Movie Review: "X Men Origins: Wolverine"
By Skip Tucker
www.skiptucker.com
Every movie hero needs a tagline or a gimmick. You can’t say, “I’ll be back!” and NOT think of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Elvis Presley made 30+ movies with a hip swivel and lip curl. And now Hugh Jackman is tossing his own personal signature into his movies with the “love-interest-dies- (usually by your hand) -and-you-cradle-her-dead-boy-in-your-arms-while-howling-at-the-moon.” It worked for him in “Van Helsing” (with Kate Beckinsale), “The Prestige” (with Piper Perabo), in “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” (with Famke Janssen), and now, most recently, in the much-anticipated prequel to the “X-Men” series, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” This time it’s Lynn Collins who draws the short straw as the beautiful but doomed Significant Other.
“Origins” serves primarily as the back story for Logan, the most popular X-Man, and fills in a lot of the blanks from the first trilogy. It opens with a flashback sequence set 150 years ago which reveals that Logan and Victor Creed (later Sabretooth) are mutant half-brothers. Quick vignettes show the never-aging brothers fighting side-by-side through various wars (Civil, WW1, WW2, Viet Nam), and ending up in a mutant army formed by the devious Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston). When Logan refuses to take part in a massacre in East Africa, the team breaks up and Logan settles down with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (the aforementioned Ms. Collins) as a lumberjack in the Canadian Rockies.
Stryker has different plans, however. After a particularly chilling scene where Sabretooth confronts Kayla on a deserted mountain road, Logan finds her bloodied body and does his howl-at-the-moon thing. He’s then convinced by Stryker that the only way to confront and kill Sabretooth will be to take part in an experiment grafting indestructible metal on his skeleton, including the signature retractable claws.
Logan, who has chosen the name “Woverine,” finds out that he’s been duped by Stryker (again), and sets out on his own to hunt down and kill his half-brother. What follows are plot-twists and CGI action sequences that should keep the most die hard adrenaline junkies satisfied.
There’s not one, but TWO additional scenes at the end of the movie. The first occurs right after the credits begin to roll, and the second immediately after. It’s worth the extra six minutes to see the additional footage.
With an $87 million opening weekend, “Origins” is the movie setting the standard for Summer, 2009. That is until NEXT week, when “Star Trek” totally kicks Wolverine’s furry, adamantium-covered ASS.
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