"Seeking solace from his dark past, Logan (Hugh Jackman), better known as Wolverine, seems to have found love and contentment with Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). Logan's peaceful existence is shattered when Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), his vicious brother, brutally murders Kayla. Logan's thirst for revenge propels him into the Weapon X program, where he undergoes a painful procedure to bond his bones with adamantium, making him virtually indestructible and more than a match for Victor."
This movie has been one of my favourite movies. One of my guilty pleasures. As I mentioned in my Dredd review, Wolverine has always been one of my favourite characters. Maybe it was my short temper that made him more relatable, with his hotheadedness being worked into being a positive aspect of his character. Hugh Jackman's work ethic has also been another aspect that has given me great respect for the character. With each successive X-Men film, Hugh Jackman has put more and more effort into getting into the sort of shape that Wolverine is known for (there's no point going into the fact that Hugh Jackman is a whole foot taller than Wolverine in the comic books).
At the time that this movie came out, I knew nothing about the character that wasn't told in the movies. I didn't even watch the X-Men TV series that was huge in the 90s. So I was really curious to learn the origin of my favourite character. Not knowing much about the history of the character, I was fascinated to learn about all of these different parts of Wolverine's life prior to his time with the X-Men.
The reality now, having read many of the comics, is that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a selection of pieces from different comic arcs, that have been connected by the loose plotline of "Wolverine needs to track down Sabretooth". The film has many inconsistencies with his lore (and real-life Earth history too, Canada didn't exist in 1845 and neither did Wolverine), and tries to jam in as many other characters into the film as possible, despite them having oh so very little to do; Gambit, Silverfox, Cyclops, John Wraith, Blob, Deadpool, Beak, Agent Zero, and Professor X to name a few. All to try and distract from the lack of cohesion in the story.
Looking back on the film, Wolverine was meant to be a feral beast after the Weapon X project, and yet a couple minutes after everything happens, his demeanour is back to how it was before. It seems that no matter what Wolverine goes through, nothing really seems to change his personality, and it overlooks what turned out to be a really rich source of Wolverine's backstory. In fact, nearly every single story arc that we are shown that is a part of Wolverine's canon only goes skin deep. Like skimming through a highlight reel, the film tries to cover too many bases and ends up not providing a thorough in-depth story for any of them.
But as a young adult, Wolverine's unbridled anger resonated with me. Every single time Jackman would let out his beserker roar, I would practically fangirl. And X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a lot of yelling and screaming in it. While much of the film was admittedly sparse and poorly written, the relationship between Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Liev Schreiber's Victor Creed (known later as Sabretooth) was the glue that held everything together. Sabretooth had looked ridiculous in the X-Men trilogy, so to get a well-developed backstory alongside Wolverine was an absolute treat.
The CGI was horrendous, there is no denying that; somehow Wolverine's claws have become less realistic since the trilogy. Where there are practical effects, the film looks great, but there are so many CGI layers that cheapen the look of the film.
The worst part of it all has yet to come; Deadpool. 10 years ago, I did not know who Deadpool was, so I thought that this film had a great final boss. The whole film had been like a fighting game, fighting stronger and stronger villains until you get to the big boss. In this case, a boss that has the powers of every mutant we have seen before. It worked well for me and felt like a real threat at the time. I had no idea how horribly they were butchering the Deadpool character (with both Deadpool and Deadpool 2 doing very well in theatres, few people remain that don't know his origin story); what originally came across as a great call back to Wade Wilson being "the perfect soldier if he didn't have that mouth of his", but knowing now that Deadpool is, in fact, the "Merc With a Mouth" sheds a different light.
Overall, with nothing but the knowledge of the X-Men films (what a corrupted continuity that has now become...) I thoroughly enjoyed X-Men Origins: Wolverine. A fun action flick that had all of the roaring adrenaline-fuelled claw fights I could have wanted. It cemented Wolverine's place as the misunderstood guy with a heart of gold. Now, knowing more of the history and lore from the comic books, I can look back and laugh at this abomination of a film, but I cannot escape the nostalgia and positive feelings that the film provides. A harmless fun piece for the movie fans, but a disgrace and violation against all that is good for the comic book fans.