Review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) by Filipeneto — 04 Oct 2020

I am not very used to films about comic book characters, but the quality and impact that some have had makes them a mandatory visit. So, even without knowing much about the characters or their fictional stories, I decided to watch the X-Men franchise films. This decision was followed by some reading about the characters and the films. I tried to follow more or less the chronological sequence of events starting with prequels, in order to better understand what I was seeing. Thus, this film was not one of the first to be released but it is one of those that focuses on the origins of the group and one of its most striking characters: Wolverine.

In this film, the origin of the character is revealed, who would have been born centuries ago, still at the time of the American Civil War where he fought alongside his brother. Being a mutant particularly apt for physical conflict, with extraordinary resistance, unbreakable retractable claws and an extraordinary capacity for physical regeneration, Logan was the ideal soldier and fought in all wars in which the United States participated until Vietnam, where he disagreed with his brother, increasingly bloodthirsty. Aware that one day he would have to face it, Logan agrees to undergo a scientific experiment in which his skeleton was reinforced with adamantium, an extraordinarily hard and resistant metal that made him virtually unstoppable.

Well, I'm not the best person to judge the way the film is linked to the rest of the franchise since I haven't seen them yet. But I have seen some opinions that have harshly criticized the way the film contradicts some points in the fictional story of the characters and creates some paradoxes and contradictions with previous films. I am sure that connoisseurs of the Marvel universe will have a more grounded opinion than mine about this but, to give credit to these criticisms, this is a very unfavorable point for this film. One thing that I was able to verify for myself, and that is more easily assessed, is the fragility of the script when the subject is not action: all the explanations and contextualization seem summarized and done in a hurry, so that we can come up with another beating. The dialogues are also weak and uninteresting and, apart from the main character, the rest of the characters were not very developed, and some characters seem to appear only by a kind of moral obligation to later disappear or be relegated to an "honorable figuration".

As for the cast, the film abounds in quality, although the protagonist role is easily grasped by the talented Hugh Jackman, who is an excellent actor and has been very successful with his participation in the X-Men films. I also really liked the performance of Liev Schreiber, in the role of Logan's cruel brother, Victor / Sabretooth. Danny Huston also did a good job in the role of the villain, Stryker. The film also features very successful appearances by Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Monaghan and Taylor Kitsch. But there is no doubt: the film belongs to Jackman and he steals the spotlight when he appears.

Technically, it is a film that stands out in several points, especially for the high quality of the visual effects and CGI, and for the intensity and grandeur of the action and fight scenes, which are the strong plate of the whole film. Its clearly visible where the budget money was spent. The problem with this is that unpleasant feeling that we are watching a video game and not something that could have happened. Lack of verisimilitude and realism, despite the technical brilliance. The rest is much more average: the film has good cinematography and makes good use of color, light and shadow, but that was required in a film like this. There are some truly remarkable scenes and sequences, like the opening and the final climax. The film still has good sets and costumes, and I think it's fair to also commend the makeup department for their work with the physical appearance of the characters. Finally, a word of appreciation to Harry Gregson-Williams, who signs the soundtrack, which is not in the ear nor is remarkable but fulfills its role quite well.