Wolvie, We Hardly Knew Ye

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" had several things going against it for me.

It's coming on the heels of the terribly disappointing and disjointed "X-Men: The Last Stand", which saw a hodgepodge of plots all colliding haphazardly, including the classic "Dark Phoenix" storyline which truly deserved a film all its own to convey its true power and depth, and painfully introduced the next generation of X-Men characters, to the utter detriment of the "older" characters and their storylines.

I also have always thought that Wolverine, a kind of modern spandex descendant of Clint Eastwood's "The Man with No Name", works much better when his history is shrouded in mystery, so a film that purported to lay bare his life story seemed destined to dilute a great portion of his personal appeal, reducing the laconic anti-hero to a "known" quantity and rendering all of our secret theories about who and what he is moot.

It's nice to know that life, and movies, can still occasionally surprise me.

"X-Men: Secret Origins: Wolverine" succeeds in spite of the failure of its predecessor and the playing of Wolverine's trump card because it does the things all good movies are supposed to do; it makes you care about the characters and tells a compelling story in which to get to know those characters. It successfully recreates the mood of the Wolverine comics, too; a dark, usually humorless and angst filled journey into the titular character's psyche, mixed liberally with savage fights and grim warnings. And it does one other thing quite well; it tells Wolvie's origin while incorporating the larger X men universe into his personal mythos, which is wise on two fronts; one, it brings in the huge audience that came out for the first three "X Men" films, and secondly, it pleases the comics fans who are always eager to see their favorites on screen and interacting together.

"Wolverine" tells the story of young James Crowley, a sickly ten year old boy whose real father is a brutal man that kills his adoptive father (James only learns that the man he previously thought his uncle was really his father after the man kills the adoptive father). James flies into a rage and bony claws extend from his wrists, which he then skewers his father with, before fleeing into the night with his savage, feral (and also superhuman) half-brother, Victor Creed. The two bond together to face the world, two mutants against the world, clinging to each other out of need and fraternity and personal history. We see them (in black and white montage) throughout history's wars, the natural outlet for their remarkable abilities. Finally, Victor's brutality lands them both in a military brig, where they come to the notice of Colonel William Stryker, a man who offers them their freedom in exchange for their participation in a covert group populated by superpowered mercenaries.

The brothers agree, and once again violence is their life's work, performing assassinations and unmentionable black ops for the American government. Ultimately, however, Creed's uncontrollable thirst for blood leads James into trouble once again, as James refuses to help wipe out a group of civilians and walks away from the group. His attempts to lead a normal life are to be challenged by his dark past, however, as he finds himself drawn back into Stryker and Creed's world of violence and betrayal, while simultaneously discovering what type of man he truly is.

"Wolverine" effectively mimics the comic book character's world, specifically the world of the solo "Wolverine" book by putting the hero up against a variety of characters whom may or not be trustworthy and who all have their own agendas. The moral landscape Wolverine faces is murky at best, as he attempts to define himself and leave behind his former life while sifting through a myriad of smokey double and triple crosses. Like the comic, "Wolverine" the movie is peppered liberally by intense and elaborate fight scenes that serve to illustrate the character's capacity for brutality but also his more empathetic nature (he doesn't kill unless the person REALLY deserves it, and tries to protect innocents from harm as much as possible).

The film also populates Wolverine's world with lots of faces familiar to comic book fans; The (future) X-Men Gambit, Cyclops, and maybe Emma Frost are seen here, as well as villains Sabretooth (Creed), Stryker, Blob, and Deadpool (later an anti-hero) are all on display and, for the most part, are adapted quite faithfully. In fact, the film possesses one of the comics' FLAWS as well; with so many mutants present and so few normal humans, one almost gets the idea that
this universe is overwhelmingly populated by mutants with a a few humans thrown in for good measure; the "outcast minority" tag seems to hardly apply here.

The cast is key in both establishing the grim tone of the film and making us understand and feel a part of Wolverine's world. Jackman, once again, is superb as Wolverine, so much so that I honestly can't think of anyone else in the role and bemoan the day he'll be forced to step down. He truly embodies the laconic, outsider who's not afraid to use the methods of the bad guys while still serving the angels, and he's got Wolverine down pat; the slow burn of anger, the explosive release of rage, and the quiet, deep pain of the character as well. Liev Shrieber brings true menace and depth to the role of Sabretooth, a role that could easily have descended into cliche and montony, given the sparse dialogue he's given. Danny Huston is very effective as Stryker, the silver tongued government operative whose seductive promises sound good but are always suspect, and Lynn Collins does a fine turn as Wolverine's love, Kayla Silverfox, projecting warmth and serenity and a trace of poignancy in her performance. Two contemporary "hunks" also support "Wolverine". Taylor Kitsch, of "Friday Night Lights" fame, is quite impressive as Remy LeBeau (Gambit), a southern fried mutant who, like everyone else in this film, has a sliding scale of morality, and Ryan Reynolds is OK but not particularly memorable as Deadpool, a jabberjaw mercenary who, to be fair, isn't really fleshed out enough to give Reynolds any real acting test.

The film takes a few liberties with the comic story that it's taken from, and none of those liberties really damage it. I guess one could say that the reason Wolverine didn't recognize Sabretooth in the first "XMen" film is because of events at the end of this one, bu it doesn't really explain why he looks markedly different (other than the fact that he's being played by a different actor!).

There's some natural questions raised in the wake of this film about the possible future of Wolverine, both as a character and as a franchise. With the relevation of his origin, he's lost of large chunk of his personal inner conflict (who am I? how did I get to be this way?). But he's still got the family feud with his brother, and the fight to control the more animalistic side of his personality. But the loss of mystery that accompanies this film may be quite damaging to Wolverine; like his template The Man with No Name, and countless other Mysterious Strangers, a good portion of his power derived from that murky background that confounded enemies and allies alike. On the one hand, the more you know about someone, the more you can like them, but the less you fear them, too. With an "avenging angel" type character like Wolvie, that can be a negative development.

Then again, the timing may be right to lay all of Wolvie's cards on the table. It's unlikely they'll do another "Origins" film with him again, since there's so many other mutants to get through, and the prospects of another "XMen" film that doesn't use younger characters as a focus is looking less and less likely. And given the fact that it takes about 3 years to make one of these films, I can't imagine more than one more being made with Jackman anyway, since it won't be long before he or the filmmakers consider him too old for the role. I've heard they are making a sequel with Wolverine, and I hope that if it comes to fruition, Jackman is in the starring role but to be honest, I'm fairly dubious.

"Wolverine" endears itself to two audiences in different ways. To the geek crowd, it recaptures the feel of the comic book and displays that world in about as accurate a way as possible. The characters they know and love (or loathe) are all lovingly recreated and done justice. For the general audiences, the film captures a kind of spaghetti Western motif (and oddly enough, an Eastern "ronin" one as well) as it details the life of an essentially good man who is caught up in circumstances well beyond his control and fights to gain not only independence from the forces that would use him to their own end, but to find out who and what he truly is. It's packed with action that involves you because you care about the characters, and there's enough moral ambiguity to make you question even some of the "heroes"' motives and actions.

Pack some popcorn (or better yet, buy some), get ready for a barrage of hyperkinetic trailers, most of them dealing with either middle aged men having some sort of maturity crisis or cuddly/eerily realistic computer animated creatures from Pixar or Dream Works, and enjoy the
ride that only a combination of 90s style comic book stories and 21st century CGI effects can produce.

Pocket protector optional.