Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, Hugh Jackman returns to
the role that made him a star. It’s hard to believe that it’s now nearly ten
years since Bryan Singer’s X-Men first hit theater
screens, back in the summer of 2000. Jackman’s marvelous feral portrayal of the
tough-as-nails Wolverine helped to center the movie around an X-Men character
that was little known outside of the comics world and who would go on to become
a mass audience favorite. As it’s name implies, X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks
at how it all began for everybody’s favorite steel-clawed mutant, as we travel
back in time to the 1800s, where we find little Wolvie and his big brother
Sabertooth on the run after Logan clawed his real father to death in the
aftermath of a sordid family confrontation scene that reeked of such cheesy soap
opera that it would have made Jane Austin cringe in disgust.
And, unfortunately, it just gets worse from this point on. We’re treated to a
montage of the immortal Wolverine and Sabertooh as they fight in every major war
starting from the American Civil War straight up to Vietnam. When they get in
trouble for killing a superior officer, Stryker, the villain from X-Men 2,
shows up and offers them a job with his mutant commando team. Here, the younger
Stryker is played by Danny Huston, who is reduced to performing him as a second
rate James Bond villain who keeps conveniently popping up to offer Wolverine
either some helpful plot exposition or a job (sometimes both). The film, while
technically very well done, with some impressive special effects, is still very silly.
With countless scenes of super-macho guys (with superpowers, no less) strutting their stuff all over the place, I got the feeling that, had I seen this when I was 13, I would have loved it. But now…meh! Director Gavin Hood seems to be merely going through the motions as he blandly hits all of the beats, without actually getting us involved in the story, or making us care for the characters. And the tired storyline is made up of elements that we’ve seen before--such as mutants being captured by nefarious government agents--and done much better, such as in X2. But the climatic battle at Three Mile Island (guess we know what really happened there now, huh?) is spectacular enough to lift this from being a one star rating, but that ain’t saying much. If you need a Wolverine fix, watch the X-Men films.
--SF
