(First Film review so excuse me for sounding like a fanboy)
I had the pleasure of watching the workprint version of the new Wolverine movie; and before anyone can tell me piracy is wrong, I will just say that yes, it's illegal but in my opinion, piracy has the added benefit of free advertising but that's a whole other issue.
Hugh Jackman returns as the badass Canadian antihero Wolverine in a prequel to the X-men movies. The film tells of his exploits in the Weapons X program that would be responsible for his adamantium skeleton.
X-men origins has a lot of great eyecandy in its actions sequences; but unfortunatley they fall into the usual tired movie cliches. Wolverine fights Sabretooth, gets attacked by a helicopter fights it off in his motorcycle and walks away with his back to an explosion. The action has little to add towards the advancement of the plot. Wolverine gets to be a badass just because he can.
The movie is loaded with cameos from the entire X-men universe which is sure to please the fanboys. We also have some popular characters playing important roles. Ryan Reynolds is cast as the quick witted and mouthy Deadpool and the character many have been clamouring for an appearance since the first X-men, Gambit. The main problem with the extra characters in this movie is that they serve as merely convenient plot devices rather than fully realized characters we know and love from the comic books.
The plot has a decent first act that chronicles the lives of both Wolverine and Sabretooth who in the movie's continuity are half brothers. After Wolverine leaves Team X the plot turns into a bit of a mess. From this point on, the movie begins to lose its focus until we get into the last act of the movie where it is no longer sure just exactly why Wolverine is where he is. Wolverine was never much of a strong three dimensional character in the comics and doesn't gain much when exploring his "darker" side in this movie. The movie doesn't delve into why he is the way he is and doesnt portray a character arc that shows wolverine growing into the badass antihero we know. He is pretty much the same throughout the movie.
The acting for the most part is pretty decent. Hugh Jackman is Wolverine and despite any misgivings about respecting the character's origin story gives a fine performance. Liev Schrieber was an interesting choice to cast as the ferocious Sabretooth since he doesn't look too much the part but it's no matter. His portrayal imbues a mixture of maniacle fun with the menacing nature of the character and it was great fun to watch him go toe to toe with Wolverine. William Stryker on the other hand doesn't feel like much of a villain despite being a huge antagonist in Wolverine's history. He lacks the subtle hatred for mutants that Brian Cox did so well for the character in X 2. In fact, were not sure if he even hates them in this movie.
Fans of the X-men movies should rejoice that it is nowhere near as bad as X-men 3: The Last Stand. The movie has spectacle and great action but ultimately falls short of being a memorable summer movie. If anything, it feels rather unnecessary because X-men 2 was more of a movie that focused on Wolverine's character than this movie. People going into the theatres expecting a fun action movie should not be dissapointed but for those of us expecting an engaging study of Wolverine's character and origins and how it fits into the X-men mythology might feel a little dissapointed. I guess if you've been planning to watch it, you will and if you never felt any inclination to catch the movie, you won't be missing much.
3/5
