Ryan McNeil
Nine years after first “snick-snick”-ing his way on to the big screen, the character of Wolverine has finally been given his own movie. There’s no Halle Berry around to bitch about screen time. There’s no Bret Ratner to reduce a franchise to a steaming bowl of silliness. No dumb lines about what happens when a toad gets hit by lighting. Just our man Logan with 107 minutes to kick some ass.
The perfect set-up for a great summer movie?…Or yet another big-budget, heavy-hyped letdown??…
WOLVERINE begins by introducing us to two children from Northern Canada named James and Victor. After a domestic incident, the two boys find out that they are in fact brothers, and brothers who have strange bones protruding from their hands every now and then. Oh yeah – and they’re pretty much indestructible. As adults, James (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) enlist in every major war America fights from the Civil War to Vietnam, and find great success in each. However, exposure to such madness seems to have messed with Victor’s mind, and on more than one occasion, james has to step in and keep Victor’s bloodlust from running wild.
After Vietnam, they are found by Col. William Stryker and enlisted into his special ops unit known as “Team X”. The team features men such as John WRaith (Will.I.Am), who can disappear and re-appear in the blink of an eye. It also features Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a talkative mercenary so quick, he’s the only man who can bring a sword to a gun fight. This group of soldiers who have special abilities, are given special privileges, and are only used in special circumstances. During one such mission, James – now going by only his surname “Logan” quits the team, literally walking off the job.
Some time later, Logan has retreated back to Canada where he makes his living as a lumberjack and has a cozy rural life with a woman named Kayla Silverfox. However, his peaceful existence is torn to shreds when Victor comes looking for him. Victor kills Kayla to draw Logan out, and when Logan tracks him down, Victor handily wins a fight and leaves his brother broken.
Desperate to avenge the death of the woman he loves, Logan turns back to Col. Stryker and agrees to a seemingly insane experiment: Logan’s skeleton will be grafted with ademantium, an unbreakable metal. His bone protrusions will now come out as razor sharp claws, and he will be virtually indestructible. He will leave Logan behind…he will become Wolverine…and dedicate his life to hunting Victor down.
If I had to sum WOLVERINE up in one word, I’d have to go with “sloppy”. There are a handful of moments that do justice to this fan favorite of a character, but they never seem to happen consistently enough to build any sort of momentum. Far too often, the fun is disrupted by some questionable writing, directing, or editing.
The movie has a lot of fun putting the character of Wolverine front and centre, and even more so by winking dialogue to those in the audience who have read any of his comic books (“I’m the best at what I do”, “I’m Canadian”). However, WOLVERINE suffers the same fate as the last two X-Men movies: too many characters, not enough time. The most important person is obviously the guy whose name is in the title, but if he’ll only fleetingly interact with a fellow hero or villain, it strikes me as a waste of a supporting character.
One thing that WOLVERINE has proved to me, is that an Oscar winning director is no guarantee of a good genre film (For further evidence of this, look up Lee, Ang). Director Gavin Hood won an Academy Award by helming TSOTSI to Best Foreign Film, however his skills as a storyteller were sadly underutilized here. The story leans back on cliche about three times too many, and doesn’t seem to end so much as it just runs out of road. What’s worse, is that many of the special effects moments look like heavy effects moments. Seldom did I believe that I was watching actors on a set – far too often, I was jarred by the sight of actors in front of green screens. It begs the question – why would a studio bring in an indie director, when all they’re after is really a Michael Bay-esque ringmaster?
Where this really puts the film at a disadvantage is the fact that the most successful comic book films of recent years have been the ones that tell the best stories. WOLVERINE seems less interested in telling the story of this man’s evolution than it is in showing us him get into fight after fight.
Examining the plot of WOLVERINE, I wonder if it might not be better served as two films: one beginning in his childhood ending with his desirtion of Team X, and a second that begins with his return to Northern Canada and concludes with his memory being wiped. This movie gave audiences a clear picture of the origin of Wolverine as a metal-skeleton’d weapon; stretching the plot into two films might have given the origin of Wolverine as a man.
Well done – I agree – two movies would’ve done the “franchise” a bit more justice. Hell, with the box office – I’m sure they are kicking themselves about this time – unless of course they plan a prequel to the prequel or cover the credits with some justice like I wanted.