8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent But Unmemorable Action Fare, 11 Oct 2009
This review is from: X-Men Origins: Wolverine [DVD] (DVD)
Wolverine is one of the most beloved of comic book creations. His dark and vengeful character combined with a compassion that troubled and led to self-destructive behaviour has long been amongst the most popular characters of the genre. I know little of comic book history myself but perhaps because I know Barry Windsor-Smith the Weapon X storyline is one of the few that I have some familiarity with. With that in mind I had fairly low hopes for this film as the other X Men films have been dreadful. This one is not a terrible film but it is hardly one that will linger long in the mind.
The positives can be summed as: lots of explosions, three great characters for the ladies to enjoy, and some nice menace from the evil brother character. The negatives can be summed as: uninteresting plot, holes galore, poor quality audio and scoring, and a surprising lack of emotional involvement.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine does a relatively good job with what he has to hand. He's in great shape and definitely scored as eye candy during his escape scene for the company I watched this with. He is believable as the gruff and tortured soul that is Wolverine, his lust for violence sated over the years in an excellent opening montage of warfare from the last century. It all begins to fall apart though come Vietnam as he and his equally violent and indestructible brother Sabretooth find themselves on the wrong side of the moral compass. This speaks as much to the massive change in western values in the last 30 years as it does these characters in particular - throughout history they would have been lauded as they were for their violence in the previous decades but now they are no longer acceptable.
Sabretooth and Wolverine have a strong bond but why it breaks so quickly and with such hostility is not entirely clear. Of the many plot holes, the collapse of this relationship is one that really stands out. Still, they fight well despite knowing that the other cannot be beaten and lots of things blow up.
A range of cameos are thrust into the film and that may be to satisfy the comic fans. They do not all work out all that well and visually some of them are not great. The Blob does not appear realistic and the fight scene featuring Deadpool late in the film looks much more like an arcade game than a film. The suspense of disbelief is difficult when the graphics and wire work are so poorly constructed.
Deadpool though is an instant hit and the apparent upcoming film featuring him looks more interesting than what goes on in Wolverine. The other of the characters that work well with the female fanbase is Gambit. Not much was made of him and in my own view the standard for great looking charming Cajuns has been upped massively by Sawyer out of Lost so the guy playing Gambit here didn't really make much of an impression.
Frustratingly the storyline does not really work. Wolverine is indestructible from the beginning and the adamantium just enhances what he already has. There is no real explanation of what difference this makes or why it had to be Wolverine. The love interest is marginally affecting but it diminishes the character to se him only out for revenge just like every other action film character all the time.
On the plus side this undemanding film delivers on the expected explosions, on the violence and stunts. Some of them are a little dated and corny and the much trailed helicopter sequence is not especially exciting. Still, go into this with low expectations and expect blasts, one-liners, and fast pace and it is not a waste of the 103 minutes. The submersion tank scenes are strong, the setting on The Island is great, the early action sequences where Wolverine and pals kill various bad guys are light hearted fun. This is no masterpiece but it is an easy way to while away a couple of hours without having to think too hard.
The Extras are pointless. The discussion with the director only adds to the feeling that this guy really has no business being in film while the one deleted scene is short and entirely out of context. Presumably more extras will happen on some kind of special/boxed edition but given the general standard of extras these days this had an empty feeling.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"putting together a special team with special privileges", 8 Jun 2009
This review is from: X-Men Origins: Wolverine [DVD] (DVD)
Origin stories tend to be a bit of a drag, I mean watching Spider-Man, X-Men, Wolverine and so on it feels like these franchise openers fulfil an almost obligatory back story that simply sets up a far more interesting instalment, the sequels to Spiderman and X-Men were both vastly superior to their predecessors and if Wolverine gets a second chance on his own which I'm sure he will, then maybe justice will be done to he character. As a story X-Men Origins: Wolverine is routine enough, savage family tragedy sets Logan off with his antagonistic, deranged half brother Victor Creed (played menacingly to terrific effect by Liv Schreiber) whom he fights alongside in he civil war, both World Wars, as well as Vietnam. Things are going well until Victor decapitates a senior officer which long story short brings a mysterious army colonel William Stryker (Danny Huston) into the mix. He offers the brothers a chance to work alongside fellow mutants that include samurai sword wielding mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), teleporter John Wraith (will.i.am), The Blob (Kevin Durand), technopath Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan) and lethal marksman Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) in a covert military unit under Strykers command. It's here the movie enjoys it's finest spell, watching Reynolds mouth off as Wade in a role he was born to play, and the team showcasing their respective talents during an infiltration of an African stronghold is as good a sequence in a Marvel superhero outing that I've ever seen.
Alas this carefree fun comes to an abrupt end when Logan witness an atrocity committed by the group and deserts his comrades for the quiet life in the Canadian Rockies with a sweet school teacher (Lynn Collins) in a cosy cabin while Logan makes a honest living as a lumberjack. This picturesque existence is cut down however when Victor shows up murdering Logan's girl as well as beating Logan in an all-out fist fight (somewhat redundant since neither can be killed, though Stryker believes a decapitation might do it).
After this latest personal tragedy Logan accepts Strykers timely offer to pump adamantium into him thus making even more indestructible (huh?) so he can take down his brother once and for all. As we saw in eerie flashbacks in the first two X-Men, Logan evades Stryker and from here on the movie is a revenge tale with Logan on the run from the military while hunting down Victor. As an earlier review here stated the main reason to go see this is undoubtedly the actors, Schreiber in particular is very good here underplaying an over the top psychotic, while Taylor Kitsch and Ryan Reynolds make the most out of frustratingly fleeting appearances as fans favourites Wade Wilson "the merc with a mouth" and a New Orleans Street Hustler called Gambit. It's the chemistry or camaraderie in scenes between Jackman(who is again reliably excellent) and will.i.am as well as his brief screen partnership with Taylor Kitsch or his feral rivalry with Victor that gives the movie it's most memorable moments.
The action is, with respect to people infinitely more creative and intelligent than myself, fairly by the numbers bar the brilliant opening sequence showing the two brothers progression through each major war as well as the early scenes in Africa. The final battle, in tradition of the X-Men films takes place on a major landmark and feels more like a shadow of the Wolverine/Sabertooth battle atop the statue of Liberty in the first X-Men than a truly pulsating climax. Finally for what it's worth at a running time of 98 minutes too many interesting characters are shoehorned in without anything significant to do or indeed the screen time to do it (though spin-offs for Deadpool and Gambit may go some way to remedying that problem). Overall I enjoyed Wolverine for the performances as well as some very cool looking action and for that I thinks it's worth your time provided you're into this sort of stuff.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hugh Jackman was born to play Wolverine and this a great spin-off to the X-Men saga., 7 Jan 2010
This X-Men film is set before the first three X-Men films and tells us the story of Wolverine and his twisted brother Sabretooth. The action comes thick and fast with a clever plot for a comic based movie. Deadpool makes a great villian and his final battle with Wolverine is super cool. One of my favourite X-Men heroes Gambit is introduced to us at long last, it only took four films but better late then never. I enjoyed this film just as much as the other three X-Men films and Hugh Jackman is on top form as Wolverine. The blu-ray transfar is razor sharp just like Wolverines claws!
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