Pyroradio recently had the good fortune of attending the screening for Wolverine X Men Origins at the Odeon in Leicester Square. I had been eagerly anticipating this film for well over a year now from when it was first announced, due to the fact that for me Wolverine had been the only engaging character in the X Men trilogy and personally had been one of my favourite comic book characters of all time. Who wouldn’t like an anti hero, fierce fighting machine who possesses healing powers, berserker rage, Adamantium-laced skeletal structure and retractable claws! I was also excited that the people behind Wolverine had finally listened to the public by introducing some of the their favourite characters especially Deadpool and Gambit (who in particular had controversially never been featured in any of the X Men movies)
The film starts with James Logan aka Wolverine and his brother Victor Creed aka Sabretooth running away together as children in the mid 1850`s after Logan kills their biological father who had murdered Logan`s adoptive father. We then see a quick flash of wars the brothers have been involved in with Victor Creed becoming increasingly heartless, they become imprisoned and are recruited by William Stryker to serve in a special unit made up of mutants which includes Wade Wilson aka Deadpool , Agent Zero, Wraith, The Blob and Bradley. After heartlessly wiping out an Nigerian village, Logan quits the unit and goes off to live a life of peace in the Canadian Rockies working as a lumberjack and living with his girlfriend later to be known as the Silver Fox finding love and contentment for the first time. Six years pass for the both of them until Stryker shows up and asks Logan to come back and be a part of a new Weapon X project. Logan refuses which leads to heartbreak and the beginning of the Wolverine people know him as, full of rage and an eye for revenge.
Hugh Jackman is definitely one of the best things about the film a great lead actor with screen presence and menace. Surprisingly the film is very funny in parts with Deadpool’s one liners, the friction between the characters, ridiculous stunts and a small Botex overdosed cameo of a younger Professor X, the action is relentless at a thrill ride tempo keeping you engaged the whole time. Some of the action scenes are ridiculous especially the final fight sequence with Wolverine, Sabertooth and Weapon 11(who’s basically a mix up of all the mutants Stryker has captured). Director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition) does a good job visually with a number of slick shot’s and action sequences, keeping the story ticking over relentlessly.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed it I think some people will be let down by how little the other mutants are featured in the film, especially Gambit and Deadpool who only feature in a couple of scenes, I think the posters and advertising of the film is a bit misleading with them all sharing the bill with Wolverine, Cyclops I think has around 3 lines which go something like ‘We should go left‘ and ‘I‘ve got a headache I need to wear my glasses‘. Ryan Reynold’s as expected was brilliant as Deapool and was one of the best things about the film, yet to be honest he was probably only on screen for 10 minutes all in all, the same can be said about Gambit who only really featured in the last quarter of the film. Yet when they featured they lived up to the wait and I’m sure will have future Spin off’s for themselves. The volume of characters also sometimes seem a bit rushed at times, you never really see Wolverine by himself he’s always with someone new.
One major thing I thought lacking was how they captured Wolverine’s anger and despair over everything he`s lost and witnessed over his years. At times he seemed a bit too nice he was more of a traditional hero than an anti hero. Overall Wolverine X Men Origins is a great deal better than the 3 X Men films (X Men 2 was good but it never lived up to the opening scene) and for me is one of the top 5 comic book film adaptations ever made, The Dark Knight still holds the crown. If your looking for action and some of your favourite characters on screen definitely check out Wolverine X Men Origins
8/10
