Review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) by Thomas S — 01 Mar 2017

Because of all the continuity inconsistencies in the X-Men universe, I had forgotten quite a bit. Particularly, I forgot just how unfortunately mishandled X-Men Origins: Wolverine was. Hugh Jackman is one of the finest actors of our generation, and is quite good in the film, but he got stuck with a mess of a movie. This was another movie that nearly killed the franchise.

Before I get to the bad, and there's a lot of bad, let's talk about the good. I love me some Liev Schreiber and he absolutely kills it as Sabretooth. A whole lot better than whatever the heck that version of Sabretooth we got in the first X-Men, anyway. I know it was controversial to make him and Wolverine brothers, but I dug it. Ironically, I don't think he's called anything besides Victor Creed in the film. No matter, Schreiber brings a calm but vicious presence, similar to Jackman's Wolverine, which makes him the perfect antagonist. Oh, how I wish the film kept the focus on them.

Logan and Victor went through many wars and battles together, but they weren't always the only ones with special abilities taking on bad guys. Under the command of William Stryker, Logan and Victor fought on Team X (similar to X-Force), with the help of The Blob, Kestrel, Bolt, and none other than Deadpool. However, this only consists of 15 minutes or so of the film, and it only adds to confusing direction of this film. It really feels like the director, Gavin Hood, was forced to include several unnecessary mutants and cameos that were so far removed from the overall plot. A gratuitous fight with The Blob, a completely unnecessary role for Gambit, and a random appearance by Professor X and Scott Summers, really?

The film's strengths lie with the performances of Jackman, Schreiber, and a solid turn from Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox. Though, that performance from Collins is slightly undercut by a confusing character turn in the third act. The tone is not as much of the problem as I originally remembered. It's really the questionable studio decisions, including a legendarily awful mistake made with Deadpool (which I refuse to even discuss), that flush this film into a deep dark hole of comic-book hell. For some reason the Wolverine character has been a tough one to crack by himself on screen. Hopefully, 'Logan' can change that.

+Logan & Victor.

+There's a good story in there somewhere.

-So many unnecessary characters & cameos.

-Bounces around and wanders too much.

-One of the worst endings of all time.

4.7/10.