Liev Schreiber Movie:

Stills from X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Click for larger image)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
The best of the Xmen Films
2009-12-17 - 1. I like most have watched the prior 3 Xmen DVDs and this is the best by far.

2. Unlike the other films, this film is focused solely on Wolverine and thus the writing / storyline is much more in depth and sophisticated. In many ways it's akin to Batman Begins. A definite must see for all Xmen fans.

AWESOME!!!
2009-12-17 - I give the seller alot of credit, very punctual and professional. Recommend to all Amazon clients.

Unnecessary, if watchable
2009-12-16 - The Bottom Line:

After a cool opening credit sequence (that adds this film, along with other luminaries like America's Sweethearts, to the list of films that peak before 10 minutes have elapses) Wolverine devolves into a rather bland "origin story" that's made even more redundant by the fact that those of us who have seen the first three X-men movies know exactly where things are going; though Jackman and (especially) Schrieber give it their all, there's not a lot here to like.

2.5/4

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review
2009-12-10 - X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE


STARRING: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will I Am, Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and Ryan Reynolds

WRITTEN BY: David Benioff and Skip Woods

DIRECTED BY: Gavin Hood

Rated: PG-13
Genre: Science Fiction / Action
Release Date: 01 May 2009



I'm not going to get into how far this film was from the comic books for two reasons. One is the review would never end and the second is, I don't really care because to me it's a prequel to the three X-Men films; not a comic book. From what I understand, fans of the comic found it to be devastatingly far from the true origin of Wolverine.

The film opens with two young boys: James and Victor, growing up in Canada with super powers. Certain events happen and the boys leave home. Then at I guess whatever age the actors are in real life, (Hugh Jackman as James and Liev Schreiber as Victor), they stop aging; for whatever reason, this is never explained. And don't tell me it's disclosed in the comics, because this is not a comic book. It may be a comic-book-movie, but it's a movie nonetheless. And in a movie certain things need to be revealed. A sequel or prequel shouldn't rely on its previous installment alone, to fill in loose holes. Any film should be able to stand on its own.

We know that they have stopped aging because as the opening credits roll, we see them fighting in several wars and we end the credit sequence at well over a hundred years from where we began. I guess they were tired of being Canadian because they eventually start fighting in American wars. Maybe they had dual citizenship?

They are both in trouble with the military until a man named Stryker (Danny Huston) asks them if they want to join a special team. They join and the team is comprised of way too many super-mutant characters to keep track of.

Next for no reason at all, Stryker starts calling James, Logan. I understand this was Wolverine's original name but it is never exposed to us why he is suddenly called Logan. The team becomes corrupt and Logan walks away. Victor isn't pleased.

We fast forward six years to learn that Victor is apparently now bad and is murdering off the members of the team. I've seen the film twice now and with the exception of sheer boredom, I can't tell you why he does this.

We learn why Logan is going to be called Wolverine and then Victor kills his girlfriend. Having nothing else to live for, Logan agrees to allow Stryker to spend "half a billion dollars making him indestructible" by injecting him with a special metal. Evidently, for a reason that is again not explained to us, Wolverine is the only one that can handle this painful operation. Then they get mad at each other and Stryker tries to have him killed, just minutes later. I guess the government doesn't audit this guy's allowance.

The problem with this being a prequel is that we already know from seeing the first X-Men that at some point Wolverine is going to have to lose his memory. This takes a lot of the suspense out of the film and you won't believe how lame the idea is that they use to justify his memory loss.

The thing that bothered me the most in the film was the horrible CGI (Computer Graphic Imagery). I am not generally a fan of CGI anyway. His claws looked like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon; particularly in the scene of him checking himself out in the bathroom mirror. Last time I checked, technology has improved since the first three films, so what was the problem? The satire-filled commercials with Charles Barkley sprouting Wolverine like claws looked more realistic.

There's even a CGI shot of Wolverine driving a motorcycle by the Las Vegas sign. Did they need this shot? If they did then why didn't they just have some no-name stunt guy ride by? The camera was so far away, we wouldn't have known if it was really Jackman or not anyway.

There was also a shot of an elderly couple driving and the entire background was CGI. Why? These were two unknown actors. Why couldn't they have shot this sequence on location with any two actors? They clearly had Jackman there, running through the fields. And the elderly couple was only driving down their driveway for crying out loud; it wasn't dangerous!

Nearly all of the action sequences looked fake. Wolverine flying through the air and landing on a helicopter looked like something out of a videogame instead of one of the most highly anticipated summer blockbusters.

They even used CGI for dust in the motorcycle chase scene and when Wolverine was running through the woods with the helicopter shooting at him. Why? This is one of the most basic tricks in Hollywood, used for years; you set explosives in the ground, then you detonate them and it makes the dirt fly in the air, looking like bullets hitting the ground near the character. The exception would be the final action scene; it wasn't half bad.

One of the things in the film that I did like was Hugh Jackman's portrayal as Wolverine. He was clearly born to play this part. He takes it very seriously and does a tremendous job; as he did in the other three films. Watch him in an interview and you will see that this character could not be any farther from the real Hugh Jackman.

I also loved Liev Schreiber as the villain. He really got into character here. He is a tremendous actor and I have had my eye on him for years. He should be able to taste an Oscar because he's due one any time.

Ryan Reynolds was great as always, but only in the film for a few minutes. And at last they put Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) in an X-Men film. I'm not sure if Kitsch was the ultimate choice for the role or not but he was descent. I would have liked to have seen more scenes with him and Wolverine together; but of course they tried to cram all of these other characters into the film who were boring. This movie did not have enough of Wolverine in it.

I suspect the film was horribly written. The plot was weak and had too many holes. I don't know how they got these great actors to sign on for this film. Not to directly blame this on the writers, but I was so upset to see my favorite line from the trailer by Wolverine tarnished. It played great on the trailer but in the actual film they add a strong and un-needed swear word. I know Wolverine swears but the line was stronger without it.

I obviously wasn't very impressed with the directing of the film either. I feel like the director (Gavin Hood) didn't take this project seriously. I have no idea how he landed this job. According to [...], the only major film he had ever directed was Rendition. How does one go from directing a mediocre film like Rendition, to directing a movie as huge as this? Sadly, Rendition is probably a bit better.

Expecting more.
2009-12-10 - I love the Wolverine character, but this film left me wanting more. There's definitely a sequel or another X-Men film in the works. Fans will enjoy though. Sound quality is awesome.