The story to X-Men was wrapped up in the climatic but disappointing the Last Stand. The story was complete, the characters were resolved. However, when you have a multi-million dollars franchise on the line, it’s pretty darn tempting to stop. So you have to keep coming up with ideas to keep the franchise strong, even if it isn’t necessary.
X-Men Origins is a somewhat necessary movie. This is a prequel to the main trilogy, that deals with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and who he got his mutant powers. We also catch glimpses of the other mutants in the movie.
So far, in all of the X-Men movies, this one is by far the most violent and the most brutal. It opens up in the 1800s, when two half-brothers, James Howlett and Victor Creed, join forces to fight in wars throughout time. They battle it out in the American Civil War, the World Wars and Vietnam. They are mutants, so they don’t age and cannot die, unless by decapitation. They are discovered in the present by Major William Stryker (Danny Huston), who assembling mutants for his own use. However, James leaves the team when he sees how the team disregards human life. 6 years later, James, now calling himself Logan, is living in Canada with his girlfriend, Kayla (Lynn Collins). Stryker reappears again in Logan’s life, explaining that someone is trying to hunt the team down and kill them off. When Kayla is murdered by Victor, Stryker gives Logan his indestructible claws, but when Stryker reveals his plans to erase his memory, Logan breaks out and becomes: Wolverine, and sets out to exact revenge upon both Victor and Stryker.
After Logan escapes and begins his vendetta, Wolverine fights his way through the movie. Literally, we get fight after fight after fight, with Wolverine winning nearly each time. Each individual fight scene is generally well executed, but the movie becomes overwhelmed with action.
Wolverine meets and talks to a guy, fights him and beats him up, and this goes on repetitively.
As I have typed above, Hugh Jackman returns to his iconic film performance as Wolverine. He spends a lot of the movie yelling and charging at the bad guys, wielding his claws, unable to control his anger. Jackman enters the film with plenty of enthusiasm, but possibly even better is Liev Schreiber as his half-brother, Victor. Schreiber is actually an overlooked but talented actor. He brings the half good, half dark side theme to the movie. Huston, who plays Stryker, gives a truly lowly and underperforming performance.
X-Men Origins is not a reboot or reimagining of the franchise; it is purely a prequel, a backdrop of the character’s origins. That’s the main aspect of the film I like. I like the story; I like the premise for the movie. What I don’t like is that the director, Gavin Hood, has muddled that in with big explosions, big action sequences, and a lot of it involving CGI. The result is nonstop action.
Fortunately though, this is a pic that you can have fun with. It never escapes into boredom, but it never ascends to the style of the previous X-Men movies.
** ½ /5
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