Wolverine Back as an Outsider

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2009)

The mysterious Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is back as his old conflicted self. The third X-Men movie ("X-Men: The Last Stand", 2006) made him into a pathetic team player, taught him his manners and how to be a socially acceptable sheep of the collective. This movie brings back the 'gunfighter' or the 'Dirty Harry' mystique that characterized him in the first two films. He's unpredictable, a loose cannon, and gutsy to the point of stupidity. Good thing he's sort of immortal!
Never mind the side characters in this film. They are only important as a challenge to Wolverine and to force him to scrap and claw his way through adversity. Wolverine takes his hits just like many of the best gunfighters and hard boiled detectives, think Clint Eastwood, in his reluctant path to unleash his darker side.
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) far surpasses the controversial third movie and it makes Wolverine much more interesting. In the first two movies I saw him as a side show, a weaker mutant, and a distraction from the imaginative powers of Magneto and Professor Charles Xavier. I used to think: why concentrate on this Wolverine guy so much?
But when he's the official main character and when he's allowed to portray a full spectrum of his loner and outsider self -- and his punishment taking and punishment dealing hotheadedness -- then he turns the movie into a story of a mysterious 'dark knight'.
His job is to clean the world of pure filth and to keep peace for us the sheep. It takes someone who is a bit dangerous himself, as symbolized by his dark dreams and tendency to claw his girlfriend accidentally in his sleep.
But, like "Shane", he appropriately goes back to being an outsider after he accomplishes his mission to wait for another time when he's needed and to preserve his independence -- always torturing himself so he can torture others when he must.
The plot pits Logan against the devious plans of Stryker (a human) and a team of mutants of Stryker. Stryker secretly begins to hunt down dangerous mutants and recruits Logan/Wolverine, but Wolverine shows moderation and reluctance to engage in Stryker's cruel missions.
Victor Creed, Wolverine's war friend and brother, then goes vigilante and starts hunting down the old team of mutants. Wolverine and Victor clash in some very fierce fighting; certainly the most brutal of any fight scenes in the X-Men movies so far.
Some of the straight forward mutants include a powerful and thick skinned blockhead (Fred Dukes / Blob), a charmer and hypnosis mind controller (Wolverine's girlfriend), a diamond skinned girl (her sister), an electricity controller (Chris Bradley / Bolt), a cyclops, a toad, and an ultimate mutant-monster (with combined mutant powers).
In this movie Logan/Wolverine takes tremendous amounts of pain; he takes the harshest sufferings and beatings of any gunfighter in any western ever made, but, of course, he's able to take it all through his near-immortalizing ability to heal.
But we also get a glimpse into another of Wolverine's vulnerabilities. X2 found a way to kill a mutant like him. Well, 'Origins' also finds a way.
Some of the time I was lost about the skills and characteristics of the other mutants. I wasn't quite sure about Agent Zero or Gamble. Their powers, their background, their everything was quite mysterious to me. I think Agent Zero is really fast like the Flash, but I wasn't sure. Gamble may have been too, but I'm not sure.
I wasn't sure about Victor Creed either; he reminded me of Sabretooth from the first movie (it wasn't explained if he was though). He has immense strength and agility, and he has great immunity to most injuries. He seems to have long life since he fought by the side of Logan in several wars. Why is Victor so powerful? Is he immortal like Wolverine or is his Achilles-heal just difficult to discover?
But I suppose such explanation of mutant powers and histories would require tangential scenes, voice over, or a reduction in the number of mutants.
I think the fewer the mutants the better. The stronger mutants would take attention away from Wolverine and make him seem less powerful in such a central role. He would be a man of mere lucky success, rather than a hero of strength, ingenuity, and experience. Perhaps he's a little too lucky in the final fight scenes, and it made me think that a more powerful mutant would make a better lead.
It wasn't as imaginative and cerebral as X2, but its dark ethos created more thrilling and interesting action than the action scenes in X-Men and X2. It's intense action and limited use of side mutants had the side effect of clearing the way for Wolverine, placing him center stage and portraying him with a new gunfighter ethos.
I got a little bored with some of the action and the lack of explanation to feed my imagination. Though after watching the special feature I was pleased that the filmmakers wanted the authentic Wolverine back. Hugh Jackman wanted to portray his fiercest self yet, and I think he succeeds.