X-Men Origins: Wolverine kicks off the summer blockbusters. In the coming weeks, Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, Night at the Museum 2, and Pixar’s UP will be released and that is just in May. And, it may be that all the titles I just mentioned will be better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t impress and does not have the feeling of a Summer blockbuster.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine takes us back to how Logan became Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). We see what happens to his family and the death of his father. We see the jealousy of his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber), who later becomes Sabretooth. Logan meets Col. William Stryker who is putting a team of mutants together. Later, we find out his real plans and what he is doing with the mutant’s powers. We know it as Weapon X.
The story introduces the Blob, Deadpool, Silver Fox and Gambit. Most of the characters are misused or underused. Gambit is a fine example of a cool character in the comics, but he barely has any screen time in the movie. Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool, and we have a peek at his character at the beginning, but that’s about it. This movie is about Wolverine and Sabretooth – the relationship as brothers and the different paths they choose for themselves.
I have to give credit to Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, and Danny Houston (who plays Stryker). These guys do their best to tell this story. I think Schreiber and Houston are good villains and Jackman is the ultimate hero. In all of the X-Men movies, Jackman’s Wolverine is the standout. But, I do not know if we needed a movie about his origins.
This movie ends where X-Men begins. So you may already know the ending to this due to Logan not knowing anything at the beginning of X-Men. Also, we know Sabretooth is in X-Men and a much older Stryker appears in X2: X-Men United. So there are no real surprises in this. And there are certain things in the story that do not make sense. The one example that sticks in my mind is Wolverine and Sabretooth’s aging. He suddenly gets to Hugh Jackman’s age and quits. They fight through many wars, but Logan and Victor never age. They grew up to a certain point and then suddenly stopped.
But in the end, it’s an X-Men movie. So are there entertaining scenes? Yes. Are there action scenes that are cool, but so unbelievable? You bet. It’s loud and fun. Mission accomplished. I just think this should be it for X-Men movies or spinoffs, but I know it won’t be. This movie made $87 million over the weekend. We haven’t seen the last of any X-Men.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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