Review: ‘Wolverine’ is Lazy Moviemaking
by Mike LongX-Men Origins: Wolverine sounds like an idea for a direct-to-DVD cash-in project: pluck out one character and fill in the back-story, which is considerably cheaper than bringing back the whole cast for another big-screen adventure. But Wolverine aspires to more than that, of course, and Hugh Jackman as the title character probably takes up most the casting budget anyway: He’s the main draw for the X-Men movie series, the most dynamic and complicated of the characters, and if you had to pick the one best-suited to pure action sequences, it’s this guy.
Yet Wolverine still feels like an afterthought, a distant cousin to the original franchise, a sidebar that adds little to the main narrative. That’s probably because the picture is a gloomy exercise: There’s no one to cheer for except Wolverine, and he’s working so hard at being Eyore with Elvis sideburns that it’s hard to root for him anyway. Then again, who can blame him? The character lives in a world populated almost entirely of bad guys. Besides your standard-issue unrepentants, you’ve got good guys who turn out to be bad guys, family members who turn out to be bad guys, trusted leaders who turn out to be bad guys, and lovers, friends, and comrades in arms who turn out to be bad guys, too. There are a few good guys who don’t turn out to be bad guys (I counted two), but they don’t survive long enough to earn a spot beyond the last third of the closing credits.
The biggest problem for me is that the various superpowers on display often fail to follow a consistent physics, let alone common sense or human nature. Wolverine’s talons (Swords? Sharp extra fingers?) rip through flesh and bone, but break when they’re stepped on. The triumph of one character’s super-strength over that of another depends less on clever moves than the requirements of the plot. The ability to disappear and re-appear–useful, that–is deployed to make a fight more interesting, not by a combatant to save his life. A sock in the jaw knocks a mutant to the ground or through a wall, but a helicopter crash barely registers. I guess Bruce Willis and every other action hero gets away with plenty of inconsistencies, too, but those characters are supposed to be human. I’m familiar with humans. Mutants, though, I don’t know what to expect. I’d like to consistently see their strengths and limits so I can know what they’re capable of, and what might defeat them. (You know, in case I run into one.)
Oh–and if you’re looking for a tour of action-picture cliches, you’ve come to the right place. I counted three times that a major character yelled at the sky in anger as the camera pulls away from directly above (otherwise known as the Super Villain Shout–think “Noooo!” or–better–”Kaaaaahn!”). Then there’s the obligatory unaffected-by-the-pyro shot in which the hero walks, expressionless, into the camera and away from a devastating explosion (unless you count a complete lack of expression as an expression).
Is any of this worth your time or money? If you like the X-Men series, then it’s indispensable. If you are perfectly happy with a well-executed genre picture of this type, it’s certainly that. And if for some reason you like an elbow-to-elbow crowd of bad guys, you’ll find so many here you’d swear they shot it at a meeting of the Fidel & Raoul Castro fan club. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is nothing special. But if it’s hot outside and you’re looking for air conditioning and things that go boom, well, this is that.
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15 Comments
Gosh, and to think most of the poor souls who saw this movie probably went into it expecting The Maltese Falcon! Thank you for your warning, good sir, it's impossible to estimate how many people you've saved from their dire misconceptions about an X-Men movie!
Have not seen the film yet but the leftist critics seem to hate it' Roger Ebert in particular. Seeing that every thing about him now is political one suspects he (and others) might actually be perfect reverse barometers… in this bizarre universe thumbs down is thumbs up. So, off to the googleplex…
[...] Originally posted here: Review: ‘Wolverine’ is Lazy Moviemaking [...]
I cannot explain why, but as a Wolverine/XMen fan since issue 131 "Wolverine Lashes Out!", this was a real letdown. Maybe Iron Man and the Dark Knight set the bar too high. Even the excellent Liev Scheiber couldn't get me to care.
I had a similar reaction.
I am simply 'anti-heroed' and 'reality'd' to death. Like a lot of you, I read comics voraciously when I was younger. I still pick one up once in a while and I have read many of the novels based upon the characters (for example, I noticed much mythology lifted from Codename:Wolverine in the plot of this movie). I am especially a fan of the Wolverine character. I did enjoy the movie, I guess, but both my wife and I couldn't get past how we felt kind of bleak and unsatisfied after we left the theater. An maybe even a little beat up.
Why is it a bad thing to have any light in your 'dark' movies? What point is made by painting any redeeming character with a bullseye?
*SPOILER* Couldn't some less fatal tragedy have befallen the kindly couple, still lighting the fire of revenge in Logan but saving them as his humane conscience for later in the movie or in other installments? *END SPOILER*
The spirit of movies today is so harsh as to wring the enjoyment out of them. I've always seen Wolverine as similar to John Wayne's characters, (like the sheriff in Rio Bravo discussed in another thread) gruff, violent if provoked, but also a protector, a friend and a multilayered individual. Such a person would experience pain, anger and rage, but also joy, love and peace, right? Could you even make a movie with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo doing the things they did today? It would get laughed off the screen as unrealistic (which is why it is great, anyway – sometimes we want to go far, far, away and leave home and it' s problems behind for a couple happy hours).
Or maybe I'm just getting old.
Hey Crank! Although I kind of rant about my complaints with the tone of the movie, I agree with you about Liev Schreiber. Awesome. Victor Creed has always possessed a malignant intelligence and a perverse streak of humor, none of which made it to the first X-Men. Schreiber played it perfectly.
Hate to geek out here but the reason his claws could break when stepped on is they were still bone at that point. That's before the whole adamantium treatment. Just thought I'd keep the valid criticism separate from the slight lapse in plot observation.
Truth be told, I agree. Perhaps these filmmakers don't want to be seen as espousing a "black-and-white morality," so they make everyone into Joker-lite.
I am in my mid-50's (where have the years gone!) and comics were a big part of my life as a kid. I fondly remember the "original" X-Men when they were fighting great villains like the Eel, the Porcupine, the Cobra, the Juggernaut and the early Magneto. As I recall they were good-natured kids brought together by Professor Xavier for an eminently sensible reason – To teach them how to use their "great powers" responsibly. Then the early 70's hit and almost every comic book character became either "a moody loner" or an outright psychopath. The new X-Men with Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Rogue et al were part of this. Don't get me wrong, these were great comics. This was the heyday of Jim Starlin and Neal Adams and other terriffic artists and writers. The problem was that the characters were just do damn unpleasant and self-centered that all the fun went out of them. Oh well, to quote 1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child…..But when I became a man I put away childish things."
There are some valid criticism that most people are making concerning this film. To be honest I think there could have been more character development on the part of the special ops team Wolverine was a part of, a better connection with the whole mutant multi-verse as well as a more substantial storyline. Still, since I am not a writer, a director or even a producer I will cut the people who put this movie together a little bit of slack. This movie was not horrible or even close to being bad. Like I said, there are some thing I too think could have been more developed or done better but the finish product was very well done and the movie was very enjoyable. I think if you go in expecting a good kick off to the summer movie season than Wolverine will not disappoint. It's was well worth my 10 bucks. (20 counting my wife and yes I will be buying the Blu-Ray when it comes out)
So you're saying there's nothing in this movie as good as the Magnum look in Zoolander.
1.) I have to agree with John Nolte and say that when you watch this one like Charles Bronson revenge flick, it's kind of awesome. As a comic book movie, though, it was rather "Meh."
2.) If it weren't for the stinger at the end (or at least the one I saw), I'd probably declare nerd jihad over the treatment of Deadpool.
3.) How come nobody's commented on the fact that Gavin Hood is the director behind "Rendition," one of that raft of crappy anti-Bush/GWOT/Iraq flicks back in 2007?
This is in response to John asking how a Mutant can hit another Mutant and send him flying with one punch, it has to do with enhanced strenght or other powers in play. Basically if Wolverine hits you with greater than normal strength, an adamantine skeleton and 350 lbs behind the punch you are going to go thru a wall.
There were a lot of flaws in Wolverines history as compared to the comic book versions, pick which one and go from there, but all in all it was much better and more faithful to the comics than the X-Men movies. As to why can't they all have happy lives and live in peace and harmony, what would motivate them for revenge, the feeling of being outcast and the need to be on the move all the time.
Still a better movie in my opinion than most of the other disappointments like Spider Man, the first Hulk, Ghost Rider, Spawn, and all but the first two Superman movies.
My 13-year-old son and I enjoyed the movie. We wanted to be entertained and we were, thoroughly. I'm not going to overanalyze fantasy. These flaws that many of you listed never occurred to us and I'm kinda glad I don't have your background. For the uninitiated, it's a great summer flick!
Wolverine was an entertaining movie, nothing more and nothing less. The first three X-Men movies were just about the same. To compare these films to The Dark Knight is silly. They are two different kinds of films, although they are both based on comic book characters. The Dark Knight is an all-time classic movie that hit it big on many levels. Wolverine is a Summer popcorn flick, just sitback and enjoy the ride.
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