Faster than unsheathing claws
The origin of Wolverine is one filled with intrigue. Comic book fans have argued that this character’s background is one of the most talked about origins of the Marvel universe. When Fox announced a couple of years ago that they were planning a movie around it there was so much to look forward to. Thanks to the debacle that was the last X-Men film there were many people very skeptical on whether Fox could pull this off properly.
Fast-forward a couple of years and you end up with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The story follows a young and naive Logan, with friend Victor (Sabertooth), who are wondering the world and participating in all its violent splendors (mostly wars). Of course, the story really begins when Logan and Victor meet up with General Stryker, who recruits them to join a special forces team the government is putting together. The team’s purpose varies from mission to mission. Regretfully, during a mission to retrieve a very ‘precious’ metal (guess which one) Logan becomes disenchanted with the team’s purpose and quits. Fast-forward three years, and removed from any contact with the team (including Victor), Logan finds himself settled in Canada with a lovely girl. Things get bad when Victor goes rogue and finds Logan and kills his girlfriend. Dead set on revenge, Logan finds Stryker and receives new metal digs under his skin to act out his revenge and help out Stryker in containing Victor. All is not well, of course, but you can find out why on your own.
Continuing the streak of Marvel failures (three in a row now — Fantastic Four, X-Men III), Fox has gone and put too much in a short amount of time. The first problem with Wolverine is that there are too many characters and not enough time to establish them properly. You get a very brief introduction to all the characters on the first/last full mission of the team during the story. You get a brief intro of Deadpool, but don’t really get to understand how/where this guy came form. Throwing out one or two sentences doesn’t establish a character, especially someone as important as him. Why is this important? Well, when Victor goes on a personal manhunt of all the team parts you can’t really connect to any of them or discover how they felt when the team was together doing terribly violent deeds. It’s essential for the viewer to bond with the characters, put them on a side (good or bad) and determine whether to care about them or not (which never happens, even with Logan). If the film was a bit longer and a few characters mentioned, while a few of them were incredibly developed then this may not be an issue. Packing more than three characters into a movie and trying to make them strong supporting roles is just insanity and near impossible; especially for comic book characters where fans are going to expect great depth.
Outside of the characters, the story itself moves too damn fast. You never truly establish a strong bond between Logan and Victor. You never get that ‘human’ moment between the two people. Even at the beginning when Logan kills Victor’s (and Logan’s) father, you never understand why Victor dislikes his dad and why he feels connected with Logan. I know that in the comic book, during this series, most of the comic was dedicated to the relationship that Victor and Logan had established. If the movie were focused on those two it would have been much stronger and much better in the long run. This poor relationship is repeated with Logan’s relationship with his girlfriend, Silverfox. You know, thanks to clever titling, that Logan had been separated from his team for three years, but what you don’t know is if he has been spending time with Silverfox for three years. You also don’t have enough time to establish how much she knows about him, how huge of a relationship they have (they kiss here and there, but don’t really talk) and this equals out to the same problem that the Victor relationship had — just not enough time to develop. Why is this important? Well, when Sabertooth comes to kill Silverfox you really don’t feel too terribly connected with her or do you feel sorry for Logan’s loss. Because that is the catalyst for the story it really doesn’t stick too well.
The rest of the film is basically the same as it’s hurried and compact. The action scenes are damn good, but without a solid, established story with developed characters, you basically have nothing to really connect with or enjoy. With that said, go into it with an open mind and maybe you can enjoy how this was done. Also, don’t forget to give Hugh Jackman huge props for his work; certainly he loves and adores the character of Wolverine (and it shows).
Something to sink your canines into
The upswing for this film is that it’s presented on one of the more gorgeous formats, blu-ray. This movie is colorful, action-packed and nothing short of beautiful on a 1080p or 720p screen. There are no artifacts and it’s brilliantly done. As for the audio, my lord, you’ll get a DTS-HD mastered 5.1 track so that you can hear all the wonderful action through every beautiful speaker in your home theater set-up. This is why blu-ray shines; action films make it so.
As for features, this 2-disc set is loaded. Here’s what you’re getting:
• Disc One
o Commentary by Director Gavin Hood
o Commentary by Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter
o The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein
o Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins
o “Wolverine Weapon X Mutant Files Featurette: 10 Character Chronicles
o “The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Chase Sequence” featurette
o “X Connect and On Set With Gavin Hood” featurette
o X-Facts: Trivia Track
o Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Gavin Hood
o Alternate Memory Erase Sequence
o Alternate Tag Scene: Japan
o Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere
o IMDB BD-Live technology
• Disc Two
o Digital Copy