I suppose I should be grateful. Wolverine is, after all, nowhere near as horrific as X-Men 3. Nor is it the worst superhero movie ever made, as many were expecting. So in a way it kinda beat expectations, seeing as how they were incredibly low. That's probably the best compliment you'll probably scrounge out of me.
For one thing, the story is horrific. Now, Wolverine's origins in the comics wasn't exactly topnotched. In fact it was very flawed and as such, it gave the writers unmeasurable freedom to break free from the comic story because to be honest, very few comic fans care for Wolverine's origins. He was much cooler when nobody had any idea where he came from. But instead of changing the story for the better, the writers bombarded it with cliches after cliches, each more painful the next. In fact, it seemed they were hellbent on destroying the story because they kept every aspect of Wolverine's origins that didn't work and changed the few that actually managed to show depth in Wolverine's character.
It's such a shame too, Hugh Jackman was apparantly so thrilled and passionate a film. He deserves a better movie than this as much as the character does. He does his best with the paper thin dialog given to him, but he is given no room to expand.
Then there's the endless cameos from minor characters that were obviously meant to show up just so they can get themselves a spin-off. Gambit was a shallow pretty boy with a few cool moves and nothing much else to show for it. Ryan Reynolds was actually surprisingly good and in the 10 minutes given to him at the start was actually one of the few highlights of the film. It's all the more a waste that his charcater was so mishandled later on in the film. And the lest about the appearances of Cyclops. Silverfox, Wraith, Blob, Emma Frost and Agent Zero the better.
But alright, let's give this film a fair shot. The story may be ridiculous but it should have at least the promise of being entertaining. Only that's just the thing, it's nowhere near entertaining. The action scenese were incredibly bland (the first part and the finale were the only ones that were entertaining in anyway). This is in part due to the horrendous visual effects. Really, everything looked fake. This was most obvious in a scene in which Wolverine observed his claws in a bathroom and clanged them together. The effects here look like they're straight out of the 90's. And the stunts all seem to be made of pulling actors in strings. It's all the more frustrating when you realize that they had 150 million dollars to work with, roughly the same amount it took to make the new Star Trek movie. But comparing the effects between the two is like comparing Lord of the Rings to a Muppet show. Even Wolverine and Sabertooth's fights are all the same. They fight several times throughout the movie and they all go the same way. They sneer at each other, make a cheesy line, laugh, growl, draw claws, run at each other, hit each other continuously despite the fact neither of them could get killed from any wounds either could inflict.
In the end, it's more of a missed opportunity than it is a piece of trash. That much I can be grateful. I can only hope they put more thought into making the inevitable sequels and spin-offs
5 out of 10
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