Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31 in Movie
• Released on: 2009-11-30
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Running time: 108 minutes

Customer Reviews

Hooray for loud and shiny things!
I want to get this out first, I love the comics. I think none of these movies are anywhere close to represent the X-men as they are in the comics. That said, I think these movies exist in a different world that has nothing to do with the 616, except for the characters names and most their powers. I have no problems with these movies; X-men 1 and 2 were very entertaining action movies. But even those movies should have been called, "Wolverine 'N Pals", because they didn't focus on the X-men, but on Wolverine's interaction with the other characters. My expectations of this movie were not based on the comics themselves, but on the previous movie storylines. I knew in my heart that Hollywood would somehow find a way to rape the image of one of my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe, Deadpool. So when "Weapool 11" popped up at the end I wasn't even surprised they would do something that silly. I read an interview a long time ago that about X-men 1 that the producers had to fight to have Cyclops wear the visor because the director didn't like it. So, I am not surprised nor bothered by the fact that these Hollywood interpretations don't have a clue about how these characters should be handled. I did like the previous movies (except 3), and understand that this is merely a diferent interpretation of these characters.

Wolverine Origins or, "Wolverine 'N Pals 4; how this mess began", is a very entertaining movie. But it fails to deliver a comprehensible story line. A lot of the story doesn't make any sense. The movie,( as you might be have been clued to know), is about Wolverines origins, its shows you where he came from and how his powers manifested, leading to spending a long part of his life with his half brother Sabertooth, whom we were introduced to in the 1st X-men. After many adventures and wars, the pair ends up joining a military group of people with superpowers led by Stryker. On one of the missions, Wolverine angered by Sabertooth's actions leaves the group to pursue a nicer lifestyle. This is when he falls in love with Silverfox and the pair lives happily for a while. Many years later Sabertooth comes back in a killing rampage taking out some old members of Stryker's group, and Wolverine's love is killed during this. To get his revenge, Wolverine agrees to have done on him an experimental procedure that with give him metal plated bones.

Not bad right? Love, family, betrayal and revenge. All the stuff to make a great story. This is where it doesn't add up. For those of you that don't want "Spoilers" please don't read, as I might give away some plot details.
-After wolverine finds Silverfox dead, Wolverine a veteran of many wars, doesn't check to make sure she is in fact dead? Why did he leave her body there in the field? Couldnt't his enhanced smell detect the fake blood? Was it her manipulation power that convinced him to just move on instead of taking her to a medic.
-If she can manipulate people by touch, how the hell didn't she manipulate Stryker in letting her sister or any of the other kids go? She spends 7 years of her life with Wolvie and doesn't manipulate him, and indestructible man, to kill Stryker? Was she having to much fun maybe?
-After Wolverine has adamantium put on his bones and escapes to visit the "Kents", why on earth would Stryker send Maverick with a rifle to shoot a man that can't die with metal bones? Was he going to shoot through an eyeball from a helicopter? He missed pretty badly by the way, twice. Superman gonna be angry when he goes home to visit.
-Its revealed that Silverfox wasn't killed by Sabertooth yet after Sabertooth saves Wolverine from falling off the cooling tower, Wolverine tells him "this doesn't change anything". Why? She's not dead. She fooled you. He saves you from falling and having your butt kicked but Weapon 11, why the hell are you still mad at him?
-Stryker failed to wipe Wolverine's memories so the solution is to shoot a guy with metal on his skull on his head? How the hell does that work? How did he know it would work?
-Why did the most powerful telepath (Professor X) not control someone inside the 3 mile island release the kids? Why wait 7 years and then help. Why didn't he do that stop time thing from the previous movies so he can save the kids? Where was Magneto? Doesnt he care about abused mutant kids? (One of the restrained kids looked like Quicksilver, who is Magnetos son in the comics)
-How come those kids couldn't get away on their own? What was that chain link fence cage they were in made of? Adamantium?
-Why was Gambit hanging out in a casino, when he knew he was being looked for by Stryker? How was it that Stryker can't find him in a long time and yet Wolverine finds him in a day? Maybe Stryker didn't want him anymore. Maybe they couldn't persuade the Blob to talk?
-Why add the scene in the end where Stryker is going to be arrested for his crimes, when we well know that he was a high ranking military official in X-men 2?

Well these are most of the plot points from the movie that just don't make any sense. It's ok for an action movie to be extremely silly and self referential in that way. For example in Transformers when they have the teen kid take the cube and the alien so they can hide in the populated city, one of the characters mentions how dumb that idea is. They make no excuses in this movie, and just because it's "supposed" to be a dumb action movie, there is no justification for the producers of this movie to assume their viewers are idiots, and won't care about a story plot that doesn't make any sense. Which, apparently they are correct because this movie made a boatload of cash. I will not act like there is nothing wrong with this movie just because it's flashy and has lost of explosions.

In my arrogant opinion, it's a onetime watcher. This is not a boring movie by far, yes, it's a lot of fun and tons of action and the movie's cast was really great. But the story is convoluted and nonsensical, it seems to take the audience for granted. So, if you want to enjoy this mess, just ignore the entire story and watch the shiny stuff happening on screen.

Longing for a more thrilling snikt
The Canuck who goes "snikt" is back and in his own feature film, and my tepid reaction goes along the lines of "Um.. oh.. huh." X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is serviceable enough, but in no way does it elevate the X-Men film franchise to new heights. There's always peril in disclosing a character's mysterious past, that the doing of it may possibly sabotage the character's existing appeal. Sometimes, things are better left alone, better left to the viewer's imaginations lest the reality not live up to all the fun speculations. In having long-withheld details from his murky past finally revealed, Wolverine ends up being less interesting. And the big, exciting reveals end up not so big, not so exciting. For a vehicle featuring a mutant berserker who's the best at what he does - which is fighting - X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE lacks punch.

Hugh Jackman isn't bad as Logan. Okay, I had to get over the fact that Logan in the comic books stands at only 5'3," and not 6'2," which is Jackman's height. Because, for me, part of Wolverine's appeal is that he's often the smallest runt in the place and still he tears up the shizzy. Another thing is that Jackman doesn't quite convincingly demonstrate that utterly berserko rage that Logan succumbs to. So, not feral enough, vicious enough, scruffy enough, or, yeah, smelly enough. Hugh Jackman isn't bad as Logan. But he's too, I dunno, elegant? Tame?

The film begins somewhen in 1845, which is when young James Howlett's (Wolverine/Logan's real name) mutant abilities first truly kick in. We note James' popping of his retractable bone claws, the tragedy in his home, the panicked dash thru the woods, the show of togetherness by Victor Creed, James' older half-brother, and then we're off to the opening credits to catch brief glimpses of James and Victor adventuring thru various wars down the decades. Thru the years Victor (a very good Liev Shreiber) becomes increasingly bestial and amoral and you could see James growing more and more concerned about this. It was never gonna end well between the two. If you read the X-Men titles, you know this, that Wolverine and Sabertooth are the bitterest of enemies.

In telling Logan's story, the movie skips key junctures in his past, or since this is the movie version, maybe Logan simply never did venture to Madripoor or get married in Japan. During 'Nam, we do see him and Victor being handpicked by Colonel Stryker for Team X, a black ops unit peopled with hardened mutants. We witness Stryker's interest in the rare metal alloy known as adamantium, and we fans know how adamantium impacts Wolverine later on. The movie cherry picks (and sometimes throws a curve on) elements from the Wolverine mythos. We follow Logan as he encounters Silverfox and later undergoes the excruciatingly painful Weapon X experiment. The film peppers in various superhero scuffles as Wolverine and Sabertooth separately throw down with various mutants, all this culminating in a showdown on Three Mile Island. But the disappointing thing is that most of the action sequences don't get you up as they should.

I get the sense that Gambit and especially Deadpool were spotlighted with eventually having them star in their own movies in mind. Except that Taylor Kitsch underwhelms as Remy LeBeau. On the other hand, Ryan Reynolds as the mouthy merc Wade Wilson is very promising. Ryan Reynolds is at his scene-stealing best and, in one scene, as Wade Wilson furiously deflects bullets with his flashing swords, he solidifies himself as the baddest dude in a roomful of bad dudes. So I'm sold on the Deadpool movie. Actually, that whole sequence in which Team X invades a well-defended structure in Lagos, Nigeria counts as the most scintillating action sequence in the film. However, what they later do to Deadpool is just too much. I also wasn't down with the out-of-left-field reimagining of Blob. A fun thing, though, is that I once again get to play the "Identify that Cameo" game. Most prominent are a young Cyclops and Emma Frost. But see if you could pick out the others.

The movie gives us a momentary glimpse of Logan being happy, the operative word being "momentary." We see Logan suffering a tragic loss and giving in to his inner rage and losing his inhibitions. And yet, as portrayed by Hugh Jackman, when Wolverine loses it, in my eyes, he doesn't lose it enough. The PG-13 rating may also be to blame for this. Word is that a sequel is already underway. I'm crossing my fingers for an Alpha Flight sighting.

Lastly, Wade Wilson just cracks me up. Mouthy as he is, he doesn't really get a chance to mouth off. However, he does manage to get on Sabertooth's bad side when he observes that Sabertooth has the "fingernails of a bag lady."

ok but not great-rent it
OK, it was kind of dumb, and the writers should definitely be crucified until they can answer, and promise to rectify, all the story logic questions posed by other reviewers. But hey, the actors give it a game try, and it does have moments of geekness which partially counterbalance some of the flat-out X-men universe errors. Silverfox and Emma Frost sisters? Deadpool turned into a Weapon 11 and then being offed? How did Sabertooth become the slow galoot shown in X-1 and why do Wolverine's super-senses only work at the scripters' convenience? The Watchmen is the best example of a comic book adaption that didn't get too Hollywoodized. Hopefully someday we'll get an X-Men movie that doesn't prettify the characters beyond recognition to match available movie stars, rewrite the stories to suit the idiotic whims of so-called screenwriters and their puppeteers, and resist the temptation to abandon the human (or mutant) element and just have everything blow up all over the place in the end...