Slashing through missed opportunities

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - 12:20 AM

Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Blazing special effects, flying mutilated bodies, cheap one-liners and that oh so recognizable plot. Welcome to the summer blockbuster season. While it isn’t the amazing summer kickoff that “Iron Man” was last year, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is somewhat satisfying blockbuster fare, even though the film is by far the weakest in the memorable “X-Men” series.

Staying true to its name “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” recounts the events in James Logan’s (Hugh Jackman, “Australia”) life, leading up to his entrance in the first “X-Men” movie.

The film opens with Logan first learning of his claws, which after a tragic event, force him and close friend Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber, “Defiance”) to run away together. Over the years the two fight and conquer many battles until they are discovered by military mutant recruiter William Stryker (Danny Huston, “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”).

Though Creed openly welcomes the aggressive nature of Stryker’s assembled team of mutants, Logan does not agree with the team’s brutal methods and leaves to live a life of his own in the Canadian Rockies. Six years later, Logan’s simple life as a lumberjack and boyfriend to a beautiful school teacher gets turned upside down when he finds his girlfriend murdered, with all clues pointing to Creed as the killer.

Now with nothing but revenge to live for, Logan reunites with Stryker to take part in the Mutant X project, which will fill his body with the precious adamantium metal, turning him into the indestructible Wolverine.

This is where the action really heats up, but at this point, it’s too late to save the film from its paper-thin plotting and ridiculously cliched “been there, done that” feeling. Unlike most films though, where the blame is spread all around, only director Gavin Hood (“Rendition”) can take the heat for the film’s obvious flaws.

Before “Wolverine,” the biggest film on Hood’s resume was a controversial low budget Iraq war drama with little to no action. With this being his first big-budget film, it was clear Hood wanted to play things safe and work the X-men characters into a traditional origin story instead of having the balls to create a whole new experience like Christopher Nolan did with “Batman Begins.”

His style, or lack thereof, is most noticeable in key plot progression scenes. For example, when Logan appears to find his girlfriend murdered, he cradles her in his arms ever so tenderly, pouts for a few moments, then looks to the sky and lets out a fierce NOO…! Moments like this should make the audience feel for the character, not laugh at how pathetic this cliched reaction shot has gotten over the years. Ever since director Bryan Singer left the franchise after “X2,” the heart and soul of the X-Men character has almost all but vanished into snide facial expressions and overdone mutant powers.

As stated earlier though, even if the movie doesn’t live up to the series’ best, it is still one hell of an entertaining flick. Jackman has really come into the Wolverine character over the years and created an iconic screen figure that lives up to character’s comic book legend. His interactions with the equally fierce Schreiber as Sabretooth are extremely entertaining and often lead to the best claw-to-claw brawls of the movie.

The rest of the cast of mutants also play their parts perfectly, but sadly are given very little screen time. In fact, there is one raid sequence early on where a situation comes up which requires them to use their powers. Once destruction has been wrought, their abilities are most likely not seen again. This was especially disappointing for Ryan Reynolds (“Adventureland”) as Wade Wilson, whose mouth-dropping, bullet-deflecting sword skills and smartass attitude were only on display during the first 20 minutes of the film. Even series favorite Gambit (Taylor Kitsch, TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) is given only one exploding card trick scene.

Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

As a fan-based blockbuster, it doesn’t matter what critics say about this film, because people are going no matter what. It’s hard for them because they don’t want to hear a bunch of cynics trash what looks to be a great time at the theaters. While “Wolverine” may be a satisfactory start to a long summer season of action, this critic can only hope the best is yet to come.

‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’

Release Date: May 1

Director: Gavin Hood

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston and Ryan Reynolds

Genre: Action, Fantasy

Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense action sequences, violence and some partial nudity.

Grade: C-