Thursday
30Apr2009
Movie Review - 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'
Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 10:36PM | X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, and Ryan
Reynolds  |
There is not a great deal that’s special about X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The
packaging is slick and eye-popping and Hugh Jackman knows this character backwards and
forwards, but it simply feels confined by its formula, both as a film following the three-act dramatic structure
and as a product quite purposefully placed in the pole position of the summer movie season.
At his core, Wolverine has a simple duality: He resists the urge to be an animal while realizing that the only way
to mete out justice is to give into his primal, mutant side. That doesn’t work in this movie, because it’s too
afraid to go to the darkest corners of Wolverine’s heart and mind and because parts of the character’s origin story
are already familiar.
Remember the first X-Men movie? Its strength was the Wolverine storyline, but curiously, that’s among the
weaknesses of the movie principally about Wolverine. To Jackman’s credit, he is somehow bigger than the script even
without an ounce of memorable dialogue and only a smattering of action scenes.
Wolverine gets in trouble where most otherwise worthy comic book movies trip themselves up: There are just
too damn many characters. Look at what it did to Spider-Man 3 and the rushed last half-hour of The Dark
Knight. The beauty of the comic book format is that it’s serialized, so incredibly cool and unique heroes and
villains can come and go as the creators see fit. A movie doesn’t have that luxury, and entire arcs have to exist
for characters who affect the action in any significant way. If not, audience members ask, “But what happened to
that one guy? Where’d he go?”
Reader Comments (4)
Damn you Boyd! Damn you and your writing style that keeps me coming back for more!!! You're right of course about too many characters with precious little to do but serve as sidebar distractions. Such is my fear for the Avengers if it ever comes to fruition. At any rate, Wolverine is one of the must see films of the year so I'll snikt my way through to see it.
nice review. I feel the same way about it. I made a quick review at my site.
http://saywhatsreal.com/wordpress/?p=3168
i thought Liev Schreiber in particular did an awesome job from all the way through; he brought some genuine acting prowess to the whole production
bit short and clustered in all honesty...a wolverine film should be an 18 with pure violence and exploring the recesses of wolverines feral mind instead of the watered down film versions we see