Wolverine Is A Decent Movie With Flaws

Rating: 6/10 (8 May 2009)

X-Men Origins Wolverine is a decent comic book movie brought to the big screen its no Dark Knight or Iron Man but it's certainly no Elektra or most recently Punisher War Zone. The film follows the story of James Howlett and his transformation into Logan also known as Wolverine. The movie answers a lot of questions about his character and is an entertaining action adventure with some flaws. But fortunately the good outweighs the bad. The director Gavin Hood does a good job of keeping Logans character at the center and well choreographed action sequences at a steady pace. As far as the acting goes everyone pretty much did a solid job of bringing these characters to life. Hugh Jackman was born to play Logan/Wolverine and he does a great job with the character. He's a man who's sick of fighting and just wants a normal life. Jackman's Wolverine is a man conflicted with feelings of anger, rage, guilt, regret, and revenge. Equally impressive is Liev Shreiber as Wolverines half brother Victor Creed/Sabretooth. He brings a lot to the role of a man who feels betrayed and abandoned by his brother. Creed is a mirror image of what Logan could be if he fully embraced his dark side. Tyler Mane who played the character in the first X-Men film by Bryan Singer did a good job with that role. But his character felt more like a henchmen and he didn't have much dialogue. He wasn't in it that much either because the focus seemed more on Mangeto and Mystique than him. Besides two fights with Wolverine his character was a bit disappointing in the first one. Shreiber makes for a menacing Sabretooth just like Mane but fortunately in this one he gets a lot more screen time and is much more developed. Danny Huston also does a solid job as Striker taking over for Brian Cox. He's man who always has a secret agenda and can never be fully trusted. Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox is strikingly beautiful yet mysterious woman with a secret of her own. Out of all the supporting characters the only one to leave an impression was Gambit. In his first big screen appearance Taylor Kistch a relatively unknown does a good job as the Cajun thief Remy Lebleau also known as Gambit. He doesn't get a whole lot of screen time but he does leave an impression and his brawl with Wolverine is a very impressive fight sequence. Gambit gets about 10 to 15 minutes of screen time but his appearance isn't as nearly as disappointing as Venom's was in Spider-man 3. Maybe he might get his own origin story one day. Mostly everything works from the pace to the action that become more frenetic as the movie goes on. There were however a few things I was disappointed one thing was Ryan Reynolds character Wade Wilson/Deadpool. He gets at the most 5 to 8 minutes of screen time no lie. He shows up early on and then his character disappears until the final third act. With news of a possible spin off of his character in the works maybe it can do justice to his character because this one doesn't unfortunately because Reynolds is great in the small role he does have in the movie. The same can go for Dominic Monaghans character Chris Bradley/Bolt who can control electricity. His role in the movie seems sort of pointless and is nothing more than a brief extended cameo. The rest of the supporting cast do an admirable job in their roles including Will.i.am in his acting debut as teleporter John Wraith, Danny Henney as expert marksman Agent Zero, and Kevin Durand as Fred Dukes/The Blob, but unfortunately none of them aren't as fully developed as Wolverine and Sabretooth. The movie at least to me also felt a bit rushed even with a running time of 107 minutes. If the film had been longer and focused a little more on Deadpool or Gambit to name a few giving their characters more screen time instead of giving them brief cameos the movie would've been a better. Besides it's flaws X-Men Origins is still an entertaining comic book film plenty of action, fist fights, explosions, chases, and some humor that make for an enjoyable film to watch.