Friday, May 1, 2009

Wolverine Is Not A Beast Of A Film

It’s May 1 and today is the day the summer movie season kicks off with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. So, do we start off with a bang or a dud?
Well … to be completely honest Wolverine is a dud of a movie. The film is filled with generic explosions, car chases and stunts. We’ve seen it all before and we’ve seen it better.
The story is nothing special and at times, being a prequel, it tries too hard to end where it needs to begin.
If you don’t know the story is all about Wolverine’s violent and romantic past. It also explores his complicated relationship with Victor Creed (Sabretooth) and the menacing Weapon X program.
Through the movie, Wolverine encounters several other mutants, some that fans are excited about, but once you see the movie you’ll feel let down. I’m talking specifically about Gambit and Deadpool – if you’re excited about seeing them you are going to be tremendously let down.
The other bad thing is the Fox Co-Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman not really allowing the director or writers to explore the true origins of Wolverine. If you read the comic books you know that Wolverine is a much more tortured soul than he appears to be in this movie.
In the comic books Wolverine’s past is full of sorrow, he looses his family and friends and he grows into a hardened person. In the movie all this is brushed upon, never going into great depth about it and we only get to see a lighter version of the origin story.
Now you might be wondering if there are any redeeming qualities about the movie and really there’s not much. The story sucked and didn’t keep me immersed and the action sequences were so boring that I felt like falling asleep (I see better action on TV).
Yet, the performance from Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth was done well and also Hugh Jackman seems to know his character backwards and forwards. Then we get to Ryan Reynolds, he’s just being Ryan Reynolds, did he even try to research his role? It felt like I was just watching him play Van Wilder again.
In the end the movie felt rushed for me. I felt like I was watching a bunch of little pieces not coming together for one fantastic and dramatic conclusion. This movie knew what it had to do and instead of being a little more risky it went the safe road and became more predictable than anything. Also, Without the ability to really, truly explore the dark corners of Wolverine we are left with a poor attempt to make him more appealing to a wider audience.
I can’t really recommend it and I will only say go and see it if you are a huge X-Men fan who needs to see anything X-Men. If you’re not a fan, just stay clear and wait for better summer movies to come out.

C-

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