X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (C)
I am going to start off this review by saying that this movie will be number one at the box office this weekend. Guaranteed. I saw a midnight showing and it was packed to the gills with X-Men fans, interested movie goers, and morons. What is it with dudes in packed movie theaters saying the stupidest things possible to try and make the theater erupt in laughter?? Does it give them solace to say something they think is funny? But in reality most of us just wish their mother aborted them...
Ok, enough with the morons watching the movie, lets actually talk about it. Well before that, the Transformers 2 trailer before Wolverine was definitely the best thing showed on the screen all night. It is the best Revenge of the Fallen trailer yet, and had me drooling in anticipation.
I did not go into Wolverine with high expectations because I was not a real huge fan of any of the previous X-Men movies, especially one of the worst movies ever made...The Last Stand. With that in mind, I was impressed with Wolverine; because it was a far cry from the previous three.
This film takes us back to the origins of Wolverine, or James as he is known all the way back in his childhood in the 1800's. In James' childhood we meet his brother who is also immortal, Viktor; or as most of us know him, Sabertooth. The movie starts off with a montage watching the brothers fight in all the American conflicts from the Revolutionary war up to Vietnam.
Sabertooth and Wolverine are recruited to join an elite team of mutants carrying out objectives for the government. The conflict begins as Wolverine decides to leave the team, and start a new life in Canada with one of the most gorgeous women in world know as Silverfox. (Lynn Collins, below) Of course the life of a lumberjack is not for this mutant, and his past catches up with him costing the life of his loving spouse.
Wolverine then decides to have a near indestructible metal alloy adamantium fused with his skeleton to assist him in his vendetta to avenge his wife's death. From there Wolverine is assisted by other mutants in the X-Men story like Gambit, The Blob, and John Wraith. He then uncovers a devious plot from the government to create the ultimate mutant, code named Weapon XI. Deadpool is how we know him. From there we go to the ultimate showdown, blah blah blah...roll credits.Strange thing about Ryan Reynolds being credited for the character Deadpool, because he only plays the part for 15 minutes in the beginning of the movie. When Deadpool reemerges at the end, it isn't even Reynolds playing the part anymore...What is going on there??
The surprising thing about this film, it was actually comical in many parts. I laughed a few times from the well written dialogue between the characters. The script overall though was modest. It took awhile for the movie to really get going, but picked up about 20 minutes in. The main characters had some background development on Wolverine and Sabertooth, but then the script leaves everyone else out.
The action scenes were dynamic and interesting to watch. There was plenty of them too. I was a little disappointed however, because the action felt over the top in way too many of the scenes. I know it is mutants, but it was ridiculous at times.
None the less, the battles between Wolverine, Sabertooth, and Deadpool were well done (minus some sub par CGI). Another thing that bothered me was Wolverine sticking fools left and right, and not one drop of blood on his three claws. Pathetic if you ask me, even PG-13 deserves blood.
The acting was good throughout, and that helped the movie stand out from the other three X-Men movies.
The direction by Gavin Hood was as basic as it could get, and was really one of the flaws in the movie. How many times are we going to get the same enraged Hugh Jackman shot with him flexing his outstretched claws??
I can only describe this next feeling as almost similar to that of Spider-man 3. Too many mutants were used in the story, when a group of well developed ones would have worked much better. Many X-Men fans were pumped to finally get their first look at Gambit, but in the film he was like an after thought. The same can be said for featured characters like Cyclops, The Blob, Bolt, and even the ultimate mutant Deadpool needed more screen time.
Throughout the film I noticed a lot of small flaws that I will not go into. It did not destroy the plot or the story overall, but it did hurt the integrity of the film. (watch when Wolverine is soaking wet after getting his adamantium skeleton, next scene he is standing over a cliff side...dry)
Overall, I did like the film Wolverine; but it could have been done better. I have been a fan since childhood, so some bias comes into play. You don't need to be a comic book buff to enjoy it, and I do recommend anyone who is a fan of movies to check it out. If you do see Wolverine, make sure that you stay past all the credits for a bonus scene that puts a cherry on top. (not to mention the brief cameo in a card game from none other than Daniel Negreanu)
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