I liked the X Men movies, even the Last Stand which in all honesty made the most effort to present the "mutants rights = modern day civil rights" issues that was supposed to be the X Men's comic book analogy in the real world when it debuted in the 60's. As the movies were made, more and more emphasis is put on Wolverine who had the strongest back story of the characters in that he has none and is always on a quest to learn more about his past and top that off with an animistic rage and retractable claws for fighting and you have a crowd pleaser. Origins is an effort to have Wolverine's story told.
The plot is about tracing Wolverine's origins from mid 19th century Canada to his participation in major world wars to being recruited by Stryker (from X2) for a mutant special forces team who go globetrotting for fun and profit and all with his older and bloodthirsty brother Victor (Sabretooth) Logan (Wolverine) is rather surprisingly subdued and holds back and lets his teammates do most of the bloodletting and it comes to Logan walking off the team and trying to live a normal life with a wife and having a steady lumberjack job away from the assassins.
Cut to a few years later in a plot piece almost stolen from Watchmen-or at the very least Commando, Stryker comes calling and tells Logan that someone is killing his old teammates and he could be next. Sure enough, Sabretooth pushes Logan too far and thus he volenteers for a dangerous experiment where he is told to embrace his animal within like his brother Victor and Wolverine is born. By the end pieces are clumsily put in place for what is supposed to be the X Men movie series.
Yeah I was entertained when I wasn't scratching my head and wondering how they could screw up characters so bad other then Wolverine. I was happy to see Gambit and Blob but with such little screen time and badly conceived for the big screen characters. Gambit is a pretty boy with no scruff or body armor and has a magic staff that makes shockwaves-I guess. Blob (a poor man's Juggernaut but still fun) is a gastropod of a man who is immoble when standing in one place due to a gravitational field his bulk creates. Blob is a stout man at one point early on and later resembles Fat Bastard's brother who is trying to slim down. WHY I asked. Sure he's a gross looking pig but more weight would mean more power right? Whatever.
The other characters don't fare much better, ESPECIALLY Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth and Deadpool played by Ryan Reynolds is the WORST. Sabretooth is a beastly man of fur and claws in the books and they at least try to get the look right in the first X Men movie but here he just looks like an evil man in a black coat, a SILLY looking man who gallops on all fours in some action scenes. Deadpool is a merc with a mouth, and by the end you can see just how bad they screwed the pooch in an attempt to be ironic.
The rest of the characters are either pulling from the C list of Marvel's characters or these are newer and less interesting characters that I never knew of and didn't care to know about. The one thing that people complain about, Wolverine's bone claws since Stryker in X2 tells Wolverine that he gave him (Wolverine) claws. Comic fans should know that Wolverine ALWAYS had the bone claws and had the metal coating put on them and the rest of his skeleton.
Fulfill expectations? Well, the movie does have more action then the other X Men movies and that is what I do like to come and see in a movie but when the rest of the movie is so hackneyed with characters that don't look or act like they should and then they try and tie it into being an origin story/prequel to the X Men movies which places this movie in the mid 70's or so. Did they have Humvees in the 70's, or miniguns? Why is Cyclops in this movie, to make up for his kick in the face treatment in X3? Why does Sabretooth talk so suavely and articulaite here and is more of the beast man he should be in the first X Men speaking in grunts and growls? Why DOESN'T Sabretooth know who Wolverine is in the first X Men when he CLEARLY knows him here-AND THEY'RE BROTHERS! I can go on, but I don't feel like typing all that crap.
The movie did give hype. It's about Wolverine and him kicking some butt. If you like comic movies/action movies it's a win in that regard.
This movie is abdolutely mainstream and a big summer action movie with one of comic's well known heroes. No question there.
Heres the thing that I was always bugged with watching this. Part of what made Wolverine a fun character is that he was always piecing his past together. He was in wars, went to Japan, found love, kicked ass...he never had the WHOLE picture and with this movie, now we KNOW the whole picture and the mystery is gone. I thought that when a few years ago, Wolverine who had always gone by the name "Logan" finally learned his name was James Howlett. Thats a major piece for a character nearly 40 years old in comics looking for his past. Now his story is out of the bottle and the mystery is gone. Look at it this way. Do you remember who Deep Throat was when he finally came forward after all these years? Did anyone give a damn when Carly Simon finally revealed that "You're So Vain" is about David Geffen? Do you feel fulfilled knowing who Wolverine is and now has no mystery at all to him after the longest quest in comics?
This movie gets a 1. I can recommended it on the basis of it has enough action to hold your attention but the characters for the most part are bastardized and the action depends on a little too much wire fu and in the case of Zero, gun fu. Thankfully theres not too much of that bullet time crap in it either. The special effects are passable, Hugh Jackman does a good job as Wolverine as always but everything else from the continuity to incorrect characters really bring it down.
It's hard to recommended the movie since the fans of the books won't like seeing they're characters getting screwed over and for a more casual audience like with any comic book movie may not care about these characters and will think the story is (was) written by hacks. I gotta ask again, how can you try and place this movie at such at time with the characters you do and expect it to make sense to tie it into the X Men movies that are supposed to come later?
I am glad I saw the movie if only to remember that I still like the other X Men movies and that Wolverine was the best part of those movies. The movie was made so that the damage that X3 did to it's characters would have enough time to try and come up with a good story to make sense of it all with an X Men 4 and still give the movie going audience a movie with Wolverine in it. THIS movie is going to need it's OWN spin off to make up for what was done here. Wolverine Origins was a blast on the surface but I think I need one of the magic bullets in this movie to give myself amnesia and forget the more painful parts.
