X-Men Origins: Wolverine totally misses the “origins” mark, but delivers an exciting dark ride through Wolverines (Hugh Jackman) history. The thin plot and lack of truly “origin” substance, is made up by Hugh Jackmans believable performance as the undeniably sexy Wolverine. Assisting the film are several action packed fight scenes and one unpredictable twist in the end. We get under-developed characters (unlike Rogue) and suprisingly lame special effects, but then again, it is a comic book prequel to the 4th generation..come on..what were we expecting? I liked it..YES, it could have been much better, but still it had my home theater system humping.
Wolverines “Origins” begins in the early 1800’s where as a youngster James (later known as Wolverine) unknowingly kills his real father and discovers his good friend is actually his brother. Director Gavin Hood, completely skims over the core sequence of Jimmy’s childhood, which would have been fine if the title of this movie hadn’t included the word “origins.” So we don’t find out if the dad was a mutant, why Jimmy wasn’t living with his father, or any significant childhood experiences, except that Victor & James find their place as killing machines in the military. The credits then roll over a hundred years of various battles, including the civil war, world war I, and the Vietnam war, showing James and Victor storming one violent frontline after another, providing lineage as to how Wolverine is such a bad ass fighter, I suppose. Here, we experience Victor evolving into Sabretooth (Live Schreiber) who begins to savor the flavor of killing, and witness James battle to try and keep his violent brother in check.
Next, Logan and his brother Victor are forced to join forces with the ruthless Col. Stryker (Danny Hudson), who leads an elite, top secret military mutant unit including teleporting Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.I.Am, electricity manipulator Charlie (Dominic Managhan), and my favorite witty sword packing character, Wade (Ryan Reynolds). Logan becomes disgusted by the atrocities, they are asked to mindlessly perform, and therefore ditches the team disappearing into the woods, leaving his blood-thirsty brother behind. We catch up with our mutant hunk, six years later working as a lumber jack in Canada and living with his school teacher hottie girlfriend (Lynn Collins), who is perfectly casted for the roll. I bought in to their relationship, and it was truly the only portion of the movie that made sense and didn’t have giant contradicting holes. This relationship is the driving force as to why Jimmy,James, Logan ultimately agrees to undergo the procedure that bonds adamantium to his skeleton and gives birth to Wolverine as we know him today.
Ultimately, like I said, I enjoyed it mostly for the Surround Sound experience in my home theater. The action, explosions, and fight scenes delivered an unmemorable mark on the X-Men franchise, but is a great BluRay rental. I am most disappointed at the severity of the violence and the over-all darkness of the movie, which kept me from allowing my daughter to watch it with me. We really had enjoyed the previous three together, but she won’t see this one for some time. Bummer.
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