X-Men Origins: Wolverine (**½)

Directed by: Gavin Hood
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will.I.Am, Daniel Henney, Lyn Collins, Kevin Durand, Dominic Monaghan, Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Reynolds
Seen: April 29th 2009

**½ Out of ****

Just two years ago, this would have been a great superhero movie, but unfortunately for Gavin Hood, Jon Favreau and Christopher Nolan came along and made Ironman and The Dark Knight, the two films that changed the comic book genre to more than cheap thrills and quick entertainment. Make no mistake, Wolverine is still a good movie, competently made by a director completely new to big action (his earlier prominent films include Tsotsi and Rendition).

The year is 1845 and James Howlett sees his father murdered by Victor Creed’s father. In the rage of the moment, James’ bone claws protrude from his hands and he kills Victor’s father, who, with his dying breath, tells him that he is actually his father, which makes him Victor’s brother. The two go on the run together, as Victor thinks their father deserved his death, and as both of them are different. As they run, the film’s very impressive opening credits start up, and they tell the story of the two brothers fighting side by side in all the major wars since the late 1800’s. James grows up into John Logan, or Wolverine (Jackman), and Victor becomes the bloodthirsty Sabretooth (Schreiber). To an increasing degree, Logan has to keep Victor in check, as his violent nature rages through his humanity more and more, and after both of them are sentenced to death by firing squad (which they survive, of course), they are approached by William Stryker (Huston) to join his team of elite mutants. Other member of this team include Fred Dukes/The Blob (Durand), Kestrel (Will.I.Am), Bolt (Monaghan), Agent Zero (Henney), and the always talking/wisecracking Wade Williams (Reynolds). The team are a bit on the wrong side of moral law for Logan’s tastes, and he abandons them.

Six years later, Logan is living in Canada with his girlfriend Kayla (Collins), and working as a lumberjack (and he’s OK). But his past is hunting him, and when Kayla is murdered, by Victor, Logan goes for revenge. He undergoes the procedure which makes him the indestructible Wolverine, and goes a-huntin’, which makes for a lot of action scenes along with quite a strong story. But there are points where the writing and sequencing let the entire production down to such a degree that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. For instance, as a big character is bleeding to death, this character actually uses the phrase: “I’m so cold”. I wanted to shoot said character myself at that point. The conclusion is also on you a bit quickly, as you go from massive action set-piece almost straight into the credits with only a miserly few minutes of wind-down.

The film is great fun and good looking however, and I might even see it a couple more times one day, just don’t go expecting another Dark Knight scale superhero film, rather a bit of great popcorn entertainment.