X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Marvel Comics Movie Review)

Plot
This action-packed prequel to the popular X-Men films explores Marvel Comics character Wolverine's past and the events that influenced the mutant before the Weapon X program bonded his skeleton with the powerfully strong metal alloy adamantium. After the death of his girlfriend, Wolverine seeks vengeance against supervillain Victor Creed.

Jason’s Thoughts
I may be in the minority here, but I actually enjoyed X-Men Origins: Wolverine, although I will say that I dropped my rating a bit from the first time I watched it. With the second viewing, I noticed a few aspects that I didn’t particularly like, but they didn’t ruin the movie for me as it seems it did for others who have written reviews on the film.

Wolverine is my favorite X-Men character - and has been since I first picked up an X-Men comic when I was a young teenager - and his origins have always been somewhat of a mystery. This movie tries to fill in some of the blanks and it starts off with a bang with a well produced montage that shows Wolverine fighting side-by-side with Sabertooth throughout the wars of history.

From there, X-Men Origins: Wolverine shows the title character joining a group of mercenaries before having second thoughts. He then gets talked into joining the Weapon X program and has his bones bonded with adamantium and has run ins with other characters - both human and mutants - that have appeared in previous X-Men movies as well as a few new ones.

One of my gripes about the movie is how many of the mutants seem to be wedged into the film for really no reason. Sure it can be fun for fans of the comics to see a cameo of a character on the screen, but it was a bit overdone in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. For instance, Remy LeBeau, also known as the mutant Gambit, had a small part in the film but it all seemed a bit forced.

The biggest strike against a character in the movie, though, was that of Wade Wilson, who is also known as Deadpool. Wilson, who started off being casted perfectly with Ryan Reynolds, got off to a good start as Deadpool is a very mouthy character and that fits Reynolds mold perfectly. Later on, however, Wilson is turned into Weapon XI, which takes away his ability to speak. I can see how having Deadpool talk nonstop during the final climatic battle could have taken away from the action and could have been distracting, but having Deadpool in that sort of role didn’t have to be written that way.

The action in the film was well done, as expected, and features a series of good special effects. Not all of the effects are that great, however, as there were a few spots that I felt weren’t either done well or done at all. One moment that sticks out in my mind was the scene where Logan extracts his claws at the farmhouse. Instead of having a new set of shiny adamantium claws, the effect looked very dull, not to mention out of proportion.

A few special effects and too many extra characters aside, X-Men Origins: Wolverine does a good job a fleshing out Wolverine’s backstory - in the movie universe at least - and features a good mix of story, drama, and action. I would be open to sitting down to watch other origin stories for other major X-Men characters, as long as they keep the cameos down to a minimum.

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