Movie Review: X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE
Comments(33)
- By drvenkman
Ever since I heard about the production problems that ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ had , and the major change that FOX made to Deadpool, I have been pretty anti-Wolverine movie. I went in with low expectations for the film, and I was in no rush to see it. I had a hope that it would surprise me, but it didn’t. It was pretty much what I expected it to be, but a little worse.
The first 10 – 15 minutes of the film was the best part, and that’s because of Wade Wilson. Ryan Reynolds was perfect for that role! He really did a great job. My only complaint was they didn’t give him enough dialogue! He maybe had about 10 lines in the movie. I really wish he had been in it more. Well, he was kind of in it at the end, but that was just absolutely ridiculous. I was so pissed off about what FOX did to Deadpool, and seeing how it all came about and getting the full story of how it happened didn’t help the situation either. I also have to bring up those stupid ass blades that come out of Deadpool’s arms. Those blades are just as long as his arms. How in the hell does Deadpool bend his arms at the elbow when his blades are retracted? Can someone explain that to me? Are those blades bendable? No! Come on people we’re not stupid! Here is a little spoiler that occurs at the end of the credits. Deadpool’s hand comes out of the headquarters’ rubble and finds his head and kind of pets it. Then the eyes open and Deadpool’s head says Shhhhhhh. I wasn’t impressed, but it leaves it open for a Deadpool spin-off movie, something I would be interested in seeing if Fox wasn’t involved.
The rest of the movie has a few fun little moments, I laughed a couple times and enjoyed one or two action sequences. Most of the action sequences I thought were pretty weak. It’s like they wanted to make the movie a hardcore badass Wolverine film, but it ended up being pretty weak in my eyes. Wolverine really didn’t go crazy berserker like he should have. Wolverine should have been way more hardcore and way crazier, but he wasn’t. There was not one drop of blood in the movie. I’m sorry, but if you shove blades in a person and you pull those blades out of a body, those blades are going to be covered in blood and not look like they have been wiped clean. I am convinced that no Wolverine movie will ever be right unless it is rated R. I understand they wanted to make this movie PG-13, but they still could have added a little more blood. I just was expecting something more hardcore, because that’s what everyone involved with the film was hyping it up to be! Yeah, they failed. I would have much rather seen some blood spray instead of Huge Jackman’s naked ass.
Liev Schreiber was actually pretty good as Sabretooth, but I was annoyed that almost every time his character came into frame in the movie, it was a shot of one of his hands, as his claws grew longer. He and Wolverine needed to try a little bit harder to kill each other. I think their relationship could have been handled a little better. Taylor Kitsch did a great job as Gambit but he was barely in the movie. Every scene he is in can be seen in the trailers of the movie. It was a nice little introduction to the character while he is seen playing poker, challenging Wolverine to a friendly game of Texas Hold’em’ until things don’t go as planned. I thought he would steal the show, but he didn’t have enough time to do so. Everyone else in the movie did a decent job for the limited amount of time they had up on screen.
There were a few holes in the story including a pretty big one that included the father situation between Creed and Logan because they sure looked like the children of the fathers they were supposed to be from. I also didn’t like how they tried to cram all of these characters in the movie, it seemed cluttered and unorganized. The end of the film was the worst part, there were several holes that were not explained and the final fight was so anti climactic. It was a huge disappointed for me.
The special effects in the movie were an epic fail. I thought the special effects would have at least been decent, but I was shocked at how bad they were! That is one of the reasons the movie fell below my expectations. How in the hell do you screw up Wolverine’s blades! The blades looked so damn CG, every time they popped out it annoyed the hell out of me! Last time I checked special effects and CGI have made vast improvements since the first X-Men films, yet in those movies his blades actually looked much better. I’ve seen better CG work on TV than what we got in this big budget action movie. It just wasn’t the blades either. I’m sorry, but ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ had some of the worst special effects I have seen in a long time.
I really wish this movie had been better. I know there are people out there that really liked this movie and that’s great I’m happy they did. But as a big comic book, Wolverine, and movie fan I was pretty disappointed in ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. FOX really screwed this movie up. I would even put it in the same league as ‘X-Men 3’.
If you have seen the movie please tell me what you thought of it I am interested to know.
You know i saw it tonite as well and I went in with REALLY low expectations because I had read really bad reviews but I was entertained by it. The cheese factor was way over the top, but aren’t most comic book adaptations? I think Ryan Reynolds is an okay actor but I enjoyed his role as deadpool as did I enjoy Taylor Kitsch as Gambit. everyone kept bitching that the role of Gambit should’ve been given to JOsh Holloway from Lost but Kitsch did a pretty decent job as the cajun badass, Gambit. It was VERY anti-climatic like you mentioned, venkman, but overall because i went in there not expecting a great film i came out pleasantly surprised even with the bland story and over the top cheesiness. The fight scenes were awese.
it would be cooler if you could spell venkman
I completely agree about the CGI, how can you not at least rival the first X-Men movie’s special effects?
I went in expecting a steamy pile of crap and found a shiny pile of crap so I guess I enjoyed it?
I’m sorry, Gambit wasn’t even that good. He lost his accent three lines into the part and “I’m a friend” are not words that should ever be said between Gambit and Wolverine.
Final problem for me was in comic books I love little scenes for the nerds (Cap’s shield in Iron Man, even Xavier telling Scott how to save the kids) but seeing Sabretooth tell Wolverine, “Back to back!” to fight a teleporting Baraka was not one of these moments.
All in all. Yep, sucked royally!
—Torch
i disagree with you on one thing though, venkman…
“I would have much rather seen some blood spray in the place of Huge Jackman’s naked ass.”
nah, i prefer the naked ass
Ha, Funny Lola! I will see it once it hits the $2 theatre. Which should be soon. If anything Venkman, you should Review the Wolverine Game. If you want, this game has it.
I agree, it was good but could have been better. i did not like what they did with deadpool. but the cast was really good,i loved how professer x showed up that was cool. all in all i think things will get better when they comtinue thwe series.
If you are going to write a believable review, please check your grammar and spelling. Not to mention saying the same things more than once. Also, the reader want’s an objective review, not just if someone liked it or not, but the concrete reasons behind it. Also if you mention something about Fox causing production issues, let us in on it. Not all of us know what happened. Sorry if I sound a bit critical. Email me if you want to respond.
I’d say you’re bang on really regarding the lows of the film…it is what it is – and, if you less well versed with Wolverine or the Marvel universe for that matter I imagine that you will enjoy it a fair bit (especially if you’re a girl…) … but I too was incredibly annoyed about how they screwed up Deadpool & the whole story in general…the cliche ’screaming into the camera as it booms upwards’ sort of stuff – i mean c’mon! the dude who directed this made an Oscar winning film for Christ’s sake!! It’s pretty obvious that although Gavin Hood can make a serious character study, let him loose with an FX dept at his fingertips and a fantasy film and suddenly he is a kid in a playpen…
FOX of late certainly has a track record when it comes to screwing up big films, big film franchises for that matter – Die Hard 4 being one, Hitman being another and it probably started with X-Men 3…and not to forget their horrid involvement with the Watchmen film…
Marvel are reportedly very annoyed with the way they have handled Deadpool…and since FOX have a hold on all those characters it’s not as if Marvel can make a film of their own under their banner (like Iron Man) and fix this fucking mess.
All in all…I REALLLY wanted to like it…but I really dont think I did!
Keep up the good work on the site!!
If you don’t have the balls to use your actual name nobody is gonna give you “critique” a lick of credibility.
I liked the movie because being a marvel fan and a wolverine fan, personally with as jumbled and as many different origin stories as wolverine has had, this one took the good parts and trashed the bad.
I agree the claws were way too CGI and yeah the Deadpool arm blades stupid. Then again I also remember wolverines 3 foot claws when he was first being drawn, so in essence that I think may have been a throwback to some of the original wolverine mass problems. The problems I have with the movie were more because of unnecessary shortcuts they took to tell the story.
Zero’s name is maverick until his second stint with weapon X via him needing striker to save his life. And he and wolverine were good friends.
John wraith yeah um, they need to decide who john wraith is before you just throw a character in the movie with his name. I have seen 3 different interations of john wraith before the movie, in two he was non mutant and loved torturing wolverine. In one wolverine made pretty damn quick work of him and he was still non mutant. Also the way Sabretooth killed him unnecessary he appear around your arm he’s dead those are the teleportation rules.
Emma frost, she is a telepath before she gets the diamond abilities, yes for what they used her for in the movie it was helpful, more helpful would have been her normal psychic abilities to just stop folks from firing or getting them to shoot each other.
As for them “throwing so many characters in” in most of the comics I read the original “weapon X” team was maverick, silverfox, wolverine, and sabretooth. And yes that is through all the damn implanted memory storylines, all of the various cartoon attempts at telling the story and a few continuity rewrites. As for them adding deadpool in okay not a problem because if we are going to go along with deadpools boast of being the best there is at everything wolverine does we at least need to compare it. The silverfox wolverine cabin scenes were actually from a few of the comics and the cartoons save the tree where logan carves logan fox. John wraith the only teleporter I remember them using was the aboriginee guy(gateway I think was his mutant code) and he could teleport groups so the whole them being stuck on the elevator is stupid if he was who I think he was supposed to be. No clue who the hobbit was and seriously he was dead weight.
Continued….
As for gambit hell they got the cards, the staff(and is it just me or isn’t that Kingpins cane from daredevil) and the way he fights right. I can forgive accent slippage. As for the relationship between wolverine and gambit being kinda chummy it has never been explained why wolverine and gambit don’t get along. Gambit pops up with storm, falls for Rogue and for some odd strange reason wolverine doesn’t like him and he doesn’t like wolverine. At least now we have a reason for gambit to not like him too much.
And as for some of the kids they had in there, yeah um if that kid who was moving really fast trying to get away was quicksilver no way in hell would 3 mile island have still be standing if he was there.
Oh and the bullet holes were in the wrong place X one he had a hole over each eye. I also agree with the they should have shown some blood spray, but thinking back they have never shown blood spray when wolverine killed somebody. If you think back to the huge wolverine laying waste to an entire unit at the School slicing and slashing everybody no blood spray whether he slashed or stabbed chest, neck, calf, etc. So I can’t blame them for sticking to what it appears is the X-men blood policy.
I think your being a little hard on them though as far as the story is concerned. It’s wolverine tell me how them cleaning up some of the notoriously rusty edges marvel has left in his origin story is a bad thing. Marvel has tapdanced around whether or not sabretooth and wolverine are related for a good 20 years now. I give him a pass on the kids looking like their dads because if you look save Rose not being there that scene is a direct panel for the Wolverine Origins book. Okay maybe he didn’t slice dog’s face (who they replaced with sabretooth which of course makes more sense anyway), and maybe the claws came out before he punched his father in the chest. I think you see the claws come out on the kid so they didn’t fall into the Ang lee trap of waiting to long to let folks see a characters defining marks. You see the bone claws, you know he always had the claws which is in line with marvel showing his claws after magneto had removed the adamantium when people thought his only “power” was the healing factor.
Again story wise I give them credit for picking the best pieces of the myriad of wolverines origin stories and forging a single direction.
I LOVE DEADPOOL. and they ruined him about as much as they possibly could. that was sooo stupid. and what was his mutant power supposed to be? absorb all other powers powers? he suppsoed to have a healing factor just on his own. at what was agent zero’s powers? john woo movie powers? about the only good thing i can see from this is they put out a badass deadpool shirt.
I realized that as long as 20th Century Fox holds the rights to X-Men, we will never get to see:
1. A decent X-Men movie of any kind. Or…
2. Any type of good cross-over flick like the way Universal is doing. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to see Wolverine fight with the Avengers? Crossovers are the only way the Marvel movies are going to make it.
It’s a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless. Marvel somehow needs to get back the rights from 20th Century Fox and Sony (they have Spider-Man) if the X-Men franchise is going to survive.
Although it would have been cool to see Josh Holloway play Gambit, I’m glad it didn’t happen because then everyone would be bitching that he was just playing Sawyer again which would be true. I thought Taylor Kitsch did just fine in the role.
As for the movie itself, I though it was decent. I honestly think it’s going to be one of those films that will play better on late night cable.
I totally agree with you 100%. I was really annoyed. I guess I had fun watching it but only because I was out of the house or something. The special effects sucked, especially when the claws first come out in the bathroom. You could actually see where they screwed up. It was so terrible. And the professor at the end! OMG, that looked horrible! Honestly, Marvel should get back the rights to that or something because they would never have let that movie be so bad. If they needed to get that many characters into the movie, make it longer!
I feel bad for Hugh Jackman because I think he really wanted to do a great movie and do good by the comics and fans but this was so bad.
I can’t believe anyone hasn’t said anything about Emma Frost yet, cause that was one of the most disappointing parts of the movie for me, yeah she has diamond skin in the comics…but really come on, shes know for the telepathic abilities!
Deadpool was awesome in the beginning, i mean Ryan Reynolds had that part perfect, those were definitely the best scenes in the movie, and i think they should have had more with him.
And you never know they might be able to make a decent Deadpool movie, at least he gets his mouth back later… (sorry if that was a spoiler).
Gambit was pretty awesome too, the accent did kinda die away after awhile but he was still bad@$$, and once again there should have been more of him. Really i know it was a wolverine movie but they could have shown more of the other characters that are just as awesome and bad@$$ as him.
Yes this could have been a better movie….a LOT better. But i still enjoyed it. Out of all of the Marvel movies this one definitely isn’t the worst (im looking at you Elektra!!). As a HUGE comic geek, yes im a little disappointed but i still had a lot fun watching this movie. I love getting to see all of my favorite super heroes on the big screen (Spider-man, Wolverine, Deadpool, still hoping Iron Fist) and ill always enjoy these movies….except you Elektra!!
Ok i’m done ranting
haha sorry primaldata, i just saw you said the stuff about Emma Frost, im glad im not the only one with issues with her character in the movie
I went and saw it opening night with my father.
and the theater was pretty much empty… it was depressing.
I really wanted to like this movie..
Maybe if I wasn’t an xmen and wolvie fan I would have enjoyed it better… though after seeing X3 again on teevee the other day I went in with VERY low expectations.
With my low expectations I was able to enjoy it somewhat.. as the lame action flick it is…
You all made really good points/observations, and I agree completely with most of them. The only thing that REALLY pissed me off was what they did with deadpool!
also The accent flaws with Remy were horrible.
I really liked the blob!
Scott Summers and Emma Frost’s cameos were also nice to see… at least… Not as cool as Xavier’s though!
all in all Wolverine was an epic FAIL.
I’m sad that this will probably be one of the worst movies coming out this summer.
Ugh this movie sucked the acting suck the effects sucked the story sucked there were 2 things that didn’t suck though gambit and sabeertooth thats it everything else was way lame. i also think the anamantium (has no idea how to spell that) injection should have been way more intence he should have been killin lab geeks left and right, then an assload a soliders should have come to try and contain him and then mass wolverine kickin assness should have ensued. but no he can stab one dude and jump down a waterfall that seem like a perfect substitute. Fox has no standerds… somebody plz go take their rights to make marvel movies away plz!
This is ALL i have to say:
http://butterfest.net/2009/05/01/we-need-that-for-the-pool-the-deadpool/
Yup…
‘Nuff Said True Believer.
Sadly, I would rather have seen no Emma Frost at all than what they did with her. If there is one thing she has never been it is ordinary. They made her barely existent in this film and they could have found some random character in the X-Men archives to do what she did.
Just my opinion.
I feel the exact same. Went in with low expectations (but with a tinge of hope) and left disappointed. More than disappointed, sad actually – I guess it was more than a tinge.
I’m glad you mentioned the after-credit clip. After I saw my clip (different than the one you mentioned), I heard one of the custodians say “the other one is way better”. I asked her what she meant, there’s two different after-credit clips. This really annoyed me, knowing I got lesser clip after a bad movie.
From a comic book geek’s perspective, that movie hurt my soul. victor and logan are not borthers, silver fox and emma frost are sure as hell not related, and cyclops definitely did not have those glasses before he met professor X. Also, the continuity sucked because there is no way scott summers and emma frost were around when wolverine was fresh out of weapon X. And don’t even get me started on Deadpool. for the last time, HE IS NOT WEAPON XI! Mind you, in the first 15 minutes of the movie, I have to admit that Ryan Reynolds did a brilliant job. Totally agree about the Emma cameo being pointless, although it was amusing and slightly ironic seeing her sharing a screen with scott summers.
From a moviegoer’s perspective, it was a pretty good movie…premise was good, dialogue wasn’t too cheesy, and it was definitely well cast (even liev schreiber, which i will grudgingly admit).
From a girl’s perspective, Wolverine was shirtless and/or naked for the majority of the first half of the film, and by the time he finally gets dressed, we’re introduced to Gambit, who is like the embodiment of sex (even though he needs to work on the accent).
I really only went to see it because wolverine are played by two gorgeous guys who shared a screen at some point in the movie. I know that makes me sound shallow, but clearly the only other reason would be to mock the special effects and point out everything that was wrong with it. And I mean everything.
Looking back, it sounds like I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed this movie as much as I did. Nor should I want to go back and watch it again. But I can, and I probably will. Despite all of the film’s inherent flaws, it was pretty entertaining. And Stryker totally got owned by Silverfox.
“From a moviegoer’s perspective, it was a pretty good movie…premise was good, dialogue wasn’t too cheesy, and it was definitely well cast (even liev schreiber, which i will grudgingly admit).
From a girl’s perspective, Wolverine was shirtless and/or naked for the majority of the first half of the film, and by the time he finally gets dressed, we’re introduced to Gambit, who is like the embodiment of sex (even though he needs to work on the accent).
I really only went to see it because wolverine are played by two gorgeous guys who shared a screen at some point in the movie. I know that makes me sound shallow, but clearly the only other reason would be to mock the special effects and point out everything that was wrong with it. And I mean everything. ”
this pretty much sums up the way i felt about it
well said, desdemona !
The movie was pretty cool I thought, it was a lot of fun, but it doesn’t really go beyond that. I mean I’ll admit there were some parts in the movie where I was just plain geeking out! I mean man Ryan Reynolds and those swords in the beginning!? Freakin’ cool! But all in all the first and second x-men are really the best, i think their the ones that really did the comic series justice. I mean yeah there was tons of stuff missing, but can ya blame the people who made them? I mean there is a lot of damn story lines in X-men! Hell! There are a lot of damn story lines in all Marvel stories! I always remember watching my X-men shows growing up and going “This is so cool! I love X-men……..but what the hell is going on?” So I can forgive the studio for down sizing a few things in the first movie.
But this isn’t a review for the first X-men’s! A-ahaha! No it’s for the 4th installment! So basically it was fun, yeah it fell apart in some places and it had some of the most cheesy lines on the planet (seriously! I could smell the cheddar it was so corny!) and the special affects were very bad, but ya gotta admit ya had fun right! I know I did!
One last thing though…….I really have to point out the part were Logan is on “The Island” and you know he’s doing his thing and he see’s all of the mutants that Stryder had taken to experiemnet on and stuff (cause through out the whole movie the characters had been talking about all the horrific stuff that the guy and been doing on the mutants) but when you finally see all of the mutants your like…uhhhh, they all look pretty fine to me? I mean they all looked as though their captives were letting them stretch their legs now and then, you know take a bath keep clean and all that good stuff. So I agree with Dr. Venkman on the part about X-men movies needing to be more then just Pg-13. I mean they don’t have to go all blood and gore and horror scene (because I am completely not into horror, I’m way to much of a wimp to see horror movies, yes I’ll admit it!) just really commit to what your doing or else your gonna gets some pretty unhappy customers, such as everyone that commented here on this page! Okay that’s all I had to say! Bye! I hope you guys enjoy the next Marvel movie they make! =)
I wrote a comment yesterday that was deleted, revealing the differences between weapon XI and Deadpool and the not so secret Deadpol ending. It was deleted, which leads me to believe that the writer of this article just wants to complain and not accept the fact, that he was wrong.
GO to IMDB. Look up X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Go under characters click on Weapon XI, read about it, and it explains that Weapon XI is Deadpool, but not exactly. Weapon XI, becomes the REAL deadpool after he is decapitated. He wakes up under a pile of rubble, WITH A MOUTH and no longer controlled by Stryker. Unlike Wolverine he still has a memory, so he will most likely be a good guy. No more worries, Deadpool will most likely return and in more comic book fashion. Dont delete this, this time. But, than again this is Geektyrant, it wouldnt be tyrannical if someone wasnt deleting comments.
Hey Partyboy your comment was not deleted, you posted it in another Deadpool post that can be found here
http://www.geektyrant.com/2009/03/x-men-origins-wolverine-full-movie-trailer-wdeadpool-screen-shots/#comment-7351
If anyone wants to read it. we don’t delete posts unless there are death threats. And regarding Deadpool I under stand what you are saying about the character but it is still just ridiculous that he has all of those mutant powers. I guess we’ll see what happens happen with his own movie.
Saw the film last night – not impressed. Way to many plot holes…
If Agent Zero was the best shot – why didn’t you give him the Adamantium bullets?
If Adamantium is ‘un-breakable’ – You would have to shoot Wolverine through the eye to get through to his brain. Shooting him in the skull was just cause the bullet to bounce off? (this was actually quoted to Wolverine by Maverick/Agent Zero in X-Men #5 comic book). That’s why in X-Men 2 (probably the best one of the whole franchise), Lady Deathstrike didn’t hack Wolverine to bits.
Also, since his skeletal frame has been bonded with Adamantium – how would Sabretooth cut his head off?
I agree that Deadpool was perfectly cast. the character has no mutant abilities apart from the fact that he was injected with Wolverine’s healing factor which mutated out of control (hence the talking head sequence).
If Sabretooth has no Adamantium skeleton – why is there not a huge whole in his gut from Cyclops UNCONTROLABLE optic blast? – remeber he has no visor yet…
anyways, enough of my ranting – I could go on. I think the best way forward would to be to treat comic book movies like comic books. X-Men 3 sucked because they tried to tailor the Phoenix power and kill Prof X. Daredevil sucked because they mucked around with his origin and the Kingpin. Don’t even start me on Elektra…
If you keep to the writing of the comic books – they pan out. If you said you wanted to make a film about a comic book in which a man dissapears for 5 years to train with a secret ninja cult of assassins in tibet – I would raise an eyebrow – but it worked with Batman Begins. If you told me that a millionaire was going to dress up like a transformer and fight the Taliban – i would have scoffed at some Bush propoganda film – but…
I thought the movie was good but pretty on undisipline. The fact they linked it with the other movies makes it kind of a mess. I thought Sabertooth was great, but X-men killed it for me. How do you not introduce those two as rivals in the 1st place, criminal. Gambit was okay, I thought he could be cooler. So this guy is stuck in the past, wow!!! I thought the movie was a little sappy, the deception was childish & if Wolverine was Wolverine then he can sniff the blood wasn’t coming from her. The deception was that we the audience would find that clever. There were some cool cameos but they could’ve lasted longer. I blob was cool, but they killed him? Hey Sabertooth or even wolverine couldn’t knill that guy. According to the comics & cartoon his body can’t even be penatrated, not even by wolverine’s claws. I really liked the intro, the bone claws, & Sabertooth’s gallop & retractable claws. XI was messy & worst yet, the story has been done before. There is always a situation where a plotter gets dresperate & unleashes his creation prematurely. And the advancement of the creation, having all those abilities. Well I am not sure what decade they were in but it seemed a little much. I thought the movie would’ve been better if Wolverine revisted his former team years after deserting them. Sabertooth went beserk & they con’d him into trying to subdue him, instead it was a trap & he had to fight his way out. There was nothing wrong with a good old fashion butt whoopin. The biggest problem is that these guy’s that does these comic movies don’t have the spirit or fanship of comic book followers. It will take one of us to get it done because we know how important it is acurate enough to make the fans happy. I like this movie way better than Xmen 3. That to me ruined the series potential. Hugh brought Wolverine to life & I will always be greatful for that.
Ha I told you it was bad ha ha!
yeah i agree
the fake helicopter messed it up
and logun should have touched his girl friend and cured here if that happened it would have been the best movie.