Review: X Men Origins: Wolverine

First up, let’s take a roll-call of of things that would have made this film crap:

20th Century Fox? Check
Annoyingly bad CGI? Check
Different character relationships from the original trilogy? Check
Hugh Jackman? Check
Deadpool WITHOUT the wisecracks? check

My god, the horror!


On to the real review. Despite the points made above, these suspect elements form only a mild crappy backdrop to the film. Set to tell the story of how James Logan became “Wolverine”, we travel rapidly from his childhood to teaming up with several other mutants in mere minutes. The pace doesn’t let up from then on. The philosophy of the writes seemed to be “Right, how many people can we kill and how many things can we blow up in 107 minutes?” Because of this, a weak, if fun, plot ambles along without really providing for the viewers who have reached puberty.

Crash, slice, roar, boom, crash, slice, roar, boom. Getting bored reading that? Imagine WATCHING it. That’s unfair, it’s actually quite fun. Wolverine doesn’t try to labour under the pretension it’s anything but a popcorn blockbuster for people with half a brain (Unlike X-Men III: The Last Stand which took itself WAY too seriously.) Ryan Reynolds is perfectly cast as pre-op Deadpool. Liev Schreiber also makes his mark as Victor Logan, later Sabretooth.

Just to clarify, Sabretooth was in X-Men, the first film. However, he was played by a different actor and was NEVER Wolverine’s brother. I hate it when Origin stories refuse to keep canon!

The Sabretooth issue seems small, especially when I say he was done VERY well in this film. Better than in the original film. But it’s just the start of the problems. Deadpool, for instance. Like I said, Ryan Reynolds was cast PERFECTLY as the younger Deadpool. His dark, witty charm working well with the overall tone of the film. What do they do with him in the climax? Sew his damn mouth up. However, a Deadpool: Origins film is in production now so this niggle gets downgraded. Along with assuring everyone everywhere that by 2015, there will be no superhero ANYWHERE that won’t have had a film spin-off.

I admire XMO:W (abbreviation: the next big thing. or, if you prefer, A:TNBT) as it doesn’t even TRY to steer clear of the cliches and pitfalls that would destroy a lesser film. With its lack of pretension and commitment to nothing but carnage, it provides a fun, easy watch to start the rolling in of the Summer Blockbuster season. Next stop: Star Trek.

Rating: ***
Sequels: Deadpool and Wolverine II in production, also Magneto: Origins.
share on: facebook