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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2009 > May > 01 > Entry
Prequel dulls Wolverine’s claws
Much ado has been made of the workprint of X-Men Origins: Wolverine that leaked onto the Net several weeks ago. I’ve seen what is supposed to be the final version, but I could swear the film still isn’t finished.
Meant to be a prequel to the three X-Men movies, Wolverine feels more like the junior league entry in the series. It’s watchable enough, with some good moments, but the movie comes across as undercooked, both narratively and technically.
It starts well enough, with a strong credits sequence explaining how Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and his brother, Victor/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) have lived through the centuries, fighting in every major war from the Civil War through Vietnam. They run across William Stryker (Danny Huston), a military commando who forms his own strike team of mutants. When their missions begin to turn sinister, Logan balks, much to the dismay of Victor, who becomes increasingly dangerous.
It makes more than enough sense that Wolverine was chosen as the origin story, since the consensus is that he’s the most popular X-Man, and Jackman has more than enough talent to carry the movie. Even so, I felt oddly detached most of the way.
That I knew that Wolverine was going to survive this ordeal shouldn’t have been a problem, but the screenplay by David Benioff and Skip Woods didn’t carry enough emotional heft to make me forget that I knew how it was all going to come out. The story unfolds with such obviousness, I even guessed the “surprise” cameo correctly.
That’s not to say there isn’t good material in Wolverine. It’s no surprise that Jackman’s charisma goes a long way, but Schreiber and Huston are equally strong as the villains. It’s just too bad the everything around them isn’t as compelling as they are. Some of the supporting mutants are downright corny. A guy who throws around deadly playing cards? That’s stupid, even for a comic book movie.
Still, for all the rumblings of director Gavin Hood being inexperienced at action scenes, the movie actually delivers those fairly well. Hood’s no Bryan Singer, who made the first two movies, and I would even argue he’s no Brett Ratner, the director of the third movie - who for all his shortcomings, knows his way around a popcorn flick Still, Hood gets the job done proficiently if unremarkably, with the fight scenes between Wolverine and Sabretooth being especially effective.
However, the action scenes have other shortcomings. The effects work is passable at best, and distractingly fake at worst. If these are the finished shots, I shudder to think how the workprint must have looked.
Wolverine never bored me, exactly. Occasionally I was intrigued and entertained, but ultimately I was indifferent to the movie, whose mutation is the ability to make a carbon copy - something that’s reasonably close to, but not quite as good as the original.
GRADE: C+
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Reviews
Comments
By Daniel
May 1, 2009 1:53 PM | Link to this
I think we should reserve our opinions of ‘excuse for visual fireworks’ for the day Jubilee becomes a prominent player in an X-Men movie. I have no idea how she became an X-Men because her powers never seemed to do anything. I love Gambit (and X-Men for that matter), and am glad he FINALLY got included. The usatoday.com review was more positive, but I know this movie deserves a view despite the fact that the first 3 movies actually felt like Wolverine movies (my biggest complaint back then).By Sir Critic
May 1, 2009 12:08 PM | Link to this
I will admit here that I’ve not read many X-Men comics, but that gives me a different perspective. I had heard of Gambit before but was not very familiar with his character. The movie mishandled him, though. The screenplay did not “explain” him very well, so the use of the deadly playing cards seemed like a cheap and silly way to introduce him. More than anything it seemed like an excuse for visual fireworks that weren’t all that impressive.By Mandy
May 1, 2009 12:07 PM | Link to this
I am just really excited to see Taylor Kitsch outside of “Friday Night Lights.”By Jilly
May 1, 2009 11:50 AM | Link to this
The author of this article apparently does not have a working knowlegde of the comic book series. Come on “a guy who throws playing cards”? Gambit was definitely one of the best mutants in the series. To me he was very interesting, sometimes good & sometimes evil. Corny supporting actors, ha.By Gambit?
May 1, 2009 8:48 AM | Link to this
So that guy that throws around deadly playing cards… his name is Gambit. He is arguably one of the most popular X-men. Anything he touches becomes full of energy and explodes on contact. He just chooses playing cards as a primary use. I think I will hold judgement until I watch it myself tonight.