Tuesday, 6 January 2015

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)






















Mkay so after the semi successful X-Men trilogy came this origins tale (prequel) which was originally also gonna carry on with Magneto and Professor X...I believe. We all know how that turned out though, I think the idea of yet more origin tales was perhaps a bit daunting for everyone.

So the movie is about Wolverine's origins but that is a bit of lie really, its mainly about one period in his life. At the start we see Logan as a child and how he befriends Creed, fast forward through the ages we then see the pair fighting in most of the biggest wars such as the American Civil War, WWI, WWII and Vietnam where Creed kills an Officer. The pair are then executed by firing squad? did that happen to US troops in Nam? Anyway its only then that the outside world finally notices these two blokes have been alive for over a century, I still think that would get noticed as time pasted by and we approached the modern era. The funny thing is the movie skips past all this information but it looks way more interesting and fun than what we actually get. I'd love to see Creed and Logan fighting in WWI/WWII and Nam.



Moving on we see Stryker hiring the pair to join his Team X which is easily the coolest part of the film with the most potential yet alas it is lost. The team isn't the same as the comic source material but I guess that is a given, my main issue was the fact that only Agent Zero and Wade Wilson are given anything to do. The other issue being that both of those characters come across as so powerful that I found myself asking why you would need the other guys! hell both Zero and Wilson wiped out everybody single handed without breaking a sweat. Oh and did anyone else notice how the entire team just strides down the middle of a street up to the enemy stockade?! aren't they suppose to be some kind of special ops unit?? stealth anyone???!!!

Eventually the plot takes us to Logan's most iconic bit of backstory surrounding the reinforcement of his skeleton with Adamantium. Now this entire section makes no sense and is the most cliched movie crapola ever...well that and the few times we see characters screaming into the sky with rage as the camera zooms away from their face. Firstly Stryker and his military/scientist buddies all want to create a superhuman/mutant with this experiment. They have spent millions upon millions funding it...and it works! No sooner have they managed to achieve their highly expensive goal Wolverine breaks free and escapes...of course. Because every test subject always manages to break free and run off endangering everyone (if its a monster).



What is hilarious is the fact that Stryker immediately orders Wolverines execution the minute he escapes! you just achieved what you set out to do and now you're trying to destroy it!! Plus you deliberately made Logan invincible so how the fuck do you expect to take him down?! I mean really...if you're gonna make someone (especially a powerful mutant) invincible don't you think that might cause you problems further down the road if you lose control of him...errr hello? 'Hunt him down, take his head off'...errm you just said he was invulnerable, how do you plan on managing this?...why are you shooting at him Zero? (jackass).

From here on it became uncomfortable as we see a nice old couple get needlessly killed (and blown up!) after they help Wolverine and we the audience start to warm up to them in a Pa and Ma Kent type way. It seems that was merely in there so Logan could pick up his natty leather jacket...yet I also find myself wondering how the fuck Zero and co actually found him there anyway. Its also at this time you start to notice the CGI effects are pretty naff truth be told. The now infamous cartoon-esque Adamantium claws which are somehow smooth like blades even though they are covering knobbly bone claws. There is also some pretty horrendous greenscreen effects that stand out badly such as Jackman on the motorbike and the helicopter gun pilot.



Everything naturally leads up to a big climatic battle between Creed Logan and Wade Wilson/Deadpool which for some unknown reason takes place on top of a huge cooling tower. In between all this Gambit pops up for again no real apparent reason other than to please the fanboys. He's clearly a real card shark when we first meet him so I literately have no idea how he would find anyone dumb enough to play cards with him but I digress. At least Gambit is Gambit...Deadpool or Weapon XI is pretty much an abomination frankly, I'm not totally up on this characters lore but they really fucked with it right here, dude looks like a Mortal Kombat character. Also why exactly is Stryker wanting to make Weapon XI? surely Logan and Creed are virtually indestructible as they are, why the need to create this uber mutant who will obviously be too powerful to control. Its so daft and a horribly bad bad guy plot cliche.

When I first saw this movie I quite liked it but now I can see where the many flaws lie. It tries to be a sensible gritty superhero movie but is actually a very cheesy predictable and hokey action movie with all the regular cliches. I think Hood forgot that his superhero flick was a prequel and is suppose to be set in the 70's (I think it is) because the general technology on display is way too good for that era. There are some nice points without a doubt, some good effects and some good visual moments that capture what we all know and love about Marvel. Unfortunately overall it all looks a bit artificial and actually poor in places, it doesn't even feel like a Wolverine origins story but more like another X-Men installment.

5/10      

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