Talk about a Shaggy Dog story...

Rating: 2/10 (29 April 2009)

Sharp claws, cheep cigars, cheesy one liners? Have I seen this movie before? Thought so! Its round four for the X-Men and with the mutant franchise over it's about time we check the personal files on our protagonists with "X-Men Origins" This origin story tells the tale of Wolverine, the most prominent of the X-Men, and also the one that headlines all three of the previous film. Which brings up the films biggest flaw. Relevance. The problem is that Wolverine is a character that, in layman's terms had been done to death. A fourth film in which he headlines is abnoxsiouse, repetitive and insanely dull. The only pleasure fans will get is from the vast array of new characters most interesting of which is the criminally underused Dead pool (Ryan Reynolds). Is it an awful movie? Not really. The phrase below par seems adequate here. Its feels rushed, undercooked yet overblown at the same time. The action scenes are admirable at best blending real backgrounds with some of the ugliest CGI I've ever laid my eves upo¬n. The gruff, steel-clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine strikes out on his own in this X-Men spin-off starring series regular Hugh Jackman. The film is set up as an origin tale for the character, and will find him sharing the screen with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), John Wraith (will.i.am), Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), and Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston). Academy Award-winning director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) films a screenplay penned by Troy scribe David Benioff. Daniel Henney and Lost's Dominic Monaghan round out the supporting cast.
What works for the movie are twofold, it's simple structure is fool proof. There isn't a second where you'll get lost and it acts as an idiots guide to the series, obviously causing a problem for readers of the X-men comics. It's insanely undemanding leaving skipping key events and undermining characters that should play a pivotal role. None of which is going to matter to the passing movie goer. The acting is a step up for the series with bright spark Danny Huston taking over from Brian Cox as William Stryker. Liev Schreiber, a personal favourite of mine, plays Sabretooth with a veracious and cold nature and is only ever stumbles when he is stricken with poor dialogue. Here is where the film falls flat on its face, granted the series is well known for its campy dialogue - (anyone remember the Juggernaut) - here the dialogue is so underwritten and textbook that its almost uncomfortable to watch each character stagger over every line they deliver.
It's a shame really, if anyone remembers director Gavin Hood's previous work (Rendition, Tsotsi) then you'll know he is capable of great things. With this it doesn't show. His direction is lost in a haze of special effects and poorly choreographed fight sequences. Never before have I wanted Bryan Singer to get behind the wheel. The film runs at approximately 107 minutes, which is at best 20 minutes too long. Granted this movie is aimed more at the younger children than it is at me. Maybe I'm just too old for this, but if old man Logan were watching this I'm pretty sure he'd have a thing or two to say. Which brings up the concluding point, this is a film designed to repel fans boys. It placates to those in the need for a mindless actioner without any complex narrative, if you've never picked up a comic in your life, by all means go have fun. The rest of us will have to wait until next time to get the origin story we deserve.
Verdict: At best Wolverine is undemanding, placating to an audience too young to appreciate the comics it's based upon. The older audiences will only turn their nose at the poor fight choreography, drastically drab visuals and a story so effortless it for shames that of its video game counterpart. This clunky prequel doesn't even make an effort to maintain a semblance of balance between story and spectacle, characters and special effects. For my overall rating I give X-Men Origins: Wolverine an unenthusiastic 2/5.