'Become the animal...embrace the other side...'

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2009)

Most people know him as the most popular member of the X-men, the 'brand ambassador' of the franchise in a manner of speaking. But in many ways, Wolverine has surpassed the X-men to become an iconic legend in his own right. And after facilitating three cinematic outings for the ferocious mutant with adamantium claws along with his fellow teammates, 20th century Fox has now finally decided to give the character his own film and unveil to the wider world one of the most intriguing stories of all time: the true origins of Wolverine.
The story of the man who would become Wolverine begins on an estate in Canada in 1845, when James, the son of a wealthy landowner, witnesses the brutal murder of his father at the hand's of his groundskeeper Thomas Logan, and learns much to his horror, that Logan is his true father. Killing Logan in a fit of the berzeker rage that would later become his trademark, using his newly manifested bone claws, young James flees the estate with his half-brother, Victor. Over the next century and beyond, James (now assuming the name of his true father, Logan) and Victor lend their services to the US Army in the Civil War, the World Wars and the Vietnam War (all depicted in a spectacular opening sequence), using their mutant abilities to survive and ensure their longetivity. However, their special gifts have not been entirely overlooked for during Vietnam, they are both recruited by Major William Stryker for a special forces team consisting of mutants, including the superhumanly strong Fred Dukes, the expert marksman and gymnast Agent Zero, the teleporter John Wraith, the technopath Chris Bradly and the sword wielding 'perfect soldier', Wade Wilson. However, after realising that his teammates are willing to kill innocents indiscriminately and realising the extent of his brothers homicidal tendencies, Logan abandons the team.
Six years later, it seems that Logan has finally found peace in the arms of his lover, Kayla. But the shadows of his past return to haunt him when Kayla is seemingly killed by Victor, leading Logan to seek vengeance. Needing an edge over his nemesis, Logan rejoins Stryker and volunteers to undergo the adamantium bonding procedure and become 'Weapon X'. But on realising Strykers true agenda, Logan breaks lose and escapes, setting out to hunt down not only Victor, but Stryker as well.
The special effects and stunts are truly breath-taking, if somewhat stylized compared to previous entries in the franchise. Wolverine's battles with Sabertooth (Victor), Gambit and Deadpool are brilliant visual spectacles. The plot is pretty okay as well; its a bit rushed and quite a few liberties have been taking with the source material, but considering that the idea is to recapture the spirit of the character and considering that the said source material is 15-20 years worth of contradictory stories, they do a pretty good job. But the real cake goes to the performances. Hugh Jackman does a brilliant job as Wolverine, as always, though of course, this time he portrays aspects of the character never seen before on screen. The important thing to understand about Wolverine is that hes not a superhero; hes a wild, dangerous, anti-hero, a vengeful and unbalanced killing machine. And yet he has a soul, he has the ruins of a conscience, which is something Sabertooth clearly lacks, as evident by his shock and disgust on learning that Stryker is experimenting on innocent young mutants. Liev Schreiber plays Victor Creed/Sabertooth (though he isn't named as such in the film) as the animal that Logan/Wolverine doesn't become in spite of all he's been through. Danny Huston does a good job as William Stryker, the manipulative military scientist who seems to share an almost eerie father-son relationship with Logan. Lynn Collin does okay as Logan's one-time love Kayla and Taylor Kitcsh steals the stage from Jackman temporarily as the happy go lucky mutant gambler Remy LeBeau. Also notable is Tim Pocock for his role as a teenage Scott Summers, destined to become X-men leader Cyclops and Patrick Stewart (de-aged by CGI) as mutant visionary and X-men founder Charles Xavier in a small cameo role.
Overall, Wolverine is the perfect origin story and action film both rolled into one for one of comicdom's legendary figures.