Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(Note: An old review, obviously.)
2 stars
Some blockbuster action films you see and you think that maybe, just maybe, they were made for art. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not one of those films. After two sequels the producers have decided to set the ball rolling on a multi-series of prequels. For everyone involved, the franchise really has finally stepped over from credible cinema to the shameful reservoir of stagnant creativity and lazy moneymaking.
The premise for the first Origins instalment is that Wolverine (played with remarkably macho gruffness by the impossibly rugged Hugh Jackman) used to be a little less indestructible and a little more Canadian. As Jackman wanders round chopping trees in his lumberjack’s boots, pouring Maple syrup on his bacon and refusing to fight with the American army, a mad bloke is trying to convince him to re-join his group of superhuman war-winning foreigner-slaughterers.
After several twists and turns involving Jackman’s character and his brother, Sabretooth, Wolverine is eventually ‘born’ as Jackman is transformed through some kind of Cold War military experiment which involves turning his skeleton into metal, or something.
The plot is largely uninteresting and for the most part all you really want is to see Jackman roar, flex his oily muscles and tear the head off the nearest enemy with his death-claws. However, too much of the film is spent trying to get us to understand Wolverine’s emotional journey, a task director Gavin Hood completely fails to accomplish: any scene that isn’t either confrontational or a fight is, unfortunately, utterly corny.
Origins excels only really during its action scenes, which are overall pretty decent. The main thing is that Jackson’s Wolverine is pretty cool and extremely hard. Wolverine and Sabretooth versus a whole army squadron with automatic rifles? No worries. Wolverine versus two tanks and a helicopter? Easy money.
It might lack much originality, artistic merit, decent dialogue, or soul, but if you’ve got an hour and a half to spare, there are worse ways to spend it. The sad thing is that the first two X-Men films are actually pretty good. It’s a shame that the producers are prepared to suck dry a series which showed so much promise. If they continue with these prequels then the franchise will doubtless descent further into mediocrity. Oh well, at least we’ll get to see more of Jackman and his sideburns.
(Note: An old review, obviously.)
2 stars
Some blockbuster action films you see and you think that maybe, just maybe, they were made for art. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not one of those films. After two sequels the producers have decided to set the ball rolling on a multi-series of prequels. For everyone involved, the franchise really has finally stepped over from credible cinema to the shameful reservoir of stagnant creativity and lazy moneymaking.
The premise for the first Origins instalment is that Wolverine (played with remarkably macho gruffness by the impossibly rugged Hugh Jackman) used to be a little less indestructible and a little more Canadian. As Jackman wanders round chopping trees in his lumberjack’s boots, pouring Maple syrup on his bacon and refusing to fight with the American army, a mad bloke is trying to convince him to re-join his group of superhuman war-winning foreigner-slaughterers.After several twists and turns involving Jackman’s character and his brother, Sabretooth, Wolverine is eventually ‘born’ as Jackman is transformed through some kind of Cold War military experiment which involves turning his skeleton into metal, or something.
The plot is largely uninteresting and for the most part all you really want is to see Jackman roar, flex his oily muscles and tear the head off the nearest enemy with his death-claws. However, too much of the film is spent trying to get us to understand Wolverine’s emotional journey, a task director Gavin Hood completely fails to accomplish: any scene that isn’t either confrontational or a fight is, unfortunately, utterly corny.
Origins excels only really during its action scenes, which are overall pretty decent. The main thing is that Jackson’s Wolverine is pretty cool and extremely hard. Wolverine and Sabretooth versus a whole army squadron with automatic rifles? No worries. Wolverine versus two tanks and a helicopter? Easy money.
It might lack much originality, artistic merit, decent dialogue, or soul, but if you’ve got an hour and a half to spare, there are worse ways to spend it. The sad thing is that the first two X-Men films are actually pretty good. It’s a shame that the producers are prepared to suck dry a series which showed so much promise. If they continue with these prequels then the franchise will doubtless descent further into mediocrity. Oh well, at least we’ll get to see more of Jackman and his sideburns.
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