Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Reynolds
Director: Gavin Hood
Writer: David Benioff (Screenplay), Skip Woods (Screenplay)
Hugh Jackman has shown a remarkable dedication to the character that made him famous, playing Wolverine in 4 X-Men movies and voicing him in 2 games. The problem is, this dedication can’t seem to pull an otherwise likable actor from being in a bad movie, and that’s really all X-Men Origins Wolverine is…a bad, bad movie.
The premise is to take the checkered past of Wolverine and stitch together a tale of intrigue and mystery. Unfortunatly, we’re left with something mediocre and sub-par. Hugh Jackman pulls off Wolverine with ease, and can you blame him? He’s been playing the character long enough to really get him. But then we get Liev Schreiber’s Sabertooth. Don’t get me wrong, Schreiber is a great actor, but come on…was Tyler Mane too busy to reprise the role from X1? There’s not even an attempt made to make the two characters close to each other, with XMO’s Sabertooth being sadistic, somewhat methodical and rather intelligent. Are we supposed to believe he became the angry, simple monster that showed up in the first X-Men?
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool? Forget it, he’s in the movie a good 10 minutes, and that’s Deadpool in name only. I won’t say what they’ve done, but quite frankly, they clearly have no idea what they’re doing with one of Marvel’s most popular characters. and instead have created a cannibalized abomination. Taylor Kitsch’s Gambit is…well, its Gambit. His role in the movie is barely there, and I don’t actually seem to recall any sort of a Cajun accent.
The plot is an attempt to make the most of the overly complicated Wolverine backstory, a huge mistake in my opinion. A lot of the character’s appeal has been his mystery, and despite it having been resolved in the comics, it still had a lot of potential for future movies. With the advent of XMO Wolverine, this mystery is now gone.
In short, this is a horrible attempt by FOX to create an origin story. This probably felt a little rant-y, and if it was, I’m sorry, but its just a disappointing attempt to create something that has so much potential to be so damn good! We know it can be, because we’ve seen it before with X-Men and X2.
There’s rumors abound already that this is going to lead to a Deadpool spin-off, and the Magneto Origins movie is supposedly still in the works, but if its anything like this one, its bound to be a flop.
Final Grade: F. After 2 hits and a mildly entertaining third entry, its time for the merry mutants to be rebooted or abandoned altogether.
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7 thoughts on “Review: “X-Men Origins: Wolverine””
Ouch, an F? Harsh! I enjoyed the movie, although I freely admit that my favorite part of it (other than naked Hugh Jackman leaping over a waterfall) was Patrick Stewart. That was seriously the best part of the movie for me, seeing Captain Jean-Luc Xavier of the USS School For Gifted Youngsters. Just for that, I can be happy. 🙂
Also, since Super Skrull Weapon XI “Deadpool” was not played by Ryan Reynolds, I’m pretending it wasn’t really Wade Wilson, but a weird clone thing. That makes me feel slightly better about it.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I had below zero expectations going in, and then BAM! Patrick Stewart, and the day was saved.
Patrick Stewart was a nice extra touch at the end, he’s easily the classiest part of the franchise.
As I mentioned above, my main problem is that we know this franchise can do better. It wasn’t necessarily bad until the scene with the Blob, which for me was when it all went down, until fake Deadpool/Weapon XI, which just destroyed the whole thing for me.
I’ve already been told that this happened because my expectations were too high, but seriously, I thought “X-Men: The Last Stand” was a decent enough popcorn movie. There were just too many things about this movie that didn’t add up to the quality (or continuity!) of this franchise, and it really made me loathe the movie.
Understandable. I felt the Blob scene was very weak. I felt overall there were a few weak spots within the story, but the good parts outweighed the bad for me. I really enjoyed the opening montage, I enjoyed the part with Gambit (even though I’m not really much of a Gambit fan). I agree that parts after Blob went downhill, but the action last battle with Weapon XI (while pretending he’s not Wade) was very entertaining, barring the interaction between Wolvie and Sabertooth. Also, I think the way they explained how Logan lost his memories was pretty decent, too.
And, well, Patrick Stewart! 🙂
Really? The whole adamantium bullets “his memories won’t grow back” thing? Because I’m fairly certain brains don’t work that way :
Well, actually, yes they do believe it or not! Memories are stored in brain cells; so if the brain cells containing memories are destroyed, those memories are lost. People who sustain traumatic brain injuries often suffer memory loss, sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent. In fact, sometimes if brain damage is severe enough, the person not only loses their memories but loses the ability to form long-term memories after their brain trauma.
The idea of the adamantium bullets was that the bullets would pierce his adamantium-lined skull and damage his brain; the brain cells destroyed by the bullet are regenerated because of Logan’s healing power, but there is permanent or long-term memory loss because even though his brain has healed, he suffered severe brain trauma. It actually makes a lot of sense.