The question that comes to my mind is why? We already learned everything we needed to know about Wolverine in the three X-Men movies that were made before this “origin” story and there’s no need to flesh it out anymore. Of course, I can answer my question myself and you probably can too: money. Buckets and buckets of money that people will inevitably spend on it because it’s the first summer blockbuster of the season and features one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. It’s also a generic superhero movie that ignores all the advancements the genre has made in the past year with The Dark Knight and Iron Man being smash hits as well as critical darlings.
Wolverine features plenty of cameo’s that don’t belong in the story whatsoever and only derail it because we are supposed to be focusing on Wolverine. They serve little purpose than to pad the length of the movie and get fanboys all excited for the origin stories of the characters that will inevitable be made. The fight scenes aren’t even that great. We get to watch countless fights with Wolverine and Sabertooth, but they are both invincible and both are in the first X-Men movie so we know the outcome before the fight even starts. The rating doesn’t help either. It’s PG-13 so there isn’t any blood despite the fact that Wolverine is shoving his claws into people’s hands and people are getting stabbed by Deadpool’s swords. Even the special effects are mediocre, despite the rumored $150 million dollar budget.
The only saving graces are the performances of the lead players. Both Jackman and Schreiber play their parts well and elevate beyond the material they are given. Ryan Reynolds is apparently getting a feature length film as Deadpool and is well cast as the non-stop trash talker, despite playing the same character he always does. Danny Huston is rather bland as Stryker though and doesn’t bring anything to the character and pales in comparison to Brian Cox’s interpretation of the character in X2.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t a complete waste of time and is mildly entertaining, but it pales in comparison to other recent comic book adaptations or even the previous three X-Men movies. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t anything other than mediocre.
** out of 4 stars
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