Fox should be ashamed of themselves. Once again, Fox has gone and taken a big steaming pile of pooh on the floor and now, all I want to do is just rub Fox’s nose in it and yell, “Bad Fox, Bad! You’re a baaad Fox!”
In a spirit of full disclosure, I do have to confess up front that I am a bit biased towards this movie. I was a fan of Wolverine and the X-Men growing up and read the comic books. They were a large part of my childhood. So, when I say it feels like Fox went and took a big dump on my childhood, I actually do mean it from the bottom of my heart. With that said, I will attempt to speak my mind as clearly as possible and not rest solely on my past with the subject matter. However, it does and will factor heavily into my opinion of this movie.
As for the director, part of me wants to blame Gavin Hood and place a hex on his career, but I know that Mr. Hood has fought his own battles in the making of this movie. So, I am issuing a pardon to Mr. Hood and letting him slide on this one. On the other hand, I simply cannot allow myself to forgive the suits behind this debacle.
‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ at it’s core is not an entirely hopeless disaster. Even if I did not actually believe that, the overwhelming majority opinion of the audience exiting the movie last night was fair to positive. Considering this, I will admit that the movie had some cool scenes. I will also emphasize that I am NOT attempting to convince readers to pass on this movie. By all means, go see the film and decide for yourselves. All I’m saying is that there’s a good chance that ‘X-Men: Wolverine’ will end up on my Ten Worst Films of 2009 list.
The movie attempts to introduce Wolverine and his origins, beginning with him and Victor Creed as children. This portion is done well enough, as is the creative montage of the two characters fighting side by side through five wars during the opening credits. At this point, I still held hope for the movie being a success. After meeting Stryker, Wolverine and Victor join a special ops team and the story rolls along fine until Wolverine decides he has no interest in the killing of innocents and walks away. This is when the film gradually starts to fall apart.
Hugh Jackman is just fine as Logan/Wolverine, maintaining the same quality interpretation of my beloved superhero. Honestly, my only “minor issue” with Wolverine himself was that it seemed his claws were much more realistic looking in the X-Men movies than they are in this movie. Well, there’s that and then I wasn’t very pleased with how they chose to portray Wolverine’s initial adjustment to his new adamantium-laced claws. Wolverine comes off as a clumsy comic relief in the scene at the elderly couple’s home while fleeing Stryker.
Oh boy, now on to the rough stuff. I won’t bore the average reader by going as deep into the Wolverine lore as I would like to, but I’ll sum it up by saying this is a minimally accurate representation of Wolverine’s past and calling this an origin story is taking a huge creative license. Wolverine’s relationship with Silver Fox was done well enough, and I have to say the relationship and chemistry between Wolverine and Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth, even though he was never once referred to as such in this movie) was extremely well done. Liv Schreiber was actually great as Sabretooth (sorry, I can’t avoid using his true name) and captured the essence of what Sabretooth was becoming.
Let me give you a bit of advice… after seeing this movie, fast forward several years and realize Sabretooth has progressively become more of the animal, thriving on and craving the killing and losing his humanity at an exponential rate. Now, hit the pause button at the moment we are [re]introduced to Sabretooth in the ‘X-Men’ movies. Make more sense now?
Continue reading “Review: ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ – Travis’ Thoughts”
