X-men Origins: Wolverine Is Unfaithful But Fun

As the first opening volley of the summer movie season, X-men Origins: Wolverine does a pretty darn good job of kicking things off well.

A friend and I decided that it would be a geektastic use of a sunny Saturday morning to first swing by the comic book shop for Free Comic Book Day before heading over to the local multiplex for a matinee of Wolverine.  Of all the movies coming out this summer that I’ve been looking forward to, this one had always been pretty near the top of my list, and I was hoping it would be good.  Nevertheless, after the dismal disappointment that was X-men 3, and with the recent craziness of Wolverine being pirated online and the subsequent scrambling from the studio to make changes to the final print in order to attract people to the theaters even if they’d already seen it (not to mention a lot of the rumors about drastic changes to the film version of certain characters versus their original comic counterparts)…well, needless to say, I was prepared for the movie to be less than awesome. 

That combination of fanboy excitement tempered by cautious optimism turned out to be good preparation for the movie, because I really enjoyed it.  The film takes some rather large liberties with the Wolverine mythos as well as the origins and development of many of the characters portrayed in the film, but by this point, that shouldn’t be any big surprise for comic book fans.  What’s important is that, for the most part, the changes make sense, they remain true to what has been previously established in other films, and the essential elements of the personalities and motivations of these characters remain intact.  In my opinion, in amongst some cliche elements and cheeseball dialog, X-men Origins: Wolverine does each of those fairly well.

Let’s be honest…nobody was ever expecting this to be another Dark Knight or Watchmen.  It was always meant to be a fun romp revolving around big action and surprise character cameos, not thoughtful themes created for in-depth analysis, and it succeeds at its purpose — it was definitely a thrill ride.  Wolverine featured some of the best stunts and fight sequences of any of the X-men movies.  From a casting standpoint, Liev Schreiber’s turn as Sabretooth was several levels of magnitude better than Tyler Mane’s in the original X-men, and even though Taylor Kitsch’s Gambit didn’t receive nearly enough screen time (nor was he Cajun enough), it was great to finally see that fan favorite character hit the screen.  All of that isn’t to say that there weren’t some excellent quieter moments, but overall, this flick was about the octane.

Of course, let’s not forget Hugh Jackman; he carries this movie, and it’s incredibly enjoyable to watch him cut loose (no pun intended) as Logan and to see the cinematic version of the events that made him the Logan we know and love today.  By the end of the film, it’s pretty easy to believe that he’s the same guy we see in the nowheresville Alaskan bar at the beginning of X-men — and that’s even before any further spin-offs.  There’s a good twenty years or more between the end of this prequel and the beginning of the original film.  Plenty of time for, say, a visit to Japan (hint hint, producers)?

Overall, while X-men Origins: Wolverine wasn’t the best entry into the franchise (a place still occupied by Bryan Singer’s X2), it was a very fun film, and I hope it isn’t the last time we’ll see the ol’ Canucklehead popping his claws for the popcorn-munching masses.

Have you been to see it?  What did you think?