X-Men Origins: Wolverine
There are certain movie franchises that have a built in audience, giving filmmakers a little more wiggle room with regard to quality. Superfans will forgive quite a bit just to see their favorite characters on the big screen, which explains why so many films become franchises in the first place. That fan-forgiveness can only go so far before it starts to turn in on itself. Video game based films are notorious for this, but more recently, we’ve started seeing a down-turn in comic book adaptations. It’s sad to see a fan favorite like Wolverine fall to such depths.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the 4th X-Men film to date, and likely the first in a series of “Origin” stories centered around one particular character. Boldface around the ONE character because instead of focusing in on Logan (a.k.a Wolverine), we get an amalgam of origin stories totaling around 10 additional mutants. This was the problem with X-Men 3, in that writers decided to throw every mutant that ever appeared in the comics at film-goers all at once. In a nutshell, we’re introduced to the relationship Wolverine has with arch enemy Sabretooth as it began in the 1800s. I’m going to throw in a spoiler of sorts here, but it does a good job at illustrating how the story jumps around in spite of itself. Very early on, we see a young Logan, lying in bed with a fever, being comforted by his father who looks strikingly similar to Hugh Jackman. A confrontation occurs shortly thereafter revealing that another man (who looks striking similar to Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth) is actually Logan’s father. Would someone like to explain why the son looks so much like the man who ISN’T his father?
Speaking of character flaws, I should mention I had few expectations going into this. I liked the first 2 X-Men and barely stomached the third, but got just a little giddy when I found out my favorite mutant, Gambit, would appear. For the uninitiated, Gambit has the power to transfer a caustic, unstable kintetic energy to anything he touches. He’s also versed in the stick fighting arts, but he’s isn’t otherwise endowed with super strength or agility. Being a card shark from New Orleans, Gambit’s modus operandi is to charge ordinary playing cards and throw them with explosive results. Apparently not enough for filmmakers, this Gambit can float cards with his mind and fire them off in rapid succession at his opponent without actually touching them. Oh, plus he can whip his cane around his head fast enough so as to act as helicopter blades and help him descend gingerly from otherwise dangerous heights. Not to mention being able to thrust his staff into solid brick, hand-over-hand to scale a building.
So now, you’re probably saying “but you’re a geek, a fan with particulars about how you wanted to see the character portrayed”. Okay, maybe I’ll grant you that, so let’s talk visual effects for a moment. When one talks about Wolverine, the first thing that comes to mind is his defining characteristic: Claws. Shiny, super strong metallic knives that protract from Wolverine’s hands to help him dice up enemies. I’m told that in every scene, the claws were computer generated. No prosthetic was used. That wouldn’t be a problem necessarily, but the fact is they looked awful. For months I’ve been saying that the temporary effects used in the commercials and trailers were particularly bad. I had no idea they were in fact the final effects used in the film. The blades look dull, detached and plain cartoony in some scenes, particularly during a scene where Logan is calm and contemplating what they are for the first time.
Along those same lines, the green screen work is amateurish at best. Live actors were not blended in well to their CG backgrounds and it showed. The reverse is true as well, when actors were actually CG representations for stunt work. I haven’t seen digital acting this bad since the first Hulk movie.
I’m not all about the hissing and booing though. Jackman’s portrayal of the troubled, but sarcastic loner is on par with the previous X-Men outings and there were plenty of humorous moments that gave him a chance to crack wise that got laughs from the audience. Unfortunately, that’s all the positives I can muster.
For the most part, X-Men Origins: Wolverine does its job to lay out the whys, wheres, whos and hows to Wolverine’s past, but it just wasn’t all that entertaining. Its $87 million opening weekend probably won’t deter Fox from doing another one, but Wolverine’s back story is arguably the most compelling of the comic-book world and in this case, it’s been rendered mediocre at best.
Oh… and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool? Sorry, try again. Plus make sure you stay during the credits for a bonus scene that features some of the cheesiest lines ever spoken in a dialogue that had no place in the movie to begin with.
