Movie Review 25: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Director: Gavin Hood

Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes

Genre: Fantasy, Action, Sci-Fi

Let it be known that even though I did read X-Men comics, I'm not really an expert on X-Men, so some of my comments might be wrong.

Well, it's inevitable that there'll be a spin off on Wolverine's tale as soon as I watched the first installment of the X-Men series. In the X-Men series, it was obvious that the director focus the spotlight on Wolverine while all other characters were just sidekicks designed only to impress.

This movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine talks about how Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) came to became to who he is in the X-Men series. In the movie, he is shown to be someone who can extend his bone claws (not the adamantium claws) and who is able to heal in tremendous speed. Several decades later, he was tricked into infusing his bones with a super strength alloy/metal... adamantium in his bid to kill is similarly immortal-like brother, known as Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber)in the X-Men series.

As I said earlier, I am no expert in the X-Men lore, but there are a few points that I would like to share. Basically, if you want to watch this movie, it is best for those X-Men fans not to expect a storyline that strictly follows the original design. The director obviously changed some qualities of the film to make it more exciting. 

First of all, I'm pretty sure that there are no mention in any comics that Sabretooth and Wolverine are related except that they fought in the same wars and their rivalry is the result of jealousy. Next, Cyclops optical blast is a force and not laser. That meant that if one were to caught in Cyclops' optical blast, he would have felt as if being punched by and incredible force and not being incinerated by highly focused beams. However, the movie depicts his optical blast similar to a laser beam. Also, the Cyclops showed in this movie is at a time where he hasn't met Charles Xavier... how the heck did he get the 'special' glasses?

Anyway, despite these "errors" it is undoubtedly a good movie... though I much prefer Cyclops over Wolverine :P. The story is fast paced and exciting. There are also numerous characters that would just make X-Men fans drool... Deadpool, Emma Frost, Juggernaut and Gambit.

However, as with all X-Men series movies, due to the tremendous amount of cast line-up, all characters lack build... but hey, this movie is titled Wolverine so it's okay. Of course, my other complaint is that after the infusion of adamantium, Wolverine is just too powerful and since his claws is able to cut through anything, his fights ends really fast... except for his encounter with Deapool.

Anyway, yes, this is a ripoff, but this is a movie that one should watch (if you're interested in this kind of movie that is)

Observation: If Deadpool really has the powers of all captured mutants, where the heck is his super armor?

Bottomline: It's Hugh Jackman... what not to like? :P

Bamboo Rating: 3.5 / 5.0