X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Directed by: Gavin Hood
Written by: David Benioff, Skip Woods
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will.i.am, Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Monaghan, Kevin Durand, Daniel Henney, Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins
Back when it was first announced that Fox intended to make an X-Men prequel focusing on the origin story of Wolverine, it seemed like a promising, if not particularly surprising, idea. Wolverine is easily the most popular member of the X-Men among comic book fans, and out of all the characters, he seems to have the most compelling inner struggles and back story to draw from. With acclaimed art house director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) on board, along with screenwriter David Benioff (25th Hour, The Kite Runner), the movie appeared to be shaping up as a more intimate, character-driven superhero drama.
But then as more news started to come out about the movie, it went from being a solo spin-off to another bloated action movie that shoehorned in tons of unnecessary cameos. Skip Woods (Swordfish, Hitman) was brought in to rewrite the script, and suddenly we started to hear names like Gambit, Deadpool, The Blob, Emma Frost and Cyclops in the mix as well. The movie was officially retitled X-Men Origins: Wolverine to further emphasize the supporting cast. Despite all this, there was still one thing going for the Wolverine flick: Hugh Jackman. Could the hunky Australian and his sideburns overcome the odds and put on a riveting performance? Or would X-Men Origins: Wolverine simply fall prey to Spider-Man 3 syndrome?
The movie opens during Wolverine’s childhood, where we learn that he and Victor Creed (Sabretooth) are actually brothers. When their father is killed in front of them, Wolverine’s mutant power emerges and he and Victor run away together. In Vietnam, they are recruited into a secret group of mutant soldiers who run missions for William Stryker. Logan eventually decides that he has had enough of the killing and quits, moving up to Canada to make a peaceful living as a lumberjack, but a few years later, Victor comes looking for him. Stryker offers to help by giving Logan the opportunity to participate in an experimental program that will infuse his skeleton with the indestructible metal, adamantium.
Even if you think you know how Wolverine’s origin story is supposed to play out, there are probably more than enough plot twists here to keep you interested. That said, some of the twists don’t entirely make sense, and by the end of the film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine becomes just another comic book movie that requires you to check your brain at the door. I don’t get it. It should have been pretty straightforward, but I mean, let’s face it, any movie that has to make use of amnesia as a plot device to wrap things up definitely has issues. I am also pretty sure this movie goes against a number of things that are considered to be comic book canon (don’t even ask how he gets the name Wolverine… it’s just embarrassing).
What’s more, it doesn’t necessarily coincide with the other X-Men movies either. One big inconsistency is that the version of Sabretooth shown in this film a lot different from the one we saw in the first X-Men movie played by Tyler Mane. Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth is much more human, and even though he is sadistic and savage, he can still be reasoned with and as a result, never feels quite as dangerous. This is a problem because the movie doesn’t really have a solid villain. In fact, a lot of characters change sides a number of times, and after a while it becomes hard to know who you’re rooting for.
I will say that Liev Schreiber turns in a great performance, and together with Hugh Jackman he anchors the film and shields it from a lot of the other goofy stuff going on around them. The relationship and rivalry at the center of it all feels real when it needs to, even if the rest of the film kind of falls flat. It’s too bad someone felt the need to surround them with so many underdeveloped supporting players.
It’s pretty obvious that characters like Gambit, John Wraith, Cyclops, and The Blob were added as an afterthought, thrown in just to ensure that comic book fans would pay to see this movie. None of them add anything to the plot though, and each of them gets just one or two chances to showcase their powers before quickly being forgotten again. There’s no other way to say it: they were simply unnecessary. Even Deadpool, who plays a slightly bigger role because of his involvement in the Weapon X program, gets the shaft in this movie. Deadpool fans are not going to be happy with how much screen time he gets and how he ends up being portrayed. You could watch this movie and forget that Ryan Reynolds was even in it.
In the end, I did enjoy some of the action and special effects, but at times the backdrops felt a bit too digital and fake, not to mention Wolverine’s CG claws, which didn’t always line up with his hand. (I can only imagine what the leaked workprint version looks like.) Sadly the movie wears its PG-13 rating on its sleeves, and there are way too many fights with blades that leave no traces of blood anywhere.
I can easily say that this is the weakest of the X-Men movies to date, which is unfortunate because there’s no reason why it couldn’t have been great. If you’re just excited for the first blockbuster extravaganza of the season, you may get a brief adrenaline fix from this flick, but if you’re hoping for any sort of serious storytelling, stay far, far away. Unless of course, you plan on shooting yourself in the head with an adamantium bullet afterward. — Sean
SCORE: 
Recommended If You Like: First Blood, X2: X-Men United, Blade, Underworld
Comments (58)
I think you give away WAY too much of the plot in this review.
Posted by Henrik on May 1st, 2009You bring up a lot of good points. Liev and Hugh did hold this movie together. I don’t feel like it was as terrible as you make it sound, and there is no way that you can honestly say it was worse than X3. Also, if none of the cameos were in the movie, it would be 40 minutes long. I agree that if it was written diferently it wouldn’t need the cameos, but I really don’t feel like watching wolverine hack a bunch of random henchmen and sabretooth to shreds over and over for the entire movie. I love wolverine just as much as the next guy, but if the whole movie was only Sabretooth and Wolverine, it wouldn’t last very long. The fight would have to end some time.
Posted by Sam on May 1st, 2009All and all, good review. Have a little more mercy though.
“Could the hunky Australian and his sideburns overcome the odds and put on a riveting performance?”
Hugh Jackman can put on a riveting performance just by reading the phone book to me.
Posted by Ashley on May 1st, 2009Nice review. I agree that it did sound promising when it was in development, and I was actually looking forward to it. I’ve only seen the workprint and, holy shit, the movie is god-awful–beyond saving. It’s fundamentally flawed because, as you noted, the story is ludicrous. The acting ( besides Jackman and Schreiber’s almost mediocre performances) and dialogue are terrible. Wil i am or whatever needs to stick to being a shitty rapper; he was laughable in the movie. It’s sad because the Wolverine character has so much potential for an awesome movie.
Posted by dan on May 1st, 2009very good review. i totally agree with all your points. especially about deadpool, that really pissed me off.
Posted by rob on May 1st, 2009I liked Wolverine, like a 2.5 or 2.75/4, something like that.
If the XMen regular movies are albums, this is a bsides album, with the characters and stories we wouldnt otherwise get. You may recognize that theres a reason they are b sides, but if you like the band enough, you will be willing to spend time with it.
or some other clunky comparison. Look, I had low expectations, paid next to nothing, and had fun. I could nitpick it to death but it kept a good pace, had a good look, was funny, and the action was certainly decent at least. Maybe that doesnt sound like a strong recommendation and I wouldnt rush at all to defend it like how I was pissed at the Spiderman 3 “oh my god dancing!” whiners, but it certainly wasnt awful.
I mean seriously, how this is a 37% on Rottentomatoes but the Hulk remake was the inverse, a 73, is beyond me. This was way more entertaining, less predictable (thanks to a muddy plot!), had better lead performances despite everyone having the same powers, and yes, some charm. And a little charm can go a long way these days after so many comic book movies.
Posted by Goon on May 1st, 2009One comment about how the Xmen movies have been made
They expect you to know about the characters in order to pay attention, but they also expect you to be cool with how much they want to fuck around with them, their histories, their looks, their powers. Its a lot to ask, but I’m willing to give. If someone wants to complain about Deadpool go right ahead, but I don’t see what is so sacred about fucking Deadpool that you can just shit all over something because of it.
If thats really an issue, I can only cry Nerd.
Posted by Goon on May 1st, 2009Thanks for the comments guys. Just wanted to point out that 2/4 isn’t necessarily a terrible rating, it’s just a “take it or leave it” from me. I probably could have gone 2.25 in this case.
Henrik: Based on your comment I decided to revise the plot synopsis a bit. I still barely covered the first half hour of the movie, but I made it a bit more general.
Sam: I agree that without the cameos it would be a pretty short movie. The problem is that the cameos are pointless. Find this guy, fight him to get information from him, then find the next guy, fight him and get information from him, repeat. Also I actually liked X3.
Goon: You’re right, they don’t even tell you who half of the characters’ “superhero” names are. Clearly they expect the audience to know all these people going in.
Posted by Sean on May 2nd, 2009This was not the worst of the X-Men. But for true fans who had to suspend their fanboyness for the first three, you might say this was just a slap in the face. I figured that Marvel would have some of the say so in this one and would have learned from spiderman3 that too many characters can ruin a great story. There was a reason that the ORIGINS was made, it gave back story. They ate it like the Blob and as for Marvel, why wont you learn from your mistakes and from others successes. The Dark Knight was dark and dramtic. Wolverines past was just as terriable and shall we say fucked up as rich boy Bruce Wayne. Lets just hope that Marvel decides to go the way of the Batman serries and make 6 movies 2 good 1 fair 2 shitty and than come out with a blockbuster billion dollar smash hit and blow titanic out of the fucking water.
Posted by Theratpack on May 2nd, 2009“Hugh Jackman can put on a riveting performance just by reading the phone book to me.”
Why doesn’t anybody do that, make a short film where a great actor reads select parts of the phone book.
Posted by swarez on May 2nd, 2009“Just wanted to point out that 2/4 isn’t necessarily a terrible rating”
?
2/4 (or 5/10 as it were) on a report card would be a failure, wouldnt it?
There is no Batman dark dramatic movie coming, and anyone expecting it is probably being naive. I dont think you can do that when people have real powers. I love the new Batman movies, but I’m sick of how its changed how people expect any other comic franchise to be treated. It hasnt ‘risen the bar’ of quality, its just changed the presentation. But as it is, I thought Wolverine’s use of score actually took cues from Dark Knight, ever present, building, trying to be “epic” to the point it risks detracting from some scenes, and this film definitely looked different from the others, and not “dark” or brooding, and not necessarily ‘artful’ either, hard to describe, but it didnt look how i expected – i expected a much brighter dumb looking film that more accurately fit a movie with that many explosions.
Posted by Goon on May 2nd, 2009One more thing, and this applied to XMen 3 and I guess Spiderman 3 as well.
Fanboy ranting
You know what pisses me off about these fucking fanboys? They have no problem with the first or even second of these movies having limited references or villains, but then they sense there may not be many more chances for sequels to bring in characters they love. So they beg and beg and hypothesize for Gambit, or Beast, or Sentinels, or a Hellfire Club, or for Vulture, even Electro, just whatever you can toss in there…
…and then when they do add more characters to the film, they get exactly what makes sense would happen – they get less time with other characters they love more, perhaps dont even know who a couple of these new ones are, and some of those characters have to be retconned for continuity so their presence makes sense. I see it coming and expect it and maybe thats why I don’t mind it when it happens as much as some. But it pisses me off to still hear the same fanboys who wanted this to happen, be shocked and appalled when it does.
There’s been mentioned of Marvel not ‘learning’ from the success of Dark Knight and the “failure” of X3/Spideman 3.
I’d say if thats true, then the fans havent learned anything either. If you don’t want this to happen, stop flooding message boards and petitions with cries to finally get a film version of 6th level heroes and villains.
Posted by Goon on May 2nd, 2009I’m pretty sensitive when it comes to spoilers. I definitely think your revised version is much better though.
Posted by Henrik on May 2nd, 2009Oh, by the way, I may not have seen Wolverine yet (got a ticket though), but… This monday, 9.30 am, I will be seeing… Star Trek. How you like them apples?
(By the way, The Wrestler still hasn’t reached theatres here).
Posted by Henrik on May 2nd, 2009“Why doesn’t anybody do that, make a short film where a great actor reads select parts of the phone book.”
I wish they would! Put Hugh Jackman and Alan Rickman at the top of my phonebook-reading list.
Posted by Ashley on May 2nd, 2009they have done that its called: Gerry, The Black Dahlia, Magnolia, Dogville, Jarhead, M.A.S.H. and The Phantom Menace
Posted by rus in chicago on May 2nd, 2009Goon, I agree with you 100% on both comments. It’s like fanboys/fangirls want these movies to be exact interpretations of the comics, or worse, what’s in their heads. Movies *rarely*, if ever, do that…and they shouldn’t! It’s a movie. Different business than a book or comic. There’s only so much you can do with so much time, and like it or not, the rest of the world wants to enjoy these flicks, too. I loved Wolverine!
Posted by laura on May 2nd, 2009(This is Reed posting on Sean’s computer.)
Henrik, how are you getting to see Star Trek on Monday?
Posted by Sean on May 2nd, 2009De reason why Wolverine had memory problems is his healing factor not only fixes his physical wounds but also mental wounds too. SO if something traumatic enough were to happen to WOlvie, as in his dad getting killed at the tsrta of the movie, his healing factore will make the memories go away like in the comic.
Posted by Jean Guy Rubber Boot on May 2nd, 2009I think your review is 100% my feelings exactly, Sean.
Posted by Alicia Stella on May 2nd, 2009Too bad, but about what I figured. They really screwed up the X-men anyway. Deciding to phone in part 3 and just end it as they did. I mean this is the 4th movie with Jackman playing Wolverine and yet the continuity and the work done to develop the character is not being maintained. Sounds like another wasted effort by overly greedy and uncreative movie people trying extract the “good part” of a comic book series resulting in spectacle that is unsatisfying because it’s unearned.
Posted by Ian on May 2nd, 2009I wanted more funny Ryan Reynolds in it. I was like that’s it. That’s all the deadpool wade we get. I figured would do more like the Wolverine vs. Hulk weapon x kind of story the way they built up the characters.
Posted by Tommie White on May 2nd, 2009Ok, I figured I could throw in my $.10 here. I’ve seen the workprint and the finished copy and Marvel/Fox’s BS about the two being different is nothing but BS. The origin story is wrong, plain and simple. The addition of the ancillary characters only serves to take away from the fact that they made a pile of garbage that’s very cleverly disguised to make them a mint at the box office. I’m only hoping that some people read these reviews and don’t go to see it. Yes I’m a fan of the comic books and yes I am a bit of a purist and it can all be explained thusly … A comic book is a story board, follow the damn story board, create a great movie. Plain, simple, effective.
Posted by SoulChaserJ on May 2nd, 2009Reed: I am reviewing it for the university radio my man. Because I am such a big gun, the no.1 reviewer for the filmprogram of the copenhagen university station, I can get awesome things, like the monday morning screening of Star Trek. I have set goals (actually this dumped into my lap without my knowing, due to qualitative statements in arguments), unlike you, you lazy bastard of 40+.
Lately, I have struggled with goals. It is nice to achieve one. Set them low, and you will work towards something other people will respect you for. Or just stop when it’s enough for you.
Posted by Henrik on May 2nd, 2009“A comic book is a story board, follow the damn story board”
If we all listened to these people we’d have yellow spandex.
Posted by Goon on May 3rd, 2009Would yellow spandex not have been good? I’m sure if the comics were just treated as storyboards, in the hands of somebody who knew how to effectively use the visual medium (like Sam Raimi man), the movies would have been at least just as good, and at least just as successful.
Maybe the movies would have been better off, just replicating the books. Nobody knows. What everybody does know, is that it sucks when the movies are as bad as the rare bad comic books. Not to mention when they are on par with the extremely common horrible comics.
Posted by Henrik on May 3rd, 2009Although, not as great as the franchise but i found it entertaining nonetheless.
Posted by jeff on May 3rd, 2009I thought Liev stole the movie from Hugh. And I think Wolverine did treat Sabretooth like crap, I guess being brothers is a relative term to Wolverine. Liev is this movie, hands down, and he is sexier than the “the sexiest man alive” at least in this movie.
I did not like the actor playing Gambit. I wish it had been Val Kilmer, I guess he’s too old. And Wolverine’s girlfriend was awful! I don’t know if she’s had plastic surgery, but she has all the features that people get when they do have plastic surgery. horrible actress. And her sister with the diamond skin must have weighed 80 lbs. and 15 lbs. of that was her ears. Did gay men cast the women in this movie?
Posted by Ava on May 3rd, 2009yeah, Liev WAS great indeed, awesome performance on his part, but the movie also did a great job of tying the loose ends between this movie and the xmen movies, like the fact that cyclops doesn’t know wolverine because he had his eyes shut the wole time during the rescue, why gambit isn’t in any of the xmen movies, because he didn’t want to go with prof. X in the chopper, i guess the one thing that’s off is the fact that sabretooth doesn’t remember that logan is his brother as well, maybe he suffers from amnesia as well at some point after this one and X1, but the biggest issue I have with the love story line in this movie is the fact that we see Wolverine find Silver Fox “dead” in the woods, but later she explains she only appeared dead due to some kind of drug. But what the hell did Logan do after he found her??? didn’t he even bury her? did he just leave her there in the woods and ran off?? she would have been eaten by bears or something!!
oh yeah, and they didn’t show an absolute death for deadpool so he can come back at any time, how convenient!! He was scary nonetheless, but the wasn’t enough Ryan Reynolds, that’s probably the consensus anyway.
Bert
Posted by bert belgium on May 3rd, 2009“Would yellow spandex not have been good?”
I think it would’ve been as awkward as the Green Goblin mask.
As for the actor playing Gambit, I thought he was fine. To me though, Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost) seems like the natural Gambit, regardless of acting ability (though he’s become a somewhat better actor over the course of the series)
Posted by Goon on May 3rd, 2009Well, Spider-Man wears spandex and it works just fine for me.
Posted by Henrik on May 3rd, 2009I don’t know how anyone could like this film and think Spiderman 3, and Daredevil were bad films. I found this Wolverine film to be borderline embarrassing. Both Spiderman 3 and Daredevil are actually superior in every way. I also think X-Men 3 gets a bum rap because of all the Brett Ratnor hate. That was superior to this Wolverine movie also.
chuck
Posted by entertainmenttodayandbeyond on May 3rd, 2009I’d like to see Wolverine wear the black and brown threads he sports sometimes. I think that would be cool. And I don’t believe for a sec that outfit would look worse that for instance Superman’s outfit with the giant S on his chest.
In Dark Knight the dude’s wearing a bat costume and the movie was stone faced serious about it! It didnt hinder my enjoyment one bit.
@ To me though, Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost) seems like the natural Gambit
yeah… I really dont want to hear Holloway attempt a cajun accent. I predict disaster.
Posted by Rusty James on May 3rd, 2009“Well, Spider-Man wears spandex and it works just fine for me.”
Well, you’re not supposed to take Spiderman seriously as a badass.
Posted by Goon on May 3rd, 2009Honestly There Were Some Flaws in the film that bothered me
there was the relation ship with saber tooth even though in the book they aren’t really brothers and also that if they were sabertooth would have recognize hin in the first x men
they should have added more time for gambit and the squad
i feel like they rushed it a little bit and the romance wasn’t as god either
Posted by Squee on May 3rd, 2009@ bert belgium–I was wondering what he did with silverfox after he found her dead, too. When she came back I was like wtf? He just left her in the woods and immediately set out for revenge? Glaring plotholes like this are indicative of a ridiculous script and are, frankly, insulting to the audience. This movie sucked.
I think X3 gets a bad rap, too. I think it’s the best of the three. The problem with these movies is that there’s no time for character devlopment, and all of them feel rushed. They try to pander to the fanboys by throwing in all these characters, but that’s no excuse, and it’s not the fault of the fanboys. I mean, these are professional film-makers, right? The people involved with the wolverine movie actually have good resumes. What happened.
Posted by dan on May 3rd, 2009I thought this movie in hollywood terms was all about making a deadline and not a good movie. In places the effects were so badly rendered and executed that it looked amateurish not to mention the fact that there wasn’t just one fight between Sabretooth and Wolverine but THREE. Talk about unoriginality. Don’t get me wrong I like the charactor of Wolverine but honestly over half of the movie was already told in the other x-men movies. It was rehashing old plot points and adding nothing new to the mix. We all knew how he got his Adamantium skeleton from X-men two.
The addition of the sub charactors added nothing either except screen time. The script stinked of too many rewrites and no originality. The most interesting part for me was the opening title sequence.
Posted by MalD on May 4th, 2009somewhat agree with the review. the movie could have been better made. its definitely not the worst of the x-men movies (which were mediocre at best). but i do hate deadpool getting blades implanted in his arms, cyclops beams AND teleportation powers too which was outright ridiculous! that would make him on par with The Apocalypse! which is crazy i tell u cos apocalypse is suppos to be the most powerful thing in the x-men universe! and Gambit doesn’t look like gambit, he’s better casted as Angel. Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber were the saving grace of teh movie. and stryker too. and whats with the kiddy-pally logic of recent fox films?
Posted by BlackSmoke on May 4th, 2009The most disappointing aspect of the whole thing was Weapon X. There was such a lack of drama or atmosphere. The majority of the Wolverine mythos has been based around this horrible, traumatic, painful, bloody, downright disturbing incident which happened in his past…a mood Singer touched on in X-Mens 1 and 2 but this was rediculous. Logan fails find out anything before goi ng in there, Stryker calmly explains it, pushes a button and the whole thing’s over in about 5 minutes. I’ve had fillings which were more traumatic thn that. Then Wolverine kills about one grunt and falls off a cliff. Where was the corridoors lined with bloodied dead soldiers! Even in X2 he’s seen covered in fresh blood screaming…but no. Oh yeah, and he retained all his memories…*palm face*
Posted by Hoop The Super-doop on May 4th, 2009Not to mention Logan (where exactly did they stop calling him James) was a complete bore before loosing his memory, his only charcter trait being to subdue his frightfully more interesting brother. That adamantium bullet was the best thing that ever happened to the sap. In X-men 1 he’s an arsehole, which is how I prefer him!
You know, I’d say I enjoyed probably 70% of this movie. Opened pretty strong, got a bit convoluted, then ended on the worst note imaginable. I understand that you can’t take a comic book series that’s been running as long as the X-Men and directly translate those stories to film. I get that, and never expect it.
That being said, though, I have only one MAJOR criteria when judging a movie based on a comic book: BE TRUE TO THE CHARACTER, even if you aren’t being accurate to the original plot devices.
What they did to Deadpool was unforgivable, and on par with the treatment Bane received in that horrible, horrible, Batnipple-infested pile of fecal matter known as Batman and Robin. How the writers managed to make Deadpool both severely gimped AND overpowered at the same time is beyond me. Simply put, they raped and mutilated a character who has just as much depth as Wolverine, with a lot more humor.
In short, it’s an entertaining flick, but I won’t be buying it on DVD or Blu-Ray when it’s released.
Posted by Sean Olson on May 4th, 2009Deadpool’s charater was killed. He had absolutely best come back. What they did is, as Sean said, unforgivable… but there can be SOME small redemption. I felt raped of my money.
Posted by E on May 4th, 2009I felt that this movie was a huge let down. I would have thought nothing would be as bad as X3, or Spiderman 3, but when I sat though this movie I was constantly saying WTF!?!? because it was some really dumb and awkward moments. Also I dont believe that they should have put as many characters in it to extend this movie because they shouldnt have made the movie if it was gonna be that short………..they just really screwed up!!!!!!!!!!(but i just went to go see gambit)lol
Posted by Kyla K on May 5th, 2009Guys, writers should’ve at least respected the comic storyline. And please don’t flame the fanboys because they know there’s not much to change in the comic storyline so start with – to make the movie adaptation more gripping.
Look at these comparisons – If the scriptwriters read through the comics, here’s some good references:
Weapon X/Adamantium scene – ‘Weapon X’ by Barry Windsor Smith. (That comic alone is action packed )
‘Origin’ by written by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada and Paul Jenkins
Plus cripes… they could’ve read the first Wolverine Essentials compilation to get the story arc straight.
TBH, I’d take a Wolverine fanboy scriptwriter or two to make this movie any day – over a Hollywood writer who does his homework without conviction.
Posted by Joey on May 7th, 2009BTW Deadpool isn’t supposed to be among Logan’s group of agents – but MAVERICK.
Posted by Joey on May 7th, 2009Whoever wrote this sh*t is an absolute talentless moron. P*ece of sh*t movie. Damn it.
Posted by Korobov on May 8th, 2009@ Goon
Posted by Keefe on May 8th, 2009You are obviously an imbecile. STFU and let those with a brain discuss the issue.
@ Keefe
Why don’t you pull your lip over your head and SHWALLOWW???
Posted by Jay C. on May 8th, 2009@ Jay C.
I’ve already seen you do that a hundred times, so I’d rather not.
Posted by Keefe on May 8th, 2009Terrible adaptation, imo. How the people in charge managed to f-up an already good storyline is just beyond me.
Posted by Dave on May 8th, 2009The movie was disappointing on every level.
Posted by HollywoodDream on May 8th, 2009“Also, if none of the cameos were in the movie, it would be 40 minutes long.”
The script should have been completely rewritten so that wouldn’t be the problem. The entire film was an endless barrage of pointless cameos.
And how did Wolvie’s claws end up looking bad–worse than the X1? Can’t imagine how bad the workprint must have been…
Posted by Ryan M. on May 11th, 2009The filmmakers would have done better to think of Wolvie as “Rambo with claws”. Seriously! Just give Wolvie claws and turn the Sheriffs into Stryker’s agents and we would’ve had a good Wolvie indeed.
Posted by Ryan M. on May 11th, 2009Sin City began as an amazing written story and was faithfully reproduced into an excellent movie representation.
Wolverine began as an amazing written story and was raped by a movie that decided to basically tell it’s own story.
Granted Wolverine is an “ok” movie and will please people who aren’t die hard wolverine comic fans, why not be faithful to its source material, as that’s what made the character so popular in the first place.
Just like Joey posted, read any of those comics – Weapon X, Wolverine 1 – 200 for character reference, or simply just follow Wolverine Origins, the movie then would have actually engaged the watcher. Its actually pathetic that a comic book has a deeper story than a full length movie.
In my opinion, no x-men movie has fully captured Wolverine properly. Wolverine’s healing factor has been butchered each time as it’s been completely inconsistent throughout every movie. His healing factor is used to fit plot devices – example this wound will heal instantly onscreen while this same other wound will cause him to be unconscious for hours because we need him to pass out at this point in the moive. This isn’t diehard star trekkie fan nitpicking details, this is creating and grounding a character, so at least he has some sort of realism. His animal senses are almost ignored altogether or extremely inconsistant throughout all the movies. These powers are characteristics that defined Wolverine. If audience members had some sort of idea how quickly Wolverine could heal, as in some sort of set healing rate, this might actually create suspense it parts of the movie, where maybe he has to avoid taking too much damage at once. Yes, mutants have powers, but they’re not Indianna Jones invinceable.
Posted by Wolverine comic fan on May 12th, 2009Deadpool’s initial action scene IMHO was just retarded. Is his power super speed? or Amazing deflecto all bullets from all directions with swords? Like common… put some thought and realism into an action scene!! Otherwise you’re left with a character like Superman where kriptonite doesn’t exist Same thing happened with Zero dispatching all those guys earlier…
The movie tried to show scenes of vulnerability with Wolverine but failed miserably. His conflict with beserker rage was a joke. Imagine if he had killed an innocent while in beserker rage, or his rage lead to the death of a loved one, instantly, introduction of at least some form of conflict, but no…. nothing in the movie
Just too much wrong with the movie…
For what it was, it was entertaining. I’m not a diehard fangirl, I remember watching the cartoon series as a kid, so I’m unfamiliar with his true origin story but I can understand the frustration of the fans. I saw my beloved Dragonball raped, cut, hung, and burned after being taken hostage by the snooks at Fox Studios, so I can relate to a movie featuring your favorite characters being a monumental disappointment. That being said, even NOT knowing his origin story, the chinks in this movie’s armor were not hard to point out and dissect.
Firstly, it was too short. I can imagine with how long the comics have been around that Wolvie has a long and interesting history before he meets up with the X-men. I can’t fantom a movie being able to go into so much depth as a 200+ issue comic series in a just under 2 hour movie. And it was obvious that they chose the route of just watering down one story arc, keeping the main characters and conflicts but never go into too much detail. Then they realized the movie would be entirely too short for a summer blockbuster and decided to add cameos and use pointless fight scenes to make up for the rest instead of just revamping the script. Seriously, haven’t movie-goers proved with Watchmen, Titanic, The Dark Knight, and others that we don’t all have ADD and can sit through a movie for longer than 90 minutes?
Second, the writer was extremely lazy. The dialogue wasn’t horrible but some of the one-liners were wince-inducingly mediocre. The plot twists, made the weak story somewhat tastier but still couldn’t make up for the lack of real substance.I actually didn’t mind the whole brothers turned enemies premise (cliche as it was) but the script refused to delve any deeper than your average low-budget “final fight” film. The character is the goody two shoes, his brother is the raging bull. Big bro beats the tar out of him, he goes after him and has to get stronger and fight his way through enemies then at the end, Big bro has a little change of heart and soft spot for his little bro. Nothing extraordinary at all. All they did was give them superpowers.
And third, the characters. I’m actually a person who enjoys those cool little brief encounters with characters in the same ‘universe’. I love Gambit, was tickled at the Cyclops tie-in and thought SilverFox, Emma Frost and the others were cool to see but it contributed absolutely NOTHING to the plot. If you want to have them included in the movie then INCLUDE them. Make their characters seem like they’re actually supposed to be there. I swear I wanted to beat my head against the wall when Gambit suddenly decided to attack Wolverine when his real enemy, Sabretooth, is about to be done in by him. WTF? It made absolutely NO sense! ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’, sounds like a code a guy like Gambit would go by… not THIS Gambit though.Then the whole mutant breakout sequence was just distraction from the anti-climatic final battle. This whole movie seemed like just another X-men movie with Wolverine as the fore-runner (which was all of them, actually).
But still, I saw it with my family and enjoyed it. For all the flaws, it had a lot of action and cool cameos (oh, the cameos) so it’s like another Transformers to me. Plenty of eye candy to sastify you at the theater but no real meat to stick to your system hours later.
I’d give it a 7/10: Only because it was better than all three of the X-men movies but considering how bland those were, that’s not saying much. And despite the flaws in character devolpment and writing, the cast did very well (especially loved Reynolds as Deadpool and Emma Frost was a total babe), and the actions sequences (though loud and dumb) were still impressive.
Posted by Dee Dee on May 14th, 2009Never seen any of them and never will – How ignorant is that! Nuff said
Posted by Alex Crossley on May 16th, 2009alexjcrossley@yahoo.co.uk
So… with his enhanced senses Wolverine is capable of “smelling” if someone is lying, but somehow he failed to notice that his girlfriend was still alive, not injured in any way, and covered with someone (or something) else’s blood?
And failing to notice that she was still alive he left her “corpse” in the middle of the woods?
ooooooooooooooooooook.
This movie SUCKED. It was embarassing. Why in the hell can’t these people just FOLLOW THE DAMN COMIC BOOK! There is a reason millions of people read these books, it’s because THEY LIKE THEM. Why mess with that? Why? You have a built in fanbase that just wants to see these characters come to life and you take a foul, disgusting, slimy crap all over them! I just don’t get it…
It’s so depressing.
Is making a movie really that hard? I mean, really?
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on May 24th, 2009I gotta say that this is my favorite X-Men movie next to X3. My favorite character was the star of the movie, Hugh Jackman did a good job playing him as usual. I always wondered about how Wolverine became…WOLVERINE. It answered all my questions. It had a nice new group of mutants, and an engaging plot with loads of nice action scenes. I do wish that they got Tyler Mane to come back to play Sabretooth. He played Sabretooth back in the original X-Men movie. But the new guy did a good job too. I also wish Ryan Reynolds’ character had more screen time before he became all weird and robotish towards the end. Overall, this movie was freaking awesome! I don’t care what anyone says, X3 is the best X-men movie overall.
Fun fact: Hugh Jackman and Christopher Reeve are the only two actors to play a comic book character in four consecutive movies.
Jackman= X-Men, X2:X-Men United, X3:The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Reeve= Superman The Movie, Superman II, Superman III, and Superman IV:The Quest For Peace
Posted by The Darbinator on June 10th, 2009an okay film
Posted by joe on July 3rd, 2009Leave a Reply