With Deadpool & Wolverine FINALLY around the corner, I thought it'd be a good idea to look at the first time we saw those two characters on screen together...and let tell ya, yikes.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a comic book movie based on the Marvel Comics' character Wolverine. It serves as the fourth installment of the X-Men film series, the first part of the Wolverine trilogy, and a prequel to 2000's X-Men. It was produced by 20th Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Donner's Company, and Seed Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and directed by Gavin Hood.
The story is, after so many years of fighting, Logan believes he's finally found peace along with his girlfriend Kayla. But when Kayla is killed by an enemy from Logan's past, he goes on the warpath to get his revenge.
My Thoughts
Now the movie does have an amazing opening. We see Logan as a child, when his claws first popped out, and then were treated to a perfectly done montage of all the wars Logan & Sabretooth were in, from the Civil War to Vietnam. Then after that we see both men join Team X and go on their first mission. Oh and we also get our first glimpse of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. Not in the full costume but we could've just chalked that down to this being before Wade got sick. Regardless, after the mission is done, Wolverine quits because he hates the groups lack of self-control and empathy. Which is a good reason for Logan to quit. He may be a beast himself but he's not a heartless monster. So this entire part is incredible, I love it...sadly after Logan quits and we jump ahead six years later.
We do get a slight glimpse into Wolverine's new life, but before we go full force into that, we go to Victor (aka Sabretooth) who kills one of his former teammates. And let say this, Hugh Jackman's performance is rightfully praise, but wow, Liev Schreiber is amazing. He's perfect for this role, which makes it a bummer he wasn't given another chance.
Afterwards Logan's old boss Stryker arrives, gives him details about the old team getting hunted and killed, and after more words are exchanged Logan leaves. Then he and Kayla, and we given the story of how Logan got the name Wolverine. Now I have read and watched videos where people have made fun of this, because they believe it's just some sort of thing about the title dropping, an excuse for how he got the name, etc. It personally didn't bother me, but I guess I can kinda understand.
Now honestly all of this stuff up in Canada isn't bad, is it perfect? No, but for what it is it's pretty decent, sadly it all comes crashing down when Victor kills Kayla and Wolverine wants rightfully wants revenge. So you'd think this'll get good, because if you read the comics, Wolverine and Sabretooth always have great and bloody battles. Well not in this movie. I can forgive them for not making it over the top bloody. I mean Wolverine can stab people and no blood splatters. It happened in X2 and The Wolverine. What I can't forgive is how this fight was shot. The camera is way too close in some shots, we quickly edit to one actor to another, and then the shaky cam, because apparently it was too much to ask to keep the camera still. It also doesn't help that none of the impact is felt. There's one moment where during this fight, logs fall on top of Wolverine, and they just fall. No sense of gravity or anything, they just fell.
So after a scene in an hospital where Logan agrees to work with Stryker, we're finally at the moment where Wolverine gets his adamantium, and it's disappointing. First off, here's what it looked like when Logan got his adamantium in X2.
Now that looks absolutely terrifying. Almost like a horror movie. But here's what it looks like in this movie.
What the hell? This looks way too clean. Not too mention but Logan never once looked terrified about what happened to him. Do nobody bothered to watch X2, or at least look up the scene? Not too mention but much like the fight between Logan and Victor previously, the editing is just awkward. It's like the filmmakers wanted to do a slow-mo to fast forward similar to 300, but instead of making it look good like it did in that movie, it looks bad. It didn't help they used it too much. First it's normal speed, then out of nowhere it's slow-mo to fast forward. Normal speed then slow-mo to fast forward, and just repeats. Over and over again.
So Logan escapes and runs into an elderly couple who are nice enough to give him a place to stay, new clothes and something to eat. Also during this scene, we see Logan's new adamantium claws and THE CGI IS ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS! Just look at them!
How could anybody in the editing room, look at this and think for even a nanosecond that this looked good enough for theaters?! For crying out loud the coloring alone doesn't match the coloring of the entire cinematography. Worst off the CGI claws look awful throughout the entire the movie. There's not one scene where they look good. This poor CGI is made even worst when the first X-Men movie used CGI for the claws, and looked vastly superior. And that movie came out in 2000, nine years before this one was released.
Also, getting the adamantium put into was the most traumatic experience of Wolverine's life. But in this movie, he doesn't seem bothered at all. A matter of fact, he just seems okay with it. But what really pissed me off was the filmmakers also made a joke about Logan's new claws. While in the couples' bathroom, he accidentally cuts the shelve, sink, among other things as well. Cause apparently despite having claws for many centuries before (albeit bone claws), Logan is clueless of how to work these things.
Afterwards we get a chase scene. Although the obvious green screen bothered me a bit, the chase scene is overall pretty decent. There's even a cool moment where an explosion propels Logan in the air, sending him flying, and cuts up a helicopter.
Then we cut to seeing a young Scott Summers aka Cyclops. I'll get into him later. Back to the Wolverine side of things, he meets up with will.i.am. Not the actual singer, the guy is playing a character but I completely forgot what his name is. So I'm gonna use will.i.am. Anyways, will.i.am talks about why Victor is the way he is now, and let's it slip how Team X started hunting mutants, or as Stryker put it, "hunting the bad ones to make a difference". They need to figure something out about an island, and only Fred (The Blob), knows. During this Fred somehow misheard Wolverine's "bub" for "blob". Which leads to them fighting. Which I don't understand how Fred made this mistake. Yes, Blob is never the smartest guy, but there's no way he should've made that mistake. Bub and blob sound nothing alike.
I'm gonna speed things up a bit. So Scott is captured by Sabretooth, it's revealed that he's working with Stryker. Afterwards Logan & will.i.am have some sort of info from Fred, they go to New Orleans to find Gambit because he escaped The Island years ago. Speaking of Gambit, what a wasted character. He has a fight with Wolverine, flys him to The Island, disappears, and comes back at the very end of the movie to save Logan from being crushed. And that was it. He did those four things. That's all. Not to mention, but this Gambit is an idiot. He says he hates Victor, but the moment the guy is literally right in front of him, he doesn't take the chance to kill him, he just let's him walk away, and for no reason at all, fights Wolverine. I mean it, he has no reason to fight Wolverine. None!
So we finally arrive at The Island. Where Logan is face to face with Stryker, and it's revealed that Kayla is alive and working with Stryker?!? This revelation continues with Stryker saying he was doing because since Logan has a healing factor this would help his son, and it would also help with his mutant killer project, "Deadpool". Oh don't worry I'll get into THAT later. Anyways, Stryker realized that the only way Wolverine would've ever came to him, would be revenge. So he had Kayla and Sabretooth fake her death. Oh boy, the problems this brings up.
1) Okay, so they were able to get pass the heart beating thing by injecting her with a drug that would slow her heart down. That's a smart way to get pass Logan's senses, but what about wounds? We saw Kayla's "dead body", she was covered in blood. Sure it was blood from a jar, probably something Stryker kept in handy. But, this would give Logan the impression that Victor cut her up and since Logan held her "dead body", he would've noticed some sort cuts or scrapes on her.
2) If Stryker wanted Wolverine so badly, why didn't he abducted him while he was unconscious after his first fight with Sabretooth? He was right there for the taken. He had no reason why he couldn't take advantage of this moment.
3) He didn't need to do this convulsed fake death bullshit. He could've had Victor ambush Logan and then once again, abduct him whenever Victor finally knocked him out, and then force him into his twisted experiments. He had Victor sneak attack everybody else, why is Logan who's the only one who gets special treatment?
After that bit of nonsense, Wolverine frees all of the imprisoned mutant kids, including Scott Summers. Which begs the question, why doesn't Scott remember Logan? He couldn't see him because he was blindfolded but he has heard his voice. And even if we ignore that, you mean to tell me, that no kids talked about the badass with the metal claws that saved them? Not even once?
Do I even need to say anything about...this?
Why? Why did they do this to Deadpool?! You don't sew the mouth of The Merc with The Mouth!
So after a bloated fight, Kayla dies for real, Wolverine loses his memories because Stryker shot him with an adamantium bullet, Logan and Gambit run off before the authorities arrive, and the kidnapped mutant children escaped thanks to the help of Professor Xavier. Oh and we got a credit scene showing us Deadpool survived. Cause they really thought we wanted to see more of this version of Wade, when we didn't want to see him the first time.
I know throughout this review I criticized bad CGI, weird editing, lackluster action scenes, and etc. But what really pisses me off is somewhere in here there's more than likely a good movie. That opening montage and setting in Canada were really good moments. Sadly after those we're treated to just a garbage flick.
My final rating is, Awful.
Thankfully after this we got The Wolverine and Logan, and given a proper Deadpool with Deadpool 1 & 2. Anyways, come back on Saturday, Jul 27th, for my review of Deadpool & Wolverine. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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