Certainly when the audience walked through the doors of the theatre on May 1 st see Wolverine they did not know what they were getting. Directed by Oscar winner Gavin Hood, a man with a penchant for making “movies that matter”, this movie is about morality, social change, politics, military initiatives and, most importantly, brotherhood. In short, it’s a comic book movie. And a really good one.If there is anything that will anger the comic book geeks in this movie, it will be the plot. Taking its queues from a very recent book called, surprise, Wolverine: Origins, it tells the back story to Logan that the audience had never seen before. Logan is actually James Logan, a young boy in the 1700s with special abilities. After a traumatic incident, in which he discovers that his slightly older friend Victor is really his brother, and they run away together. We follow them through the years, using their special abilities to fight in the world’s many wars until finally they are discovered for what they are – superhuman. Enter Colonel William Striker with an offer, come work for a new government agency and put those special skills to good use. Victor and Logan do, with mediocre results. After a particularly upsetting and telling incident with Victor, Logan goes rogue (pardon my pun, geeks), but you don’t get to just walk away from a secret government agency…
Definitely there are a lot of problems with this movie – and few of them have to do with the continuity or character related issues the geeks will surely have. The CGI is terrible. The action is hokey and stagey. Many of the best characters are underused, but all of this is marginally forgivable because the character development and interaction is so good. Unfortunately, I’m certain that Gavin Hood was the best person to direct the personal interaction portion of this movie, but I’m just as certain that he is not the man to direct an action movie. From what I understand, however, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Rumors from the set spoke of meddling by Fox and Marvel Studios and, in essence, the killer action portion of this movie never really had a chance.
I enjoyed Hugh Jackman again as Wolverine and I thought it was nice to see him be a little bit more than his gruff, scrappy self. My favorite thing in this movie was undoubted the “character development by hairstyle” in which James Logan simply has unruly hair and by the end a combination of action and, I suppose gel, has styled him into a full on wolf. I think Liev Schreiber, an actor who has long been overlooked for his immense talent, was the perfect person to play an only slightly conflicted Victor Creed with few scruples, but a strong sense of who he is. I can honestly say that the more I see of Danny Houston the more I enjoy him. A man with an incredibly long career and a serious amount of talent, at this point, I’ll pretty much watch him in anything. The rest of the peripheral cast including Dominic Monaghan, Will i Am, Kevin Durand, Lynn Collins and, last but certainly not least, Ryan Reynolds were all great in their supporting roles. The standout, however, was Taylor Kitsch as Gambit. Not because he was particularly well portrayed but because he was just so damn cool.
I feel it’s important to note that I myself am a pretty big geek and, as a result, I do hold a number of geek opinions about this movie – as I do about every comic based movie I’m invested in. Regardless of what those opinions are, I felt that these characters, many of which I have loved for a long, long time, have been sufficiently reinvented for the screen. It’s important, as a geek, to remember that the thing that makes you love comics is the variation on the theme that each new take, new book and new writer or artist provides. No one would continue reading if it was always just the same, never straying from the course. So, I ask the geeks of the world to forgive this movie its faults, both technical and story based, and embrace it for what it is – an awesome summer romp in which a man with metal claws that extend from his hands and his team of mutants save the world, one more time.
Images above from Marvel.com
Well, while my opinions are also tainted by being somewhat of a comic book geek, I came to a different conclusion than you. The plot did not draw me in at all, and for a movie with Origins in the title it really didn’t explain Wolverine’s beginnings very well. Going to have to go straight to the source material for that. Also, I guess I was a bit annoyed with the liberties they took with some of the characters, especially Deadpool. The announced spin-off will supposedly be going back to his true character traits, though. I also agree that the CGI and action scenes left something to be desired.
What I do think was great was the casting and acting. Schreiber, Huston, Reynolds, and Kitsch were great in their supporting roles. Jackman…well, I think I’m growing tired of his Wolverine, honestly. This is the fourth movie we’ve seen him in after all.
Still, it was a good movie to sit back, watch, and not think too much about. It pretty much met my expectations, which weren’t that high to begin with. Hopefully you’ve seen Star Trek to experience the first real blockbuster of the summer.
I have totally seen Start Trek, I just don’t know what to say about it, which is why I haven’t reviewed it yet. A review filled with “OMG! It’s SOOOOOOOO good!!!” would be fun, but not so much what my readers are looking for I think. Unfortunately, like I said, the movie is based on a book by the same name, which does only marginally more to explain the whole thing. Bottom line, he’s a mutant and he’s born like that. But I think the more important thing to focus on here is that the movie was actually titled “X-MEN Origins: Wolverine”. So really it’s just an opportunity to introduce a whole bunch MORe characters that Marvel Studios thinks that you’ll want to see. Trust me, even though they’ve greenlit a Deadpool movie, I’m not really interested. Not in the incarnation they’ve given me… although they’ll likely ret-con all that out.
On the Jackman front, I’ll have to disagree. I never get tired of watching Hugh Jackman do anything… but then that’s likely for a very different reason.
I had a blast with Wolverine, and was very relieved it wasn’t the dire, lkegacy betraying crapfest that X-Men 3 was. Sure, there are things I would have liked to have seen done different, but not to the same extent as X3, and the good far outweighed the bad for me.
But of courser – it was no Star Trek.
Yes, well, even Gavin Hood can beat The Rat.
[...] X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Mired in issues, leaks, studio involvement and development issues, I thought that it turned out pretty well. The much anticipated origin story of Wolverine – the one character Marvel has chosen to focus on from X-Men – came the movie most people thought they should have made after the first X-Men. Despite significant technical issues, the movie still stood on what it should have stood on – its story. A story that, while relatively new to the Marvel Universe and pissed off most extreme fanboys, was an excellent character study made perfectly for telling an origin. Bottom Line: Mostly Awesome. Original review here. [...]