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"Noisy, Impersonal, Dull-Witted"

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Already the yay-or-nay shorthand verdict for X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been decided upon, and that's whether or not it's better or worse than Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand. Which is why Justin Chang's Variety review could slightly encourage Fox marketers since he says that Wolverine "overpowers" X-Men 3. This reminds me of the first instant analysis about Waterworld after the first press screening -- i.e., "It doesn't suck."

Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

"Heavily fortified with adamantium, testosterone and CGI, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a sharp-clawed, dull-witted actioner that falls short of the two Bryan Singer-directed pics in the franchise but still overpowers 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. For all its attempts to probe the physiological and psychological roots of its tortured antihero, this brawny but none-too-brainy prequel sustains interest mainly -- if only fitfully -- as a nonstop slice-and-dice vehicle for Hugh Jackman.

"Jackman just about holds things together with his reliable but hardly revelatory all-brooding-all-the-time act; for sheer bellowing rage, he's occasionally upstaged by Schreiber, whose grisly, vampiric presence has some interesting points of overlap with his role as another volatile bad-seed brother in Ed Zwick's recent Defiance.

"Noisy and impersonal, X-Men Origins: Wolverine bears all the marks of a work for hire, conceived and executed with a big budget but little imagination -- an exception being Barry Robison's intriguing production design for Stryker's island compound. Shot in Jackman's native Australia, the pic is apparently set in the 1970s, though one would have to read the press materials to realize this.

"An unfinished print leaked online weeks before the film's May 1 Stateside release will prove a mere flesh wound to Fox's B.O. haul, which should be muscular locally and abroad."

Acronyms<< previous | next >>Expected

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 29, 2009 at 10:32 AM

comment #1

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

Wolverine is worth watching for Hugh Jackman's body, mmmm. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my chin.

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at April 29, 2009 11:15 AM

comment #2

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

and Wells, I think you forgot to turn off the italics.

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at April 29, 2009 11:16 AM

comment #3

Ryansi51 says ...

maybe you drooled (command + i)

Posted by Ryansi51 at April 29, 2009 11:37 AM

comment #4

wildphantom says ...

I have just got back from seeing it
Opened in the UK today.

I was a big fan of Bryan Singer's X-Men films, and loathed what Fox did with the third one when he left to make Superman Returns.

The contempt they showed for the potentially enormous opus Singer had set up was appalling and should never be forgotten. The idea being they could milk the franchise for all its worth with films dedicated to individual, popular characters.

Here's the first one then...and its just ok.
Nothing particularly wrong with it as such. It is what it is. A relatively straight-forward mutant versus the establishment effort that doesn't even attempt to put any kind of complexity into the mix.
X2 was a relative challenge for its audience. Clever and involving, inviting us to second-guess what we were seeing, with a broad range of characters and number of plot-stands. That's what an X-Men film should do with such an enormous universe.

Wolverine has such a lack of ambition as a story we already half know from the flashbacks earlier in the film series.
This could be forgiven if it worked as a spectacle; but even there it falls short of the mark for a $100 million summer movie. Save an inspired starting titles sequence and terrific motor-bike set-piece there really isn't much here to rock any popcorn-muncher's world. Its TV series stuff to be honest.

Its fine. First half is solid, then it meanders to its predictable conclusion. Better than X3 for sure; but time for Fox to give the rights back to Marvel.

Did Gavin Hood really have much say here?
Definitely not.

Posted by wildphantom at April 29, 2009 11:38 AM

comment #5

Kristopher Tapley says ...

Frankly, "It doesn't suck" was my one-off when I saw "Wolverine" yesterday.

Posted by Kristopher Tapley at April 29, 2009 12:08 PM

comment #6

Jason says ...

I've heard that Jackman stretches his arms out wide and roars while the camera pulls back at four different times in the movie. One of those RAAARRRs is in the trailer. You have to pay to see the other three.

Posted by Jason at April 29, 2009 3:07 PM

comment #7

Daniel Zelter says ...

phantom: "and loathed what Fox did with the third one when he left to make Superman Returns."

Well, I loathed what Singer did with the fifth Superman movie. And he had a bigger budget than FOX.

"The idea being they could milk the franchise for all its worth with films dedicated to individual, popular characters."

Um, Marvel does that all the time.

Posted by Daniel Zelter at April 29, 2009 6:43 PM

comment #8

Gordon27 says ...

"And he had a bigger budget than FOX. "

This is absolutely, demonstrably false. The reason you think that is because the quoted budget for 'Superman Returns' includes all of the money that was spent on all of the different 'Superman 5's. So to say that Singer's budget on 'Superman' was bigger than the budget on 'X3' is absolutely false. Why, stranger, whose name I don't recognize, you're as dumb as this guy who posts here all the time, name of "D.Z."

Posted by Gordon27 at April 29, 2009 8:33 PM

comment #9

Carl Kolchak says ...

Saw this last month and I'll be damned if I can remember anything about it.

Posted by Carl Kolchak at April 29, 2009 8:46 PM

comment #10

Daniel Zelter says ...

With or without the aborted Nick Cage/Tim Burton version, I could tell SR was over-budget, just by its running time.

Posted by Daniel Zelter at April 29, 2009 10:48 PM

comment #11

Gordon27 says ...

I'm not saying 'Superman Returns' didn't go over its initially approved budget. I'm saying that that initially approved budget was lower than the budget on 'X-Men: The Last Stand' a movie which, despite its short running time, went vastly over budget because Fox continued to approve incredible spending in order to meet its contractually guaranteed release dates.

Posted by Gordon27 at April 30, 2009 11:28 PM