Summary: “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” attempts to uncover and explore the dark past of X-Men leader Wolverine.
Superheroes cover bed sheets, sparkle on billboards, and dominate Halloween costumes. We have become experts on the different categories and classes of superheroes. There is the type of superhero that can rescue a kitten out of a tree while saving the prom queen and defeating the bearded villain. There is also the passionately conflicted superhero that feels more comfortable in the depths of danger than heights of heroism.
Some are tragic billionaires while others are evolutionary science experiments gone AWOL. Whatever superhuman or comic book creator dreamed up our super friends they must have known that superheroes would capture our hearts and eventually our wallets.
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” invites us to uncover the haunted past of the X-Men’s super mutant leader. “Wolverine” is the name shouted by third graders as they place pencils between their fingers and attempt Karate moves. He is a fan favorite and is heavily set with expectations.
Hugh Jackman has adorned the silver claws for all three X-Men movies and returns blandly as Wolverine/Logan in “X-Men Origins.” We are introduced to Logan’s viciously brutal brother, Victor Creed (Leiv Schreiber) who has scary fingernails and Dracula teeth. The animalistic pair are freakishly invincible and use their immortally to serve as soldiers under the American Flag.
There is a drawn-out montage at the beginning of “Wolverine” in which Logan and Victor fight on the front lines of famous battle scenes. They claw and growl their way from Gettysburg to Saigon. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if Kid-Rock’s insufferable song “Warrior” started to blare over the combat. The montage is meant to explain Logan’s “too cool to cry” vibe but seems more like an ad to enlist.
Will. I. Am, Ryan Reynolds, and Dominic Monaghan jump on the mutant party bus and show up as unimportant characters. The trap X-Men movies have always struggled with is the inclusion of too many minor characters. The Blob, Agent Zero, and Gambit all complicate the plot and distract from Wolverine’s evolvement.
X-Men fans are likely to line the cinema hallways to unravel the mysteries of their beloved Wolverine. Fans will learn Logan was betrayed, lost his love, and got an operation that made his skeleton metal. Through a myriad of explosions, fire-flooded fights, and 70’s attire we learn little to nothing new about Mr. Wolverine.
It has become impossible to mention superhero movies without comparing it to “The Dark Knight.” Audiences were once satisfied with a few explosions, a forbidden romance and a secret identity but now they expect something more. They expect their superheroes to live up to what made them legends.
“The Dark Knight” was not a success because it broke all the rules, it was a success because it felt so right. A superhero film finally tapped into the essence of the character, the depth and complication that made a superhero a human. “Wolverine” is too cluttered with cheesy lines and predictable clichés to be taken seriously.
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” surrendered the analysis of Logan for the feasibility of a formulaic action film. Not that every superhero movie needs to be realistic or even dangerous but it should at least treat its audience as adults. A few bad guys and a few good guys fight each other. Guess who wins.
If only the person that wrote this review, wrote X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I think we'd be talking Oscar.
ReplyDelete