X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I was racing to the movie theater, one of the smaller ones in the Los Angeles area, trying to get there before the movie started. My friends were all there waiting on my slow ass, and as usual, I had left my apartment at the last possible minute. Cursing myself and the slow ass drivers placed in my path, I hurried while risking the possibility that I just might get pulled over. With the economy now being located in the center of the earth while we slowly dig to it, the police are handed out tickets more than ever. Heaven forbid I make some sort of unnecessary donation to them and miss a film with friends. Anyway, with an enormous stroke of luck, I managed to make it to the theater just as the trailers were about to start. I was thankful to find my friends from work who managed to save a seat for me, and I was even more thankful to miss out on all those stupid commercials that AMC Theaters feel the need to inflict on us. It is an addictive thrill to get to where you are going in just the nick of time, and a hard one to get over (it would certainly be a good idea to though). Thank god for Japanese machinery, especially with it having almost 200,000 miles on it!

I bring this up because my maddening drive to get to the theater on time turned out to be more exciting than the movie I ended up seeing: "X-Men Origins - Wolverine." It is the fourth movie in the "X-Men" movie franchise, and the first big movie of the summer 2009 season. It is also summer 2009's first big disappointment. That seems to have been the case for the past couple of years that the first summer movie ends up not living up to expectations.

"Wolverine" takes place about 10 to 15 years before the first "X-Men" movie, and we get to see the pivotal character of Wolverine as a young boy who ends up committing a violent act that he can never take back, and ends up running off with his half-brother Victor Creed (later to be known as Sabertooth). From there, we get a spectacular opening sequence in which we see both of them fight in just about every large war they could have lived through. From the American Civil War to the Vietnam War, we see them fighting with the other side, taking their hits, and still come out of it all relatively unscathed. Of course, when Wolverine and Sabertooth end up being played by Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber, they stop aging for good. Very convenient for the box office, wouldn't you say?

With this being a prequel, a lot of the suspense of the movie is sucked out right there because we all know that Wolverine is going to survive this, and go on to more adventures. Granted, some prequels can be exciting and leave you hanging on the edge of your seat ("Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is a perfect example of that), but it takes a really good script and precise direction to really suck you into the present tense of the movie you are seeing. The more you as an audience member are sucked into the moment, the more you forget about what you saw before. But since this franchise has been around since the early part of this decade, we have come to know these characters all too well. Since we know what will happen to them eventually, we spend more time trying to connect the dots between this and the other movies. It makes this origin movie all the less exciting as a result.

Seriously, this is really "X-Men" meets "The Punisher," and by that I mean the Thomas Jane version. I haven't seen the one with Dolph Lungren, but I doubt I missed that much. We see Wolverine working as a lumberjack after having left special ops six years ago, and he lives with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (the lovely Lynn Collins) in a secluded cabin up in the hills of Canada, but the past (of course) catches up with him like we expected it to. Logan (Wolverine's real name) is approached by William Stryker (Danny Huston playing the same character Brian Cox played in "X-Men 2") to get back into action because his half brother Victor is on the loose. Logan says no, and this had me rolling my eyes because we all know that Kayla is going to get murdered by Sabertooth, and that Wolverine will go for his revenge. In doing so, he will be forced to alter his body to where he will be the indestructible animal we came to know him as years ago.

One of the movie's real stumbling blocks is that both Wolverine and Sabertooth are presented as indestructible. No matter how many bullets are shot at them or how many times they get stabbed, we know that they will just get back up and heal themselves in a matter of seconds. This knowledge affects the movie's big action moments because regardless of whether or not they get the bad guys, we know that they will come out of this unscathed. We also know that Sabertooth is not going to get his due justice at the end of this one. It gets to where you expect either of these characters to start singing "Shoot Me Again" by Metallica from their "St. Anger" album. You know how that one goes right?

"Shoot me again, I ain't dead yet!"

In terms of performances, Hugh Jackman still delivers the goods as Logan/Wolverine. If you think his recent successful stint as host of the Oscars might have softened his take on this character, you needn't worry. Even with a script that deals with elements we have seen in other movies like this, he gives this comic book hero a real heart and soul just as he did in the other movies. Starting off an X-Men prequel series with this character was a smart move, but it's a shame that the filmmakers did not give him a more original story.

Liev Schreiber also does good work here as Victor Creed/Sabertooth. While the script could have given the character a little more dimension, Schreiber makes the character an effectively dangerous rival with a never ending blood lust, and he keeps our interest along with Jackman throughout the movie's 2-hour running time. It also makes me forget for short time of the fact that he has Naomi Watts ("Funny Games") and I don't. I guess that's something I need to take peace with, darn it.

Other actors in the film don't fare quite as well. Danny Huston's portrayal of William Stryker lacks the complex nature that Brian Cox brought to the role previously. The fact that Stryker's son is a mutant is brought into this film as an afterthought, and leads to one of the character's more ludicrous actions. Stryker's fate at the end of the film doesn't make as much sense either because it makes you wonder how he could have maintained such a strong level of military command by the time he appears in "X-Men 2."

Ryan Reynolds plays Wade Wilson/Deadpool, and it is kind of the same character that he played in the dreadful "Blade: Trinity." While I did get a kick out of Reynolds' sardonic wit and lightning speed with swords, his appearance in "Wolverine" kind of feels like a wasted opportunity. Ryan disappears from the movie too quickly, we don't see him again until much later, and we are left with mutants who are nowhere as interesting as the ones we met in the previous "X-Men" movies. Characters like Agent Zero (played by Daniel Henney) are so one-note that they cease to be interesting almost immediately.

In fact, that's my biggest beef with "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," it has an utter lack of character work here. What was great about the three previous films is that it gave us characters to care about as soon as they came onscreen. Bryan Singer, who directed the first two in this series, really took the time to make us feel what these characters were going as they were immediately branded as outcasts for being mutants. We sympathized with their struggles as they worked with Professor Charles Xavier to co-exist peacefully with humans. This made the action sequences in those films all the more exciting; we worried about these characters getting hurt. It was like we got hurt along with the characters. Brett Ratner's "X-Men: The Last Stand" managed to continue that tradition regardless of what many may have thought of it. Truth be told, it wasn't that bad.

But with this newest "X-Men" movie, these characters cease to be as interesting as they once were. They exist here as a means to an end, to guide Wolverine to the point where we first met him. We get introduced to some cool characters like Gambit, but it feels like he is being given only a test run to see if he will be popular enough to be included in future installments. More attention is paid here to the spectacle than anything else, and it shows. There are some great shots to be found in this movie for sure, but without stronger characters, they just come across as empty. There is no visceral feel to them, and not much risk is on display. Some of the moments look cool, but that's pretty much it.

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was directed by Gavin Hood, and he previously directed the Oscar winning "Tsotsi" as well as "Rendition" which starred Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal. I'm not sure how much of the blame he should take for this one. Word is that the production was troubled (most are), and that executive producer Richard Donner took over directing duties for a few scene, and that the script was being rewritten constantly (no surprise there). I guess by bringing in an indie director like they did with Bryan Singer for the first one, the producers were probably hoping to bring a fresh and new perspective to the long running franchise. But Hood's direction is not exemplary here in the way Singer's does, and he makes this movie something more than an average action movie. There is nothing really special that he does that could have made this particular comic book movie more unique. Seems like there will be more of these movies that pale in comparison to last year's "The Dark Knight."

Indeed, there are many twists towards the end of the movie which serve to define the character of Wolverine. But the more that came, the less I started to believe them. There are gaps in logic that I am willing to accept in movies like this, but once I started thinking about them while watching what unfolds onscreen, then I am going to have some serious issues. Some plot twists would have required years of preparation for the characters, and I can't see any of them thinking that far into the future. Much more attention should have been paid to the script, and the characters should have been given priority. They also should have given this film a much different story than an average one of a man scorned by the lost of love and the need for vengeance. We have seen one movie too many like this recently. Maybe we have had one conflicted hero too many now. Perhaps it's time to bring back Bryan Singer to this franchise, or maybe he can direct another Superman movie.

It's hard to dissuade you X-Men fans from seeing this movie, so I'm not going to try. Granted, I'll be interested in hearing what you all think of this movie. Regardless of what I may think of it, I think you may enjoy it more than I do. Hugh Jackman is great as always, but his performance is not enough to make this movie work just as entertainment. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" should serve as a warning for future origin movies in how they should and should not be filmed. Seeing Wolverine before he goes on his Jason Bourne-like mission takes many of the mysteries behind Wolverine away and makes him far less intriguing. Sometimes it is better to not know so much.

Hopefully, J.J. Abrams will have more luck with his origin movie of "Star Trek."

** out of ****