X-men Origins: Wolverine Film review
(12A, 1hr 47mins)
Introduction
X-men Origins: Wolverine has a lot to live up to, probably more than the first X-men film, as it is a story X-men and Wolverine fans have waited a long time for.
For those not familiar with the back ground, Wolverine’s vague past has always been part of his appeal. A personality to himself, his past had been hinted at in the comic books from a wiped memory by the Weapon X program, his healing powers wiping his memory, past traumas, etc. Also, where he orginated was also quite vague until recently.
Early 2000’s a story was revealed about Wolverines past .
A film, i guess has been a long time waiting, but once you opened Pandora’s box, will it be worth the knowing the contents?
Thus, the film is here and all X-men and Wolverine fans will sit, arms folded with note pads to see if the film measures up!
Written by Wolverine fan David Benioff (Troy, The Kite Runner), and directed by Gavin Hood (2005’s award-winning Tsotsi). Bryan Singer couldn’t make the directing chair as he was off doing Superman things!
Plot
The film begins with the young James (logan/Wolverine) as a sickly child, kept company by friend Victor (implied Sabretooth, but not said in the film).
After hearing gun shots in the house, young James runs downstairs to see his father shot in cold blood. He then manifests his claws for the first time and stabs the killer of his father to only be told, the killer is his real father!
Jimmy runs and is followed by Victor. They stay together through the years following, as shown in the film through many bloody war conflicts, implying Victor liking the gore and killing, with Jimmy/Wolverine joining but following orders rather than enjoying the job.
Without giving the whole story, Jimmy settles down, loses partner, does the revenge thing, gets a metal skeleton and claws, more revenge, meets some X-men characters, gets his revenge, fights DeadPool shown as the ultimate X-man, then defeats him with help from Victor, loses partner again and has his memory wiped!
Overview
The film, on second viewing was much more enjoyable. I started to see why the film makers injected their versions of the story, e.g. how his memory was wiped, his relationship with Sabretooth, Deadpool, etc. On first viewing, i saw the film from the point of view of the comic story and what i remember of the Wolverine story from past reading and was a bit disappointed with how the story had been changed in the film. Me thought, ‘if the orginal Origin writers had put so much time and effort into the story in the first place, why change it?
Well, the film has to appeal to a much wider audience for one. Unless you really care about the character Wolverine, nearly 2 hours of film may be too much for someone if it was solely about Wolverine.
The film introduces new characters from the X-men world – The Blob, Bolt, Gambit, Agent Zero, Cyclops and has some familiar faces – William Stryker, and Professor Xavier with an drastic air brushed face!
A full film plot overview is best viewed here.
Conclusion
Does the film work? First viewing, not too sure as i was too ’sniffy’ comparing it too the graphic novel story and past snippets of Wolverine’s back story.
Second viewing was much more enjoyable. Plenty of action, special effects, showing the individual character’s powers.
If you treat the film as a good overview of the Wolverine story and as a good action film, then its well worth a watch.
(update) – Release date for the DVD and Blue Ray (special edition 2 disc set with lots of extras available also) – October 19th 2009.
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