Wolverine's Origins

Leaves you wondering what you missed

Scripted by David Benioff and Skip Woods, this film has no plot. Scratch that, too many plots with no tone taking the film in one direction. Gavin Hood directs the arguably star filled cast of Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Durand, Dominic Monaghan and Will i Am.

The film starts off with an error only Canadians will notice, reading “North-West Territories, Canada, 1845”, the writers have established a place and timeline for the origin but it’s a shame it wasn’t “Canada” until 1867. After that, it started out promising, and when I say that, I mean the opening credit sequence showing Logan and Victor fighting through many of the wars fought throughout the early 1900s and later. This was a magnificent piece that showed us the camaraderie the two brothers had, but it was only downhill from this point.

For a budget over $150 million this should look near perfect from a CGI standpoint. Yet it was so poorly handled that when Wolverine moved, his claws shifted from the top of his knuckles and around his hand. Not sure what they did differently from the first 3 X-Men films but it didn’t work at all. Green screens were used for many aspects of the film with some that look fantastic and others giving the impression of a new technology that is being tested for the first time in the early 80s. Some of the effects looked top notch, with Scott/Cyclops blowing out the roof of his school being the best.

A darker, more savage Wolverine tale was what Fox was marketing it as, and at times it felt like that. Until they brought in yet another funny moment or heartfelt outlook on Wolverine from Ma and Pa Kent, oh wait, this isn’t a Superman film. More marketing mayhem was the use of some big name characters being brought into the film, which they were, just never developing any story for them, a quick introduction and on to the next character once the preceding character leaves the screen. The writers seemed to do the same thing with the plot, introduce an element and then quickly jump to the next one without fully finishing the previous plot point.

Not all was horrible, as a big hand has to be given to Jackman, Huston and Schreiber who carried the film with fantastic acting. Some of the lines of dialogue they spewed out were corny and almost out of character but they miraculously pulled them off. Schreiber ups the ante for the Sabertooth character of the original X-Men (played by Tyler Mane), showing he can be animalistic and frightening. Ryan Reynolds was cast flawlessly as Deadpool, but after 5 minutes he was never heard from again.

Aside from a few moments that caused me to smile, I was mostly groaning throughout the entire film. The good news, Reynolds should be back as the “merc with a mouth” as a Deadpool spin-off has been confirmed. Not only that, but a sequel to this film was also confirmed, with Jackman returning and the plethora of Wolverine material they are bound to get it right eventually, sadly this was not that time.

1 out of 5
Colin Enquist

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

While Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine for the 4th time now, this was the first time that he had the time to shine mostly on his own. Telling his origin, dating back over 150 years, you find how he started out, and that he and his brother both had mutant powers. Over the years, the brothers fight together, and do not really age at all. The killing that they do takes different effects on the brothers, Wolverine being able to control it, while his brother who will become Sabretooth, played by Liev Schreider, gets a thirst for killing and wants to do more. When they are both offered a chance to kill for their country they jump at the chance, and are put in a group of mutants, a couple of them being Will i Am, and Ryan Reynolds. Danny Huston plays Stryker, the leader of this group who has assembled all these men for these missions. When Wolverine sees how blood thirsty his brother has become, he has decided he has had enough, and decides to leave the group. He leads a mainly peaceful existence for the next 6 years with a woman, played by Lynn Collins. Sabretooth however, has started killing some of the ex members of the group, and targets Jackman's love, killing her, which begins the process of him coming out and being Wolverine again. Wanting revenge, Stryker tells him he has the answer for him to get it, but he would have to be a part of an experiment to add Adamantium to his body. This starts it all again, as Wolverine becomes stronger than before, almost an unstoppable machine. He goes after Sabretooth, gunning for revenge, only to find out that Stryker has used him to gain some of his power for an experiment to make the ultimate mutant. The story is well told, the action is terrific, fight scenes are terrific, the story flows really well with no slowdown, as it shows where Wolverine came from and why he didn't have all his memories.

4.5 out of 5

Reporter Let Go After Movie Review

Fox fires Friedman after reviewing an illegal copy of Wolverine film

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Fox News 411 freelance columnist Roger Friedman was fired earlier this week, after he posted a review of a bootleg copy of the upcoming feature X-Men Origins: Wolverine (due May 1), which is produced by the same company that owns Fox News (20th Century Fox).

Friedman even admitted in his review that he had illegally downloaded a full-length bootleg copy of Wolverine, now the poster child for Hollywood piracy. "It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer," Friedman wrote in his online post.

Never before has a film been so popular before it even hit theatres, as an unfinished version of the potential blockbuster was leaked to the net late last month. Wolverine, which stars Hugh Jackman as the Marvel Comics character (he also co-produced), cost some $150 million to film and produce, and is still expected to post big numbers at the box office this summer, despite being downloaded 75,000 times within one day of being leaked (March 31).

Wolverine was directed by Oscar-winner Gavin Hood (Tsotsi), and also stars Liev Schreiber (as Sabretooth), Ryan Reynolds (as Deadpool), Taylor Kitsch (as Gambit), Danny Huston (as William Stryker), and Black Eyed Peas rapper-producer will.i.am (as John Wraith).