SNIKT!! (X-Men Origins: Wolverine (DVD))

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	X-Men Origins: Wolverine (DVD)
Date:	18/05/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pretty much everything

Disadvantages: Some may not like the historical avenue they went down

In 1990, my folks let me choose a comic book, one Saturday, to read in the car on the way home from shopping. Chance led me to pick one up because it had four stories, and it featured one story with the Hulk in it. However, the main character was someone I had never heard of: Wolverine. A developing character since his creation in 1974, he soon earned his own comic in 1988, and what I was doing in choosing this was to culminate (so far) last night in taking my wife to the cinema to see the film I've been waiting 19 years for.

Of course, I have a stack of Wolverine comics, I have various other Marvel films, and I regularly check the imdb.com listings to see what future Marvel characters are going to be given the big screen treatment. When X Men and the two sequels came out, I watched them, and loved them, managing to look beyond any inaccuracies and enjoy the blockbuster aspect of them.

When I first found out they were doing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I was chomping at the bit, but also anxious to make sure they didn't completely ruin my blissful comic book fantasy hero, the one who has ranked above all others for me for so long. I guess you can see by the five stars I've given it, I wasn't disappointed.

The opening scene grabs you straight away, introducing us to the boy James Howlett and his half brother Victor Creed in the late 19th Century. Following a tragic event, the two boys escape into the woods, and the credits then roll as we see them grow into the recognisable characters of Wolverine and Sabretooth. As men, they are also mutants, and their abilities mean they rermain as grown men without progressing to old age and dying. They fight in various wars, and we start to see further mutant abilities, such as self-healing, Wolverine's extending bone claws, and Sabretooth's cat like ability as well as his extending destructive fingernails (yuck!).

Thus, by the time the film properly starts after the credits, we already have the history of their childhood. As yet, neither of them have gained their respective nicknames, still known as James and Victor, until they are recruited by Colonel William Stryker, who puts together a strike force known as Team X for covert operations needing mutants with ultimate abilities. When it all gets a bit too much for James, he quits, walking away from the group. The only problem is, there are deeper things going on, and there's not a chance they're going to let him walk away that quietly.

Let's get something straight: the film isn't about Wolvie fighting the rest of his old team as they come after. It's just not that sort of film. This is kind of one for the fans. Director Gavin Hood has combined some fast storytelling with awesome special effects, fight scenes and acting, to produce one of the easiest to watch films I've seen in a while, and it's all related to telling someone's back story. The Wolverine we see in X Men and its sequels is a haunted and bitter character, an anti-hero of sorts, and this goes some way to answering some of the questions.

Hugh Jackman has firmly established himself as Wolverine. He completely looks the part, and is exactly how I had envisaged the character. I have thought this from the start of the X Men films, but seeing him here in Origins makes me think he was holding back just for this performance. It is a raw and emotional turn he gives us, filled with gung ho brute force and doing before thinking, as the character is liable to do. His really is a tour de force!

Similarly, he is balanced out very well by Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. Half brother turned nemesis to Wolverine, Victor Creed develops his animal instincts in a more brutal and vicious way to Wolverine, not caring about the deaths of innocents and seemingly existing to make people suffer, mainly his brother. I was doubtful about Schreiber. I have seen him in a couple of films before this, and to be honest, I couln't see him slotting into the role. I needn't have worried. He does it perfectly, leaving no doubt as to his acting abilities. I imagine roles dropping at his feet in the near future.

Although there is really a full and celebrated cast list, the whole thing is about these two and their personal vendetta as they go through life. One of the most well documented things about Wolverine's character is his adamantium laced skeleton, whereby the fictional metal is fused to his skeleton in an experiment. This is carried out as Project X by Col. Stryker, with Wolvie a prototype for a later experiment to produce a completely controllable and indestructible character. Danny Huston is very good as Stryker: evil enough, sinister and justified in his decisions to carry out murders and massacres.

Wolverine's history has changed in some ways depending on which storyline from Marvel you read, with the main one showing that he was part of four characters who were used in Project X, with Sabretooth being one and the other being Silver Fox and Maverick. Silver Fox, in this film, is turned into a regular love interest in the form of Kayla, with Maverick being known as Agent Zero, one of Stryker's original team. These two characters are well played by Lynn Collins and Daniel Henney.

X Men comic fans will know about Gambit, real name Remy LeBeau, who later becomes an X Man. In this film, his skills with kinetic energy are well canvassed by Taylor Kitsch, using some of the most impressive special effects work of the film, and this is backed up by some clever FX work with great performances from the like of Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Moynahan, Will.I.Am, and Kevin Durand. We also get a glimpse of a very young looking Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier.

True followers of the Wolverine saga through his 35 years or so will no doubt have some criticisms to level, and this is understandable, but these are somewhat soothed by the fact that Marvel themselves have created contradictory storylines in the comics. The film, here, shows a very close picture of what I had imagined the 'origins' to be, and it is certainly portrayed well by those in front of and behind the scenes. Many themes are touched on, from love to religion, to science and war, with morals and 'the right thing' seeming to come through with Wolverine's actions.

Things are left open very well for the potential sequel, scheduled for release in 2012, and a quick look at Marvels future productions lists now shows about a dozen or so films to come out in the next three of four years or so. These will no doubt be interlinked, but I will find it hard to find one that beats this one, for me. From the start, it grabbed me and held my attention, and I didn't check the time once. Normally, I do this whether I enjoy a film or not, but this could have been 1 hour long, or even 10 hours, and I would still have loved every second. I understand, I am properly biased, being an avid Wolverine fan, but then perhaps I would have been even more of a critic had it not been done properly, and as a result, I think they've got it just right. I sat there relaxed and excited throughout, claws retracted, and will be buying the DVDs and all its glorious extras when it hits the shelves!

Summary: My favourite Marvel film to date