Take Hugh Jackman, slap on 200 pounds of muscle, foot-long muttonchops and razor-sharp, Adamantium claws and you have “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” The most recent in Marvel Comic’s X-Men film franchise opened Friday, kicking off a promising summer of blockbusters. In the same vein as the “Star Wars” series, “Wolverine” is the fourth movie released in theaters, but the first chapter chronologically in the storyline. Spanning two centuries, several countries and a wild flood of characters, the prequel attempts to establish several running plots and personal connections for the later installments. It is also laced throughout with fast-paced action, high-octane explosions, feral duels and a smattering of dry humor.
The plot follows James Howlett (Jackman), later known as Logan or Wolverine, as he struggles with deceptive friends, a bloodthirsty brother, the call of revenge and the “animal within.” For the most part, the storyline, which is based loosely on the Marvel comic “Origin,” is a waterfall of raging testosterone injected with an ounce of witty sarcasm and a couple attempts at emotional twists. Screenwriters David Benioff and Skip Woods apparently valued blinding fireballs and violently devastated buildings over sentimental scenes of internal struggle, and seemed to be in a rush to connect “Wolverine” to the rest of the “X-Men” series. New antagonists, random sidekicks and underdeveloped minor characters are introduced sporadically throughout the film, then killed off or flown away two scenes later. The ultimate climax is itself slightly anti-climactic, and appears to be wiggled in at the last-minute to connect “Wolverine” with the existing “X-Men” trilogy.
That being said, the movie was downright awesome to watch, stuffed to the brim with enough action to blast a hole through the screen. Logan and his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber), both of whom possess razor-sharp senses, regenerating bodies and extendable bone-claws, live through the Civil War, both World Wars and the Vietnam War before they are drafted onto a special-ops team of mutant soldiers. If that’s not enough, six years later someone starts killing off the team’s members, and Logan gets involved in the shady military research project that transforms him into the Wolverine of the later films. Before long, he finds himself battling both former companions and newly-generated super-foes, charging headlong toward an ambiguous, ill-defined finale. The nearly incessant action shots obviously rule and run the film, and leave little room for breathing, blinking or conscious thought. Several intense duels between supposedly indestructible adversaries leave the audience severely winded by the time the final credits roll.
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is the quintessential college man’s film, and an atrocious choice for date night at the theaters. Characteristically predictable, unoriginal in plot and devoid of meaningful character development, it flies solely on Jackman’s bulging deltoids. Nonetheless, fans of the series and fans of wildly intense, heart-pounding, seat-gripping action will undoubtedly get a healthy wallop out of “Wolverine,” and the pickup driving, cigar-puffing, shotgun-toting crowd will definitely not be disappointed.
And don’t forget to sit through the credits for one final, predictable punch line.
