For the last nine years, the X-Men film franchise has been bringing the saga of the Mutants, genetically mutated humans with special powers, to the big screen. The last film in the series, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, was seen by most as a disappointment as it tried to pack too many Mutant stories into one film. X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story of how the most popular X-Men character, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), became the man we meet in 2000’s X-Men. One might think that with a more restricted character palette to work with, this outing would be more focused and more character driven. Well, not quite.
The film opens in 1845 with a young Wolverine (aka Logan) and his half-brother Victor making a pact to always look out for each other. Logan has claws made of bone that emerge from his knuckles and Victor has claw-like fingernails that also can emerge when necessary. Logan and Victor are Mutants and they both possess the ability to heal rapidly from any wound. As nearly indestructible Mutants, they find refuge in the military and, in the opening credits, we see them fighting in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. As they continue to fight in bloody conflicts, it becomes apparent that their brotherly bond is becoming strained by Victor’s increasing fondness for killing. When Victor (Liev Schrieber) kills a superior officer, Logan and Victor are sentenced to be excecuted. However, due to their healing powers, they escape their fate without much of a problem.
They’re approached by General William Stryker (Danny Huston) who assigns them to Team X, a paramilitary unit made up entirely of Mutants. This new assignment is perfect for Victor, who finds the new excuse to use his powers to wield death and destruction exhilarating. But Logan has had enough and walks away from the team during a mission in Africa. This decision will come back to haunt him as he will eventually be hunted down by Stryker and Victor’s alter-ego, Sabretooth.
Wolverine is a well-loved character from his three previous appearances in the X-Men movies. Those who see X-Men Origins: Wolverine had better be familiar with his personality quirks from those previous films because this movie does very little to explain them. Sure, it tells us how he got to be infused with adamantium and becomes the version of Logan/Wolverine we were introduced to in X-Men, but it does very little to explain the character of Logan. Why is Logan the one who walks away from Team X and not Victor? We never find out.
We’re introduced to a large number of Mutants that appear in the comics and, possibly, future X-Men films such as Gambit, Deadpool, Wraith, and Blob, among others. We even get to meet a young Scott “Cyclops” Summers. I suspect that some liberties have been taken with their appearance and timelines versus their comic book incarnations as many such changes have been taken with the X-Men characters in the previous films.
Still, the movie doles out a lot of action and that, I suspect, is what the majority of film-goers will be expecting. In that regard, Wolverine is much more successful than X-Men: The Last Stand. But much of the action that is here feels a bit repetitive. I lost count of the number of sequences where Wolverine and Sabretooth charge at each other, growling, and baring their respective weapons.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is definitely entertaining but, ultimately, it’s anti-climactic and does little to add to the X-Men franchise or the Wolverine character.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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