X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Much scorn was pushed onto the X-Men franchise when the last instalment, The Last Stand, turned out to be far more pedestrian blockbuster entertainment than its predecessors. The result is that we’re now getting a prequel that looks purely at the origins of Wolverine. Born in mid-19th century Canada (or British North America, if we can be bothered to be historically accurate), young Jimmy (later known as Logan) kills a man who turns out to be his father, before going on the run with his brother, Victor. Both are mutants who heal from any wounds and have unnaturally long lifespans, with one having bone claws that erupt from his knuckles and the other sharp fingernails that grow. Together they ‘hide’ by fighting through endless wars, before military man William Stryker finds them and offers them a job on his new team of mutants. When things are a lot more vicious than Jimmy/Logan bargained for, he leaves the team and his violent and vaguely unhinged brother behind for a life as a lumberjack. A few years later his past comes back to haunt him when Victor seems to be going around killing the team of mutants, before offing Logan’s girlfriends. From then on the newly christened Wolverine is hell bent on revenge, for which an adamantium skeleton might come in handy.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a bit of an odd film, as it seems to assume that everyone knows the story already. Of course most people know the basics, as they were covered in previous X-Men movies, but Wolverine seems to assume a complete knowledge of the events, as well as the audience being aware of exactly who every character is. There are loads of mutants, most of whom come from the comics, however it’s never really explained who these people are or what their powers are – they just have them and you’ve got to try and work it all out for yourself. It’s a particular difficulty as it tends to blunt sense of danger. Without knowing the limits of either the good guys or the bad guys, for all the audience knows they might be able to pull another power out of their hat to sort things out, which happens fairly often. For those in the know it’s okay, as they already know who these people are and what they can do, but for the uninitiated it’s pretty confusing.

It really does make Wolverine seem more like a succession of events rather than a film, where they have to tick a series of boxes on what things have to happen but they aren’t really that interested in it. Even more than usual for a blockbuster, it does appear to be a movie about getting between action sequences. Admittedly there are some okay action sequences, and Hugh Jackman is undeniably charismatic (Wolverine is a much harder part than it looks and he does it well) but this film is a bit of a misfire.

The only hope is that there is a sense that some of the film’s weaknesses come from the studio’s desire to set up various other X-Men films. For example, Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit, turns up, seemingly so that the character can say “Hello, aren’t I cool, and wouldn’t you like to see a film with me as the main character?”, while a post credit sequence (which again is rubbish for anyone except comic book fans) sets things up for a Japan set sequel. Now we’ve got this film out of the way, those films actually seem like they might be good, as long as they steer clear of Wolverine’s weaknesses. 

Overall Verdict: A disappointing movie that wastes the charisma of its star on a film that seems designed purely for those who already know everything X-Men.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac