For a movie about a dude with razorlike claws, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” sure is dull. If only this very earnest fourth installment in the franchise, based on the Marvel comic book series, could have been as ironic as that unfortunate fact.
But it’s not just irony, humor or sheer entertainment value that is lacking in this basic revenge fantasy, a “prequel” designed to explain how a little boy named Jimmy from the Northwest Territory in 19th century America would become the part-lupine, adamantium-infused killing machine renamed Logan, aka Wolverine. Although the popcorn picture is mitigated by some cool special effects action and the pervasive presence of Hugh Jackman’s often unclothed and magnificently ripped carcass, it fails to go to the dark side with either character nuance or plot novelty.
Unlike last year’s Batman triumph, “The Dark Knight,” today’s superhero epic kicks off cinema’s annual silly season with a CGI extravaganza neither chilling nor provocative as it takes itself so seriously. Grim drama director Gavin Hood (“Rendition,” “Tsotsi”) was recruited to helm the high-stakes project. So, obviously, an attempt was made to give heft to the origin story of “X-Men’s” most popular movie figure. But this filmmaker and a lackluster screenplay fail to recapture the mix of rascally charm and alluring danger that built the appeal of Jackman’s Wolverine in “X-Men” (2000), “X2” (2003) and even the considerably weaker “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006).
Instead, this protagonist is just chronically peeved.
He and his similarly endowed half brother Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), go on the run as mutant boys with retractable talons. They are uniquely strong, swift and immortal soldiers who hone their lethal skills in every American conflict from the Civil War to Vietnam.
But Sabretooth enjoys the killing too much. He becomes his sibling’s rival after the brothers are recruited by mutant-mutilating villain William Stryker (Danny Huston) for a covert-ops squad also including strangely gifted blokes played by the likes of Ryan Reynolds and will.i.am. In a series of manipulations, Wolverine’s love interest Kayla (Lynn Collins) is used against him; he consents to an experiment to become the semimetallic “Weapon X”; he becomes bent on vengeance against his brother and Stryker; and, he helps obliterate a nuclear power plant during an epic showdown against the mysterious “Weapon XI.”
This last, insanely overwrought battle sequence will make you howl at “Wolverine” … but not in a good way …
Quick Info
‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’
2 out of 5 stars
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston
Director: Gavin Hood
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and partial nudity
Running Time: 108 minutes
