X-Men Origins: Wolverine

*****
Three Stars Out of Five

The idea of a movie based on the comic book character Wolverine has been a fanboy's wet dream for years. Wolverine is one of the biggest badasses in comics, second only to Batman. Fans of Wolverine got a taste of him in the three X-Men movies, which ranged from good to pretty bad. What fans really wanted, though, was sheer, uncensored, murderous Wolverine on his own, before he toned himself down in order to join the X-Men. Well, we finally got a solo Wolverine movie, and it's... average.

The movie begins in the Canadian Rockies circa 1845. We are immediately introduced to a young James, and his friend Victor. James is sick, and as we learn quickly, has been sick most of his young life. It is revealed that Victor, also, has been sick when he was younger. With little character exposition right away, we learn that James and Victor share the same father, and their father shoots the man James thought was his father. James goes into a berserker rage, bone claws extend from his hands and he kills his real father. Victor and James (whom Victor calls "Jimmy) flee, and the opening credits role. It shows an adult James (Hugh Jackman) - who is called Logan now, even though the film never reveals why this is (I know why, but I'm a comic nerd; it would have been nice for the filmmakers to include this tidbit for the general audience though) and Victor Creed (Liev Schrieber) in a montage of every significant war up until Vietnam. This is a really cool sequence wear we get to see Creed lose control several times, and we begin to learn that this is a man who loves violence. Ultimately, Logan and Victor are sentenced to death by the U.S. and that sentence isn't exactly carried out, as Logan and Victor have amazing healing abilities.

Sitting in a dark cell, they are introduced to Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston). Stryker has a proposition for them: join his black ops force and use their powers for the good of the country. They oblige, as the two have nothing else to look forward to. We are then quickly introduced to the rest of the team - there's Agent Zero, a supreme marksman, Bolt (Dominic Monaghan in a tiny cameo), Wraith (Will.I.Am of the Black-Eyed Peas), Fred Dukes (who will become The Blob), and Wade Wilson (an amazing Ryan Reynolds who is sorely underused). The team storms a fortress in an attempt to find a rare material, and Logan doesn't wish to be part of a team that kills innocent people on a regular basis. He leaves the team, and Victor, behind to settle into a peaceful life.

Six years pass, and Stryker finds Logan in Canada, working as a lumberjack and living with Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). He tries to lure Logan back into the fray, but Logan refuses. It is only when Victor attacks and kills Kayla that Logan agrees to follow Stryker, as Stryker promises to give Logan the ability to kill Creed and get his vengeance for the death of Kayla.

Of course the story can't quite be this simple can it? Of course not. Turns out Stryker is manipulating Logan, and once Logan has the adamantium attached to his skin, Stryker wants to erase his memory and use him as a weapon. Logan hears this and enters into a berserker rage, killing anyone (except Stryker, of course) who stands in his way and escapes the facility in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. What follows is a mash-up of the "Rambo" films and a generic superhero origin story. It's not very original stuff.

Like I said, the story isn't all too original, but it is likable, for some reason. The main reason the movie works is due to the actors. Jackman was born to play Logan/Wolverine, and Schreiber brings the exact right amount of menace and sociopathic tendencies to Victor Creed to make him a great villain who wants his brother's undying attention. I really wish they would have focused more on the dynamic between Logan and Victor, as they are perfect foils for one another. Everybody else in the movie is good, too, with the exception of Ryan Reynolds who was absolutely born to play Wade Wilson - the mercenary who eventually goes on to become Deadpool. Reynolds has the personality and quirky delivery that makes him perfect for Wilson, and he tears up the screen, for the whole 15 minutes or so he gets to. I really wanted more of him, but this is a Wolverine movie, and Deadpool will have to wait for his own flick to be released. The other stand-out performance belongs to Taylor Kitsch who plays fan-favorite Gambit. He, too, is great in his little time on-screen and he is cocky and likable enough to picture himself carrying his own Gambit movie somewhere down the road.

There's a handful of things that the filmmakers got right with this prequel to the X-Men movies (like the casting, mentioned above), but there's a metric fuckton of things they got wrong with it. It's hard for me, as an avid comic book collector, to watch this movie and not pick nits with every single frame of celluloid, but even viewers who have little-to-no experience with Wolverine, or any of the other X-Men for that matter, will find plenty of issues with the movie. The biggest issue with the movie are it's subpar special effects. When I say subpar, I really mean horrendously fucking pathetic. There are seriously scenes with CGI that looked like they were rendered using $50 software that a soccer-mom would buy to make flashy home videos of her kids. It's really that bad. And they fucked up the most essential part of Wolverine - his goddamn claws!

Maybe it wouldn't be as obvious if we haven't seen Wolverine's claws in three previous movies. There were never scenes in the three movies prior to this where Wolverine's claws looked half as bad. I can't figure out how the filmmakers could not only regress so horribly in the special effects department, but how they could not be embarassed by releasing a product that clearly was unfinished.

Another big misstep the filmmakers made with this flick is their need to squeeze as many mutants into the movie as possible, even if it does screw up the narrative, or even the continuity established in the earlier films. As I mentioned above, the acting is good, but the actors - mainly Reynolds and Kitsch - don't have a lot of screen time, or much to work with. This is a movie about Wolverine, and it should focus on him, not other X-Men characters. If you're going to put these loved characters into the movie, at least make them important. It seems as though the filmmakers wanted to shoehorn in as many mutants as a possible as a sort of fan service, but in the end, they simply end up pissing the fans off by just teasing them (Gambit) or screwing them up pretty badly (Deadpool).In addition, nobody was really clamoring for a teen version of Cyclops, yet they unnecessarily throw him at us for reasons I can't comprehend.

The one thing I feel the filmmakers couldn't avoid was all of the continuity already established in the previous trilogy. The three prior X-Men movies established that Wolverine had lost his memory (just like the comics), and was given the adamantium by Col. Stryker. This put the filmmakers in a tough position, because now they had to tell an origin story under specific guidelines so as not to screw up the continuity that the first films introduced. Either way, they still step on some toes as not everything is followed closely enough and it seems like revisionist history in some scenes.

There really is a lot to hate about this movie, but for some reason I still liked it. Maybe it's because I'm a geek, or maybe the actors just simply elevated the material by kicking ass. It was a fun but forgettable action flick, and while I always like seeing Wolverine on screen, it did leave quite a bit to be desired. I understand the filmmakers had to follow certain guidelines, but there are many times where they just seemed to not care enough about the material and just threw together some random scenes and special effects.

You probably won't hate yourself for watching this comic book movie - like, say, "Fantastic Four," "Ghost Rider," or "Spider-Man 3" - but you also won't feel like it's elevating the genre and belongs in the company of great films in general - like "The Dark Knight" or "Iron Man." It's worth watching, just don't expect anything earth-shattering. Let's hope the sequel rights a lot of the wrongs in this one.