X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

Howl of a good show! (Review by Billy Suter, courtesy of The Mercury)

Kudos to South African director Gavin Hood who, after his Oscar-winning Tsotsi and commendable Hollywood debut, Rendition, does a sterling job with his first stab at big-budget, comic-book action.

Apparently the first of an intended series of superhero movies designed to provide back stories for the many mutant characters that appeared in the hit X-Men screen trilogy, Wolverine is everything you’d want it to be. All of which makes it somewhat surprising that it has had many lukewarm reviews, some critics grumbling about a thin plot and jabbering on about the story being pointless, anyway, because - as we all know from the first X-men movie - Wolverine loses his memory.

Tongues-out to them. X-Men Origins: Wolverine may not be as arty and impressive as The Dark Knight but as comic book movies go it’s massive fun and a great deal better than the last X-Men and Spider-man movies. It looks terrific, offers a compelling story, has brisk pacing, colourful characters and excellent special effects. It also boasts some spectacular action sequences, the most striking being an extended chase scene that has our ever-frowning, talk-through-the-teeth lead character (Hugh Jackman) battling a helicopter and two armoured vehicles.

The film opens well with Jackman’s character, as a boy born as James Howlitt, witnessing claws sprouting from his fist during a rage spurred by a family tragedy. Both he and his slightly older brother, Victor (later to be played by Liev Schriber), also a mutant, develop healing powers and by the time they are adults, and even before the opening credits are over, we have watched their bloodlust take them through battles in the US Civil War, both world wars and the Vietnam War.

Soon they are signed up by enigmatic government agent William Stryker (Danny Huston) for a special unit comprising only mutant, but when Victor, later to become the prowling and villainous Sabretooth, shows an increasing craving for blood just as his sibling starts to develop a conscience, the brothers fall out.

James then disappears for six years, finding love with a teacher (Lynn Collins) and work as a lumberjack in Canada, while Victor teams with Stryker in rounding up all known mutants, the aim being to siphon off their powers and pour them into one superbeing. So it comes to pass that Victor and James cross paths once more – and also face up to mutants that include a ripped Ryan Reynolds as a talkaholic who, dynamite with a sword, is turned into the deadly Deadpool.

We also get to meet Taylor Kitsch as master of cards Gambit; Dominic Monaghan as Bolt, who controls electricity; Will I Am as a teleporter in a cowboy hat; as well as a young Cyclops, a girl with diamond skin and an obese man with the power to blow up a tank by stuffing his fist down the vehicle’s barrel. We also, of course, get to learn how Wolverine’s long claws come to be replaced by metal, how he got his Marvel-lous moniker, how he turned into a snarling sort, and why and how he eventually lost his memory.

In the words of Jackman, who also co-produced the film, which was shot in Australia and New Zealand: “We get to see Wolverine’s journey and the battle within, as he owns up to the events of his past.” He adds in the press kit: “Wolverine has certain qualities that are sacred, and No 1 is that he’s a bad-ass. Borrowing the character’s catchphrase, Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice.”

Adds co-producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who served in that capacity on the X-Men trilogy: “Wolverine’s got attitude, humour and a way about him. He just doesn’t give a damn – and that’s fun for an audience to experience.”

Hear, hear! Rating: 8/10 – Billy Suter