X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will.i.Am, Dominic Monaghan, Ryan Reynolds.

Director: Gavin Hood

The X-Men trilogy plunged Hugh Jackman and Wolverine into household names (the latter, particularly for those who were not already fans of the X-Men comics). One of the most fascinating things about Wolverine when he was first introduced in Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 2000 was that the character essentially suffered from amnesia, with the only clue to his identity being dog tags marked ‘Wolverine’. In fact throughout the next two films, we get suggestions that Wolverine’s abilities, particularly his adamantiun skeleton was not natural; that he was part of a secret experimentation that may or may not have caused his memory loss.

In the continuation of the X-Men franchise, Wolverine provides an origin story for one of the most beloved characters of the X-Men universe, complete with a host of new characters with extraordinary powers. We start with Logan, then known as James as a young boy in Canada witnessing his father’s murder, the trauma of which triggers his unique condition: bone-like claws that protruded from his hands. In fear, he flees with his half-brother, Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber). A montage follows both Logan and Creed as they fight in the American Civil War, both World Wars and the Vietnam War where Creed’s bloodlust eventually led to their downfall. After surviving an execution, both Logan and Creed were recruited by Major William Stryker (Danny Huston) into Team X, a secret team with ‘special privileges’. It is in Team X that they encounter other mutants, presumably recruited by Stryker for their mutant powers: Agent Zero, an exceptional marksman (popular Korean-American TV star, Daniel Henney, in his first Hollywood venture); mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds); John Wraith (Will.i.Am), a teleporter; the invincible Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand) and the electricity-controlling Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan). However, the actions of the group in one of their missions prompted the more morally righteous Logan to leave.

Flash forward another 6 years where we now find Logan living a peaceful life in Canada with his girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins) working as a lumberjack. But Stryker unexpectedly shows up one day, warning Logan that the former members of their team are being killed off one by one (which we learned earlier is Creed, morphing into his Sabretooth character, and presumably finally given into his bloodlust). Stryker is turned away, as Logan does not want anything else to do with the team. As expected, this is all in vain as Victor finds them and kills Kayla, prompting Logan to once again turn to Stryker for answers. This turn of events set about the creation of the Wolverine persona audiences were introduced to in Singer’s original film, accompanied by plot twists, turns and double-and-triple-crosses.

There are plenty of neat and shiny action sequences to keep the audience distracted from some of the strange plot continuities, chief among which was the establishment of Creed/Sabretooth as Logan’s half-brother in this origin story. And yet, the Sabretooth we saw in Singer’s X-Men was obviously a more animalistic version, but to the point of not recognising his own half-brother? The film isn’t bad, by all accounts – as expected Jackman’s screen charisma shines through. But it being a Wolverine origin story, plenty of mutants were introduced only to be conveniently discarded when the plot suited to drive the creation of the growl-ier version of Wolverine in the X-Men film trilogy. Even the introduction of the wildly popular mutant Gambit seemed thwarted somewhat.

Having said that, it is not a bad film; certainly much better than X-Men: The Last Stand. It serves as an entertaining, popcorn movie that will thrill audiences with some of its action sequences.

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