X-Men Origins: Wolverine – A Movie Flashback

How did Wolverine’s solo film go so wrong? Hugh Jackman, who clearly cares about the character, was involved in a producing capacity, they hired Gavin Hood, the acclaimed director of Tsotsi, to helm the film, and they cast excellent actors in key roles. Who didn’t think Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool were two spot on bits of casting? So it’s a shame that this is the worst X-Men film to date. Think it’s better than X-Men: The Last Stand? Take another look.

We don’t usually start by talking about special effects, but the ones in Wolverine are so bad that they warrant an early mention. Ropey CGI is everywhere, from the scene where Wolverine leaps out of a plane and skims across the water, to the rubber faced cameo appearance from a youthful Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), to Logan’s claws themselves. The scene where Wolvie is stood in a bathroom, just staring at his newly adamantium-coated blades is truly awful. The claws look rubbery, too and far too big. You could almost forgive it if this were the first film to feature Wolverine, but it isn’t. In all three of the previous films, including The Last Stand, which got a lot of things wrong, his claws were fine. Even in X-Men, nine years previously, they got the claws right. Not being able to make them work here is unforgiveable. As is the fact that one or two of the effects scenes do work perfectly well. Take the scene where Wolverine, on a motorbike, takes on a helicopter with assorted machine guns. It’s actually a pretty good action sequence with effects that work. It’s moments like this which make the rest of the scenes, where the effects work is so poor, particularly insulting. Was the entire budget blown on a couple of these sequences?

It certainly wasn’t spent on the confused, nonsensical script. It’s first problem is that it tries to cram in far too much. The opening third of the movie actually shows a lot of potential, but it’s potential the film never lives up to. The problem is, the opening third of the movie should be the entire film. We start in Canada, in the year 1845, and see the young Wolverine (Troy Sivan) first unleash his bone claws. It’s a nice little scene, and a nod to the comic series Origin, which works well. Then there’s the wonderful opening credits sequence, which sees Wolverine and Sabretooth fighting together in a series of major wars, before ending in Vietnam with the two shot by a firing squad. Naturally, this doesn’t kill them, and they are recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston) to join Team X, alongside Deadpool, Wraith (Will.I.Am), Blob (Kevin Durand), Bolt (Dominic Monaghan) and Agent Zero (Daniel Henney). This all happens in the first ten minutes of the film. Logan’s time with Team X is essentially glossed over in brief, and it’s only another twenty minutes or so before he’s undergoing the adamantium bonding process. In an origin of Wolverine story, this should be the climax of the film. Barry Windsor Smith’s Weapon X storyline, which dealt with how Logan gained his adamantium skeleton, completely against his will, in the comics, was a classic story which put Logan through the ringer, both physically and emotionally, and ended with him escaping into the wilderness, his immediate fate unknown. In the film, it’s a ten minute scene, with Wolverine volunteering for the process, then running away and being absolutely fine. It’s a shame, as the story in the comics would’ve made for a genuinely compelling, hard hitting and bleak final act. Instead, it’s thrown away so that the producers can throw in as many other mutants as possible and absolutely ruin Deadpool.

Ah, yes. Deadpool. Much was made of the appearance of the merc with a mouth appearing in the film, especially with the casting of Ryan Reynolds. When he first appears, in the Team X sequence, it’s like Deadpool has stepped off the page. He just doesn’t shut up, and he’s the source of much of the comedy at the beginning of the film. He’s also an absolute badass, taking on a room full of gun toting mercenaries, and dispatching them all with his twin katanas. But then he vanishes for most of the film, only showing up again later as some kind of freakish amalgam of every other mutant we’ve seen, with wrist swords, optic blasts and teleportation powers. This is not Deadpool as fans know him. And it gets worse. The writers see fit to actually sew his mouth shut. This is wrong in every way. The point of Deadpool is that he talks. All the time. The merc with a mouth tag is there for a reason. To say you’re having Deadpool in your film, and then making it so he can’t speak, is a crime of Batman and Robin proportions!

But then, there’s a lot in this film which doesn’t make sense. I’m paraphrasing, but there’s a scene where the following is basically said.

Stryker: We shoot Wolverine in the head with this adamantium bullet, and he’ll lose his memory.

Some other guy: Oh, okay.. Cool.

What? No! How does that make sense? Here’s how that scene should’ve gone.

Stryker: We shoot Wolverine in the head with this adamantium bullet, and he’ll lose his memory.

Some other guy: Really? Is that… How does that work? And why do we want to do that? Can’t we just kill him?

Stryker: Well, it… Um… It just does. And it’s my plan. Don’t question my plan.

Some other guy: How does it even get through his skull?

Stryker: Shut up now.

Some other guy: And wouldn’t his healing factor just fix it? You know, this made much more sense in the comics.

Stryker: I have to go away now.

It doesn’t feel like they thought anything through when making Wolverine, and the film really suffers as a result. “We’ll show you the origin of Wolverine’s jacket,” they tell us, “which you didn’t really care about, but he’ll lose it before the film finishes, then lose his memory so he couldn’t possibly remember being given it. Despite him wearing it in X-Men. And let’s throw a young Cyclops in for no reason at all, but not actually have him meet Wolverine, because that would make no sense.” Yes. That’s your biggest issue with this film.

At least the casting isn’t bad.. Hugh Jackman’s as good as ever as Wolverine, and Liev Schreiber is a much more effective Sabretooth than Tyler Mane was. And then there’s the appearance of Taylor Kitsch as Gambit. You know, Taylor Kitsch who doesn’t really have the charm required to play Remy LeBeau, and whose accent fluctuates wildly with every word he utters. And as for Lynn Collins as Silverfox… Yeah, okay, maybe the casting wasn’t so great.

The sad fact is, X-Men Origins: Wolverine represents a wasted opportunity, and smacks of far too much studio involvement. Left to their own devices, I firmly believe that Gavin Hood and Hugh Jackman could’ve crafted a fine film together to showcase Wolverine. As it is, the film is a mess. It’s a real shame, as Jackman definitely deserves better. Let’s hope that when The Wolverine comes out next year, based on Logan’s time in Japan, and directed by James Mangold, we finally get the solo Wolverine film we all want.

1. X2, 2. Captain America: The First Avenger, 3. Thor, 4. Iron Man, 5. X-Men, 6. The Incredible Hulk, 7. Daredevil, 8. Iron Man 2, 9. X-Men: The Last Stand, 10. Ghost Rider, 11. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 12. Elektra

Recommended Reading – Wolverine

There’s a lot of choice when it comes to trying to pick a Wolverine story you should read, largely because there have been a lot of very good ones. Do you go with Origin, the mini series written by Paul Jenkins with art by Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove, the mini series which finally revealed the earliest days of the life of the clawed X-Man? Or Barry Windsor Smith’s Weapon X storyline? There are so many choices that it’s hard to know… Nah, it’s an easy choice. The best Wolverine story of all time is simply titled Wolverine. The first series to feature the solo adventures of Logan, Wolverine was a mini series which came out in 1982, written by Chris Claremont, who was writing Wolvie over in Uncanny X-Men at the time, and drawn by Frank Miller. The series sent Logan to Japan, where he became embroiled in the machinations of Shingen Yashida, the head of the Yashida crime family and member of the Hand, a group of ninjas known for giving Daredevil a hard time, in order to protect the life of his fiancé, Mariko, who just happened to be Shingen’s daughter. This storyline is really the first time we get to see Wolverine acting as a ronin, the samurai warrior he was trained to be, and firmly establishes his ties to Japan, as well as his long standing enmity with the Hand. Claremont’s script is tight, expertly paced and genuinely emotional at times, while Miller is firmly in his element on art chores (after all, it was he who first introduced the Hand in the pages of Daredevil, making him more than suited to the martial arts action in this story). If you do try hunting Wolverine down (and you should), make sure you try and find the edition which also reprints Uncanny X-Men #172 – #173, which continues the story of Logan and Mariko. It’s this story which the upcoming Wolverine film is rumoured to be based on. Hope they get it right.

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