None of these niceties change the fact that this first stab at a Wolverine solo movie is rough going, full of poor special effects and worse dialogue. It’s also loaded with enough fan service and Marvel easter eggs to make Kevin Feige blush, and this was something that still felt somewhat novel in 2009. This is the movie that gives us our first look at Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, Liev Schrieber’s excellent Sabertooth, and the expected rebel-with-only-a-hint-of-conscience cool of Hugh Jackman’s Logan. There are a few (very few) positives to be had, to be sure. It’s the fourth installment of one of the most successful superhero franchises ever and (that one Brett Ratner directed exception aside) a beloved one at that. The problem is, X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t a late night cable movie. In the days before every superhero movie had to be a nine figure budget affair, most of us would have predicted exactly that vibe for a character like Logan, who really came of age during the golden age of the macho action hero in Ronnie Reagan’s 1980s. In some ways, particularly during its first act, X-Men Origins: Wolverine has an appealing late night cable action movie aesthetic. Those who have seen the finished product (or the workprint) now know better, but on the internet, everyone’s mutant power is hindsight, so let’s not go crazy. Gavin Hood came on to direct, and armed with a script that carried echoes of some of the better stories in Wolvie’s back catalog, everything seemed in order. It’s not like anyone was clamoring for a Cyclops movie (then again Cyclops Unclenches has a nice ring to it). Why not, right? Marvel had been doing exactly that on the comics end of things for years. Watch everything Marvel and more with a FREE Disney+ TRIAL, right here! The prefix-less solo Wolverinefilm, scripted by David Benioff was put into development in 2004, around the same time that Deadpooland Magnetowere eyed by Fox as potential spinoffs. Hell, most of the unproduced X-Men movies before Bryan Singer finally came along and managed to actually get things done properly, and before anyone had heard the name Hugh Jackman, were actually titled Wolverine and the X-Men. With the initial success of the X-Men movie franchise, A Wolverine solo movie seemed inevitable, as the character had already spent the last twenty years as the center of attention in any and all attempts to bring the X-Men to other media. I’m just a guy looking for a silver lining. That being said, I came not to bury X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the internet has already done a fine job of that over the last however many years), nor to praise it. Not even I, superhero movie apologist that I am, can sit here and tell you that this is a particularly good film.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine will forever be remembered as the right cross of a one-two punch that, coupled with X-Men: The Last Stand, nearly buried the credibility of the X-Men movie franchise.
0 kommentar(er)
