X-Men Origins: Wolverine

As a kick-off to the summer movie season, X-Men Origins: Wolverine feels surprisingly slight. It's not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it memorable. It's up there on the screen, it kills two hours, then you forget about it. It feels like it should be plopped in the tail-end of the season, maybe late July/early August. After getting Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army last year, I expect a little more from my big screen superheroes.

Just as in the earlier X-Men films, Wolverine is once again played by Hugh Jackman. It's the role that made Jackman a film star, and he's as good in the role as he's always been, I guess. But there's something off here. As the title suggests, this is his character's origin story. We see how he discovered his mutant powers as a young boy, we see the beginnings of his relationship/rivalry with his half-brother Victor, who will eventually come to be known as the villain Sabertooth (played here by Liev Schreiber), and we see him battle in various historical wars over the various decades. We don't so much see these events, as gloss over them in a short montage that plays over the opening credits. The movie seems to be in a hurry to get to where it's going. Funny thing is, there's no need for it to hurry. There are surprisingly few action sequences for fans to look forward to (most have already been revealed in the film's trailer), and despite the brisk pace of the story, not a whole lot happens. It's also hard to build up tension and drama when the film's two major villains play major roles in the earlier films. Since this is a prequel, we already know the outcome when Wolverine faces off against them.

After a 10 minute run-through of "Wolverine: The Early Years", the movie cuts to the chase - Victor and him are approached by a military man named William Stryker (Danny Huston), who is putting together an elite team of mutants. Victor's blood lusting ways seem to fit right in with the group's militaristic and extreme agenda, but Logan (Wolverine's real name) grows distant from the group about five minutes after agreeing to join, and walks away. He tries to run from his past and lead a simple life as a lumberjack in Canada with his girlfriend, Kayla (Lynn Collins). Naturally, it doesn't take long for Logan's personal demons to catch up with him and destroy his attempt at leading a normal life. His quest for revenge will lead him through a thinly-plotted narrative, where he'll encounter various other mutants such as the grossly overweight The Blob (Kevin Durand), teleporting John Wraith (recording artist Will i am), and the wily gambler Gambit (Taylor Kitsch). Aside from Gambit, none of the additional mutants really have anything to do with the story. They're just mainly there for the comic fanboys to recognize and point at the screen when they pop up.

Despite focusing only on one character, instead of an entire team of characters like in the X-Men movies, Wolverine suffers from the same problem that's been with the franchise since day one - Too many throwaway characters who exist mainly to show off a special effect as they display their mutant power, then disappear. The screenplay by David Benioff (The Kite Runner) and Skip Woods (Hitman) seems to view everyone who enters the story with no more curiosity than you and I would view a rock on the street. Even Wolverine himself seems to get shafted in the character development department, especially since we learn next to nothing about his relationship with the kindly school teacher Kayla. She's introduced without warning or set up, and for someone who plays such a large role in his life and fuels a good chunk of the plot, we never become attached to her. Equally underdeveloped is the antagonistic relationship between Logan and half-brother Victor. Their dialogue exchanges usually revolve around icy one-liners and equally icy stares. With this kind of B-level treatment, it's easy to forget that Wolverine is an A-level character in the comics world.

That's not to say the movie is completely unwatchable. The action sequences, though nothing spectacular, are well shot and edited. Director Gavin Hood (Rendition), having no experience shooting action sequences, turned to executive producer Richard Donner (the Lethal Weapon films, 1978's Superman) for guidance. He obviously paid close attention, but a lot of the action sequences come across as highly generic or cliched. How many more times are we going to have to watch the shot of the hero casually walking away from the exploding vehicle or building, as if he doesn't notice it? And even though he seems to be going through the motions this time around (or maybe it's the fact that the screenplay gives him little meaningful dialogue), Hugh Jackman does his best to bring as much of his charisma as he can to his character. He at least manages to slip some dry wit into a few scenes. The rest of the cast may as well have been computer generated, given the amount of personality they display.

When the original X-Men film came out back in the summer of 2000, times were different. We expect more from our blockbusters than we did back then, and Wolverine often comes across as a relic of the past. The franchise needs to evolve and get a little bit smarter if it wants to rake in the big bucks longer than its opening weekend. I have a hunch this movie will be forgotten by a lot of people by the time July comes. Wolverine deserved better, and so do we.

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