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| Friday, June 26, 2009 |
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine [2009] |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story concerning the background of the Marvel comics character James Logan and how he became Wolverine.
Now that part was simple enough. But the producers had few other things to keep in mind obviously. Now that the star powers of many of the actors from the original X-Men movies have increased, so have their salaries and at present it is practically quite tough to include Hugh Jackman, oscar winners Halle Berry and Anna Paquin (the latter of whom recently is enjoying a resurgence in her fanbase due to True Blood) and oscar-nominated Ellen Page in one single film. So it seems only logical to tell a strictly-Logan story featuring only teenage versions of other famous mutants. Although one must admit that this film does feature a few other cool characters.
You know how these summer blockbusters go. Simple plotlines with usual subplot clichés like betrayal, love, brotherhood etc, mostly stupid dialogues with a few solitary instances of clever smartass quotes, ample amounts of mostly excellent CGI action effects and in all, great production value. Origins had all of these. But there's one more thing that really works for the film. That's the very efficient cast.
Hugh Jackman have come a long way in the path of Hollywood stardom after he was cast as Wolverine in the original X-Men film in 2000. Now he is quite a mature actor who can pull off any stupid script you throw at him. His portrayal of the character has grown increasingly convincing in each film. Here he is at his best. And he gets full support from Liev Schreiber who plays Sabretooth, his brother. Schrieber is always known as a versatile character actor who has done some memorable characters in quite a number of films. But he gives us here a pleasant surprise as the extremely convincing action anti-hero. New Hollywood hunk Ryan Reynolds, Lost star Dominic Monaghan and rapper will.i.am add to the star value by playing some important supporting characters in the film.
This paragraph is mostly for Marvel geeks. There are some discrepancies in Wolverine's comic book origin stories and what's described in the film. Some differences had to be there as comics and film are two very different media. But I didn't like the fact that the film entirely misses the story of Itsu whom he shortly marries after Silverfox's apparent death. It could have been a better plot tension. Also in the comic book, Deadpool was never supposed to be Weapon XI. It seemed to me as a poor choice made by the producers. They could have used Deadpool in a more significant role in some later film in the franchise.
But, to summerise, X-Men Wolverine is nothing more than it's supposed to be. The essential summer action fun where you shouldn't put too much of your mind into. |
posted by Noisy Autist @ 7:25 AM  |
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