I just got home from watching X-Men Origins : Wolverine and am happy to say that my sheer hate for it from before has subsided to a huge degree. In fact, I had a lot of fun and the movie is very enjoyable. A word of warning though, enter the cinema with an open mind and DO NOT connect this movie with the comics and graphic novels. And focus only on Wolverine, Sabretooth, and William Stryker because the other mutants aren't handled in the best of ways. Grab a cup of coffee because this is going to be quite a long review.This Flick Is About...
X-Men Origins : Wolverine goes way back before the time of the X-Men trilogy and dwells into the shrouded past of Logan / Wolverine; a past that he still tries to recover in X-Men : The Last Stand. We finally see the tragedies that take place and what drives Logan to participate in the infamous Weapon X project. The movie focuses on Logan's complicated relationship with his brother, Victor Creed, his alliances and enemies, and how he ultimately becomes the indestructible mutant that he is today.
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The movie is very loosely based on the Origins graphic novel in which fans get to see Logan's childhood for the first time. I say loosely because that's what it is. It may even be an understatement. While they keep the bone-claws intact, we are introduced to Logan's brother immediately, Victor Creed, who eventually becomes the bloodthirsty Sabretooth. While rumors in the comic world state that Sabretooth may have some connection to Logan's childhood, there is absolutely nothing about the two being brothers. That's just pushing it. There's also a mixture of tales from other comics and graphic novels, but the stories, relationships, and timeline of events are drastically changed to cater to a wider audience.
In order to fit as many mutants in, the source material is compromised to a massive degree and what we have is an alternate version of Wolverine's past. That's why it's essential for anyone who watches this to completely take the comics out of their heads. If you watch this as a die-hard fan you will hate it with a burning passion. I mean it. As an adaptation the movie is screwed beyond belief but as a standalone movie where liberties are allowed to be taken, it fares very well and is a film that's packed with awesome scenes and a lot of fun.
To my surprise, Sabretooth was handled very well. He's vicious, animalistic, bloodthirsty, and selfish; all the traits that make the beast who he is in the comics. I'm not sure why he runs around on all fours, though. I'm not going to spoil anything, but they tend to screw him up too, in a way. Gambit could have been better. While Taylor Kitsch does an okay job at playing the card-chargin' Cajun, he doesn't fully pull off Gambit's swiftness or slickness. I still say Josh Holloway would have been awesome for the role. The chemistry between him and Hugh Jackman is just something that's waiting to happen one way or the other. Anyway, if Gambit ever gets recast, Josh will be the way to go. Danny Huston does a good job (not at all his best effort) at playing the forever-manipulative William Stryker, pioneer of the Weapon X project, and Will.i.am isn't too bad either. Dominic Monaghan plays Chris Bradley / Bolt (a not-too-popular mutant in X-Men lore) and Kevin Durand plays The Blob. They, too, do pretty well.
Now you're probably thinking, "Didn't you just say they weren't handled too well?" If I answered that I'd spoil the movie for you and the fun of watching it so I won't. And now you're saying, "Hey, what about Deadpool? You forgot Deadpool?" No, I didn't really. Let me first say that Deadpool is awesome in this flick. Ryan Reynolds fits perfectly into the boots of the 'mean-mouthed merc'. But (aha, there's a but), if you're going in there to watch Deadpool and Deadpool alone, be warned. I'm sure what conspires around this character will not be digested too easily with the fanbase. That's all I can say without ruining the plot.
So most of the characters are played pretty well, what about Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? Make no mistake, this is the best version of Wolverine that has been put on screen to date. It is on par with Logan's introductory scene inside a steel cage in the first X-Men and there's more rage and anger and clawing and scratching than X-Men 2. Way more. I'm not even going to comment on X-Men : The Last Stand because I hate Brett Ratner and I hated Wolverine in it so, there you go. Jackman does an awesome job. Nothing to worry about from that aspect.
The finalized CGI in the movie looks so much better than what was shown in the trailers and clips. There are some bad parts and lousy effects, sure, but overall it's good. When I say 'good' I hope you understand I mean compared to the trailers. The 'Phoenix' scenes in X-Men : The Last Stand had CGI that was a dozen times better than Wolverine. Compared to the bad shots we saw in the trailers, the finalized CGI is okay.
From a technical standpoint the film looks really bad. The editing is almost amateurish, the transitions are poor and low-budget-like, and these ruins scenes that could have looked better. A lot of shots are left lingering until the scene grows stale. Some shots make scenes look cheesy while others were obviously done with very little care. X-Men Origins : Wolverine makes it clear that there was a troubled set, conflicting opinions, clashes of power, and 'too many artists on one canvas'. I dare say that Gavin Hood will not return to direct a sequel. While certain sequences in the film look very planned and clean, others look rushed or just neglected. It's as if Gavin just wanted to get this over with because he's not a fan and I'm guessing producers were getting their heads up in his @$$ a lot.
What bothers me is that comic book adaptations have evolved from being just corny movies for little kids who cheer for men in tights. Movies like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight showed us that movies based on comics deserve great directors, proper filmmaking, and phenomenal acting. Christopher Nolan chose to actually respect the character's dignity, incorporate good acting, do without bad CGI, and actually give a $h*t about the filmmaking process. Hugh Jackman once said that Wolverine would be inspired by Batman Begins. In that case it should have been a good flick first instead of being whored out as a cash cow. Even if it isn't a commercial blockbuster, it will be respected and a good sequel will garner a wider audience. Are studios so oblivious that they learn nothing from other movies?!
Speaking of Batman, one of the things I love about The Dark Knight is the fact that after watching it, my childhood fantasies of running around in a black cape and attacking bad guys now have a huge question mark slammed behind it. For the first time, you don't want to be Batman. You finally understand that it's a burden, a responsibility, and even a curse at times. People's lives hang in the balance, you are always blamed no matter how good you are, and in the end you sacrifice the simple pleasures of a normal person. That's exactly why I also love Watchmen. And that's what I expected most from Wolverine when I first came to know it was being made. Wolverine is tormented. His history is a mess, he's emotionally-scarred, and his thoughts are constantly ravaged by incidents that he will never forget even if he tries to. X-Men Origins fails to deliver this message. It is a weak attempt at explaining Wolverine's past and why he is who he is in the present. The explanation as to why he loses his memory is outwardly stupid and the storyline of his childhood and early years is so badly contorted that it doesn't make half the sense that the graphic novel does.
Another very bothersome part of the movies are the powers given to the mutants. Gambit has telekinesis for some reason, and is also an acrobat who climbs walls and performs stunts in mid-air. Gambit, my friends, transfers energy into external objects and aims them at his opponents. He cannot control where they hit once they leave his hands, he can only aim at will. I don't even want to touch on Deadpool because it would ruin the storyline. Sabretooth has cat-like claws that can extend, not to mention that he's Wolverine's brother which is just wrong all over.
The rage that Wolverine shows after the Adamantium bonding is awesome, but the film fails to keep that momentum going. While in the comics he hunts deer and wild animals just to survive the cold and the outdoors, he does nothing of the sort in the movie. Why, because kids will not relate to the killing of deer? Well Wolverine isn't supposed to be a kid's hero to begin with; and that is something that studios have yet to comprehend.
Still, I had fun. Why and how is beyond question. I just did. I am actually more satisfied with this flick than X-Men : The Last Stand, maybe because Wolverine is portrayed properly. And like I said, I was able to completely forget about the comics and the lore behind Wolverine. I watched is as though I was watching a Wolverine that I didn't know about; as if it was my first time learning about his past. Add to that the fact that I expected nothing or (if possible) less than nothing from the film. I hated it without even giving it a chance, and I guess that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It made me appreciate whatever happened on screen even though I knew it wasn't the best of things. It was good compared to the lousy imaginations I had of it in my head.
I like the soundtrack for X-Men Origins : Wolverine. It doesn't have a signature theme like all three X-Men films but it does suit the flick pretty well. It's kinda' grungy, kinda' packed with that energy, and kinda' emotional at times when it needs to be. It's not the best of scores but it's far from being bad.
I gotta' say that this movie was very wrongly marketed, though. The over-the-top cheesy posters with the meaningless posing and Creed-music-band-like photoshoots really made people puke a little. The movie is way more serious and portrays Wolverine much better. I guess I haven't emphasized this enough; Wolverine does not wait for effin' photoshoots! If the ad campaign behind this was taken care of in a better way, it'd definitely have more people interested.
That's pretty much all there is to say about Wolverine. It's a load of fun, it has it's good moments and it's bad moments, but I think overall the good overshines the bad (thankfully). It's not the grittiest of movies but I think it is the darkest among Marvel movies [Punisher(s) excluded]. But all in all, it's a fantastic watch and a great popcorn movie. It has a lot of action, a lot of good fight scenes, and my biggest fear of Victor Creed being a douchebag was diminished. He's good and the Logan / Victor fight scenes are not bad.
Also, have some patience and wait for the credits to end. There's more after the names are done.
An interesting bit about this is that there's more than one version of X-Men Origins : Wolverine. That's right. I guess in order to counter the loss due to the leaked copy, director Gavin Hood and Fox have made "multiple" versions of the flick, all incorporating different 'secret endings'. That means the one I watched may be different from what you watched or are about to watch. Maybe different regions carry different prints? That's cool and all, but it's a sleazy way of getting people to go watch your movie. You say "multiple prints" loosely so that people just keep spending their cash to go watch the whole movie over and over again and for all you know, they've already seen that secret ending a couple of times over...so what now, go watch it again for the 11th time? Anyway, some of the bad stuff mentioned above may be done right or corrected or brought justice to via the alternate endings (which might explain more) but I'm writing from what I saw. So stay in your seat until all the creds are done, and then go watch it again and tell me which one you saw, alright?
I'm just going to wait for the DVD in which I'm sure I'll get "20minutes of extra, never-before-seen footage and All 5 Secret Endings in a Two-Disc Special Edition Collector's Adamantium Steelbox Casing" which will cost me a fortune.
Also, keep your eyes open for a surprise or two, a lot of mutant cameos, and some cool nods to comic fans and the lore of it all in general.
My suggestion? Screw the leaked version like I did and go watch it the way it should be watched; in a cinema! It's probably the best popcorn movie this year...until Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen comes out. No one makes popcorn flicks like the 'Bay Man'!
--------------------------------------------------------
Wrap : I give X-Men Origins : Wolverine a good 3.7 out of 5.0. Remember, as an adaptation of ANY of the Wolverine-related comics, it seriously sucks. Trust me, you do not want to connect this with any timeline or any version of the comics. Forget what you know about Wolverine and take this as a version created for film and in connection with 20th Century's X-Men universe. As a standalone film it's just tons of fun. I'm all in for a good sequel, and although as a fan I think the film could have been ten times better and more faithful to the comics, as a regular film buff I'm glad to the fact that I was able to let go of all expectations and because of that my love for the character on screen is restored. :)
In order to fit as many mutants in, the source material is compromised to a massive degree and what we have is an alternate version of Wolverine's past. That's why it's essential for anyone who watches this to completely take the comics out of their heads. If you watch this as a die-hard fan you will hate it with a burning passion. I mean it. As an adaptation the movie is screwed beyond belief but as a standalone movie where liberties are allowed to be taken, it fares very well and is a film that's packed with awesome scenes and a lot of fun.
To my surprise, Sabretooth was handled very well. He's vicious, animalistic, bloodthirsty, and selfish; all the traits that make the beast who he is in the comics. I'm not sure why he runs around on all fours, though. I'm not going to spoil anything, but they tend to screw him up too, in a way. Gambit could have been better. While Taylor Kitsch does an okay job at playing the card-chargin' Cajun, he doesn't fully pull off Gambit's swiftness or slickness. I still say Josh Holloway would have been awesome for the role. The chemistry between him and Hugh Jackman is just something that's waiting to happen one way or the other. Anyway, if Gambit ever gets recast, Josh will be the way to go. Danny Huston does a good job (not at all his best effort) at playing the forever-manipulative William Stryker, pioneer of the Weapon X project, and Will.i.am isn't too bad either. Dominic Monaghan plays Chris Bradley / Bolt (a not-too-popular mutant in X-Men lore) and Kevin Durand plays The Blob. They, too, do pretty well.
Now you're probably thinking, "Didn't you just say they weren't handled too well?" If I answered that I'd spoil the movie for you and the fun of watching it so I won't. And now you're saying, "Hey, what about Deadpool? You forgot Deadpool?" No, I didn't really. Let me first say that Deadpool is awesome in this flick. Ryan Reynolds fits perfectly into the boots of the 'mean-mouthed merc'. But (aha, there's a but), if you're going in there to watch Deadpool and Deadpool alone, be warned. I'm sure what conspires around this character will not be digested too easily with the fanbase. That's all I can say without ruining the plot.
So most of the characters are played pretty well, what about Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? Make no mistake, this is the best version of Wolverine that has been put on screen to date. It is on par with Logan's introductory scene inside a steel cage in the first X-Men and there's more rage and anger and clawing and scratching than X-Men 2. Way more. I'm not even going to comment on X-Men : The Last Stand because I hate Brett Ratner and I hated Wolverine in it so, there you go. Jackman does an awesome job. Nothing to worry about from that aspect.
The finalized CGI in the movie looks so much better than what was shown in the trailers and clips. There are some bad parts and lousy effects, sure, but overall it's good. When I say 'good' I hope you understand I mean compared to the trailers. The 'Phoenix' scenes in X-Men : The Last Stand had CGI that was a dozen times better than Wolverine. Compared to the bad shots we saw in the trailers, the finalized CGI is okay.
From a technical standpoint the film looks really bad. The editing is almost amateurish, the transitions are poor and low-budget-like, and these ruins scenes that could have looked better. A lot of shots are left lingering until the scene grows stale. Some shots make scenes look cheesy while others were obviously done with very little care. X-Men Origins : Wolverine makes it clear that there was a troubled set, conflicting opinions, clashes of power, and 'too many artists on one canvas'. I dare say that Gavin Hood will not return to direct a sequel. While certain sequences in the film look very planned and clean, others look rushed or just neglected. It's as if Gavin just wanted to get this over with because he's not a fan and I'm guessing producers were getting their heads up in his @$$ a lot.
What bothers me is that comic book adaptations have evolved from being just corny movies for little kids who cheer for men in tights. Movies like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight showed us that movies based on comics deserve great directors, proper filmmaking, and phenomenal acting. Christopher Nolan chose to actually respect the character's dignity, incorporate good acting, do without bad CGI, and actually give a $h*t about the filmmaking process. Hugh Jackman once said that Wolverine would be inspired by Batman Begins. In that case it should have been a good flick first instead of being whored out as a cash cow. Even if it isn't a commercial blockbuster, it will be respected and a good sequel will garner a wider audience. Are studios so oblivious that they learn nothing from other movies?!
Speaking of Batman, one of the things I love about The Dark Knight is the fact that after watching it, my childhood fantasies of running around in a black cape and attacking bad guys now have a huge question mark slammed behind it. For the first time, you don't want to be Batman. You finally understand that it's a burden, a responsibility, and even a curse at times. People's lives hang in the balance, you are always blamed no matter how good you are, and in the end you sacrifice the simple pleasures of a normal person. That's exactly why I also love Watchmen. And that's what I expected most from Wolverine when I first came to know it was being made. Wolverine is tormented. His history is a mess, he's emotionally-scarred, and his thoughts are constantly ravaged by incidents that he will never forget even if he tries to. X-Men Origins fails to deliver this message. It is a weak attempt at explaining Wolverine's past and why he is who he is in the present. The explanation as to why he loses his memory is outwardly stupid and the storyline of his childhood and early years is so badly contorted that it doesn't make half the sense that the graphic novel does.
Another very bothersome part of the movies are the powers given to the mutants. Gambit has telekinesis for some reason, and is also an acrobat who climbs walls and performs stunts in mid-air. Gambit, my friends, transfers energy into external objects and aims them at his opponents. He cannot control where they hit once they leave his hands, he can only aim at will. I don't even want to touch on Deadpool because it would ruin the storyline. Sabretooth has cat-like claws that can extend, not to mention that he's Wolverine's brother which is just wrong all over.
The rage that Wolverine shows after the Adamantium bonding is awesome, but the film fails to keep that momentum going. While in the comics he hunts deer and wild animals just to survive the cold and the outdoors, he does nothing of the sort in the movie. Why, because kids will not relate to the killing of deer? Well Wolverine isn't supposed to be a kid's hero to begin with; and that is something that studios have yet to comprehend.
Still, I had fun. Why and how is beyond question. I just did. I am actually more satisfied with this flick than X-Men : The Last Stand, maybe because Wolverine is portrayed properly. And like I said, I was able to completely forget about the comics and the lore behind Wolverine. I watched is as though I was watching a Wolverine that I didn't know about; as if it was my first time learning about his past. Add to that the fact that I expected nothing or (if possible) less than nothing from the film. I hated it without even giving it a chance, and I guess that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It made me appreciate whatever happened on screen even though I knew it wasn't the best of things. It was good compared to the lousy imaginations I had of it in my head.
I like the soundtrack for X-Men Origins : Wolverine. It doesn't have a signature theme like all three X-Men films but it does suit the flick pretty well. It's kinda' grungy, kinda' packed with that energy, and kinda' emotional at times when it needs to be. It's not the best of scores but it's far from being bad.
I gotta' say that this movie was very wrongly marketed, though. The over-the-top cheesy posters with the meaningless posing and Creed-music-band-like photoshoots really made people puke a little. The movie is way more serious and portrays Wolverine much better. I guess I haven't emphasized this enough; Wolverine does not wait for effin' photoshoots! If the ad campaign behind this was taken care of in a better way, it'd definitely have more people interested.
That's pretty much all there is to say about Wolverine. It's a load of fun, it has it's good moments and it's bad moments, but I think overall the good overshines the bad (thankfully). It's not the grittiest of movies but I think it is the darkest among Marvel movies [Punisher(s) excluded]. But all in all, it's a fantastic watch and a great popcorn movie. It has a lot of action, a lot of good fight scenes, and my biggest fear of Victor Creed being a douchebag was diminished. He's good and the Logan / Victor fight scenes are not bad.
Also, have some patience and wait for the credits to end. There's more after the names are done.
An interesting bit about this is that there's more than one version of X-Men Origins : Wolverine. That's right. I guess in order to counter the loss due to the leaked copy, director Gavin Hood and Fox have made "multiple" versions of the flick, all incorporating different 'secret endings'. That means the one I watched may be different from what you watched or are about to watch. Maybe different regions carry different prints? That's cool and all, but it's a sleazy way of getting people to go watch your movie. You say "multiple prints" loosely so that people just keep spending their cash to go watch the whole movie over and over again and for all you know, they've already seen that secret ending a couple of times over...so what now, go watch it again for the 11th time? Anyway, some of the bad stuff mentioned above may be done right or corrected or brought justice to via the alternate endings (which might explain more) but I'm writing from what I saw. So stay in your seat until all the creds are done, and then go watch it again and tell me which one you saw, alright?
I'm just going to wait for the DVD in which I'm sure I'll get "20minutes of extra, never-before-seen footage and All 5 Secret Endings in a Two-Disc Special Edition Collector's Adamantium Steelbox Casing" which will cost me a fortune.
Also, keep your eyes open for a surprise or two, a lot of mutant cameos, and some cool nods to comic fans and the lore of it all in general.
My suggestion? Screw the leaked version like I did and go watch it the way it should be watched; in a cinema! It's probably the best popcorn movie this year...until Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen comes out. No one makes popcorn flicks like the 'Bay Man'!
--------------------------------------------------------
Wrap : I give X-Men Origins : Wolverine a good 3.7 out of 5.0. Remember, as an adaptation of ANY of the Wolverine-related comics, it seriously sucks. Trust me, you do not want to connect this with any timeline or any version of the comics. Forget what you know about Wolverine and take this as a version created for film and in connection with 20th Century's X-Men universe. As a standalone film it's just tons of fun. I'm all in for a good sequel, and although as a fan I think the film could have been ten times better and more faithful to the comics, as a regular film buff I'm glad to the fact that I was able to let go of all expectations and because of that my love for the character on screen is restored. :)
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