have enough material for at least two (possibly three) flicks.
The best movie to cull from all that goes down would be the tortured Logan story, the existential journey of a man from venal bestiality to full, selfless humanity, with his brother/rival always at his heels attempting to drag him back down to the primal depths. The mood would be consistently dark, brooding, menacing. Even though this critic prefers his superheroes as old-school paragons, this loner’s odyssey approach would have worked for the persona of Wolverine. Look what it did for the Dark Knight.
Or…
Go the slam-bang pyrotechnic popcorn thrill ride route, giving the plethora of supporting mutants and their powers even more screen time and putting the other X-flicks to shame. Either Deadpool or Gambit could easily fill the gaps in the film as it exists, Ryan Reynolds being particularly interesting (and, blessedly, funny) but like so much thrown against the wall in this one, ultimately wasted. As was stated, the X-youngsters were intriguing, but we barely scratched the surface of their potential. One glimpse of a frozen Nightcrawler wasn’t so much fun as it was frustrating…
“Wolverine” OR “X-Men: Origins…” one or the other.
In this case, as so frequently happens, the filmmakers wanted it all, tried to have it both ways… and succeeded at neither.
Now that’s something to get torqued about, Wolvie.
Bottom Line: Competently directed but still occasionally dull and meandering, this movie is full of cluttering detail that only the fanboys will care about and that should have been slashed.
Critic’s Rating: C (for Claws)
Rated PG-13 (For intense sequences of action, violence, language, partial nudity)
[...] X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a major flop for the many fans of the property. Without going into too much detail, it was an all around bad film. A lot came together to make the greatly anticipated Wolverine movie fall flat, including a slew of small mistakes including, but not limited to, glittery diamond-skin, hot cyclops beams and inconsistencies in the length and width of Wolverine’s claws. All that being said, the $315 million grossed worldwide paints a very different picture. Wolverine was a great success to anyone receiving a check. Unsurprisingly, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool rose above everything else to make the first fifteen minutes of the film watchable. He was a bad-ass, smart-ass killer-for-hire and he sold Deadpool like no one else could. Considering the “commercial success” of Wolverine, plans for a Deadpool movie still exist. Hitflix asked Ryan Reynolds himself how the movie was coming and he responded with good news for Reynolds-Deadpool fans everywhere: [...]