X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2009
Twentieth Century-Fox and Marvel Entertainment
www.x-menorigins.com
We start at the beginning – I know, how bourgeois – James ‘Logan’ Howlett is a sick child, monitored by an adolescent moody Victor ‘Dog’ Creed. After a tragic accident where James’ claws emerge in an uncontrollable rage, he learns that Victor is his half-brother and they, as “freaks”, escape together forming a quick but strong brotherly bond. The credits role and we see them fighting side-by-side through 150 years of all the commercial wars (WW1, WW2, Vietnam etc).
Despite their bond James finds it hard to control and hide Creeds increasing bloodlust, until they are recruited by Stryker along with a few other mutants (not the original Weapon X group) with a goal to create the perfect mutant. But Logan doesn’t want to continue down the same path as the other mercenaries so he leaves, which is seen as a betrayal to Creed.
Cut to sometime in the (near-ish) present, Logan is making home with his girlfriend (Silverfox) in the Canadian Rockies, living an honest, lumberjack life away from trouble. And it is Silverfox who plants the name Wolverine in to Logan’s head, before she is slayed by Creed as an act to gain Logan’s attention. Logan wants revenge but can only defeat Creed (who is now going by the alias Sabretooth) if he goes along with Strykers plan to have his skeleton fused with indestructible metal, which he does. Unfortunately though, Wolverines super hearing picks up on Stryker scheming, and does a naked dive off a picturesque waterfall. Chaos ensues.
This film is a fast, adrenaline soaked comic book fantasy, full of new characters (well cast too) and so many twists you’ll want to vomit. The characters, plot, action sequences and special effects (especially the retracting claws, *snikt snikt*) are perfectly balanced without being overly cliched or too close to the original comics. A well built spectacle filled with enough speed, drama, wit and technical skill to easily branch out to most audiences (although no doubt you’ll get your die hard fans hating Deadpool – to the max).
As well as the action, hair and claws there is the obvious but unmentioned underlying message about “fitting in” to the society that is trying to repress them. Discovering who we really are, and whether in our complex personalities, we can find the proper one to live by. All the mutants have this trouble, but this is about Wolverine, and his struggle. He has to control his animalistic rages to really prove to himself that he can, that he isn’t the same as an animal, despite the rather unfortunate characteristics he may share with them.
In a word this film is escapism, pure wonderful, exciting escapism. Which is exactly what comic books do, they deliver the big spandex-clad doses of wish fulfilment. You might think that one day they’ll run out of comics to adapt to film, however, if they continue down this ‘origins’ route, they could go on forever, supplying nerds everywhere with something to complain about, and Stan Lee with somewhere nice to live.
Emily Paget