X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

There are minor spoilers in this review.

PLOT: Wolverine lives a mutant life, seeking revenge against Victor Creed (who will later become Sabertooth) for the death of his girlfriend, and ultimately ends up going through the mutant Weapon X program.


THE GOOD: Hugh Jackman. We all know that Jackman is a great actor (except for Dr. Cox on Scrubs, but that stems from jealousy) and he does what he can with the weak script for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The guy was perfectly cast in the original back in 1999 when he was practically an unknown actor. Now he's gone on to win a Tony, get nominated for a Golden Globe, and earn People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive award. This is one of his weakest performances due to incredibly poor writing. However, there is no one else who can yell "NOOOOOOOOOO!" like Mr. Jackman can. Well, maybe Vader.


Action. The action is ridiculous and completely unrealistic, but it's fun. I really liked the opening title sequence that showed Logan and Victor fighting in all the wars. It was wonderfully edited. I also liked the Team X sequence near the beginning where we get to see Deadpool, Agent Zero, Kestrel, Blob (well, pre-Blob), and Bolt. Seeing a team work together like that brings back memories of the previous X-Men movies, but Wolverine quickly separates itself and the action gets worse, pointless, and cheesy. However, there is no other movie that can pull off a jump up to a helicopter sequence like X-Men Origins: Wolverine can. Well, maybe Austin Powers.


THE BAD: Special effects. With as big of a budget as Wolverine got ($150 mil), I'm surprised at how terrible a lot of the SFX were. I don't think Wolverine's claws have ever looked more fake. Also, him jumping off the waterfall was certainly one of the most clumsy moments of the whole film. Honorable mention to Agent Zero jumping in the helicopter scene and the Wolverine walking away from the blowing up helicopter scene. I also have to say that any scene Gambit was in including the card throwing, the ladder chopping, and cement breaking was just plain bad all around. Professor X looked like a burn victim. They could have certainly taken a lesson from Ben Button. The whole final fight scene with Wolverine and Weapon XI was as bad as it gets. I bet the producers were pushed to finish the film faster to stay clear of the Star Trek and Terminator 4 weekends, but that's no excuse.

Character development. Even though Wolverine is supposed to be the freakin' main character of this film (did the writers forget that his name is in the title?), the character development for him is insubstantial. He ends up the same way he starts out. He learns absolutely nothing and grows in no way. The writers didn't even seem to know how to treat his relationship with his brother. That's not even the half of it. All of the other minor characters didn't seem to have a purpose or background either. Lots of the new characters are only there just for fan service and accomplish next to nothing. Gambit, who is a great and interesting character, could have gone without being in this film. The fight with him was equally pointless. Same thing with Blob. Same thing with Bolt. I can go on.

Script. Definitely some of the worst writing of the year. I'm shocked to see David Benioff's name on this script. He's put out some really great stuff before (25th Hour, The Kite Runner), but this was utter crap. I wonder if Skip Woods was more responsible for the writing as his résumé is not so impressive (Swordfish, Hitman).


Director. Gavin Hood certainly would not have been my first pick to direct a big budget action flick. It's a matter of a director like Hood not being able to handle a movie without much drama in it.

Producers. I've only just started noticing this trend in films where the more producers it has, the more likely it's going to suck. Wolverine is produced by seven, count them - SEVEN producers. While the talents of all of them are high, having this many creative minds doing the same job on one project is too much.


THE END: X-Men Origins: Wolverine is exactly what I expected. Over the top action, cheesy dialogue, and no real storyline. I would say that it's the worst X-Men movie to date, including Last Stand. It's also the most similar to the third film in that there is little to no character development for minor characters and the only reason they are there is just for fans to see them. Joel says rent it, I say miss it.


DISCUSS: What is your favorite X-Men movie? Who is your favorite character and why? Who would you like to see in an Origins film?