Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was the highlight of the first three X-Men movies, including the third, not-as-good one. So it makes sense that the powers-that-be would want to make a Wolverine movie about the character's mysterious origins. Such a movie would be, for lack of a better term, freakin' awesome. Unfortunately, the movie became X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which takes all that was cool about the character and makes it boring.
The plot begins in 1845, where a young Wolverine (at this point named James Howlett) watches his father get killed by a man who turns out to be his real father. The child kills this man in revenge and then runs off with his brother, taking the name Logan. The two mutants both have the power of healing and never seem to age. This allows them to fight in every American war before being enlisted by Colonel William Stryker to be part of an elite mutant soldier squad. Soon Wolverine becomes disgusted with their actions and leaves the group, while his brother becomes more violent.
The problem with this setup, other than the fact that it's hackneyed and obvious, is that it all takes place in 20 minutes. There's no time to flesh out any of the characters or situations. Logan/Wolverine goes from being enlisted in the mutant squad to a chummy member to a quitter before anyone can get settled into creating a believable character. Talented actors Danny Huston and Liev Schreiber are forced into playing paper-thin caricatures of villains, and calling them one-note would be generous.
Hugh Jackman may be the greatest casualty, as the film takes the character that made him a star and turns him into an uninteresting tragic hero. The reason he got his iconic metal claws? Revenge for his love's death. The reason he's called Wolverine? A nickname that love gave him. The love of Logan's life and her subsequent death is 15 minutes of barely-there story. What's left are badly staged and shot action sequences for the rest of the film's runtime.
Wolverine wouldn't feel like a complete waste of time if there were some cool fight scenes or great special effects, but the film doesn't even have those. I hope this film doesn't serve as the standard for the upcoming summer film season.
3 Culture
Ethan Goldsmith
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Hugh Jackman smiles for photographers during the Los Angeles opening for his film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie follows a young Wolverine using quick-paced sequences but takes away much of what is so appealing about the character Wolverine.
