X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine is the definitive anti-hero superhero- Dark, brooding, anti-authoritarian, bulging biceps, admantium claws, indestructible body and loads of attitude. He is the character around whom the X-Men franchisee has been built and the X-Men trilogy did not explore his past to a great extent. The announcement that 20th century fox was making a movie showcasing the origins of Wolverine was met with an enthusiastic fan response. X-Men Origins: Wolverine had all the ingredients required for it to be another Marvel classic like the Iron Man.

Alas, 20th Century Fox decided to cash on the success and popularity of X-Men movies and focus on action,not on the story. The result is a 2 hour collage of action clips showcasing how destructive Wolverine can be. The story of X-Men Origins: Wolverine veers away from the comic book on quite a few occasions without any need and any reason.

Professor Charles Xavier mentions in X-Men that Wolverine could be much older than him and he was not wrong. Apparently, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was born sometime in the 19th century before the American Civil War as James Logan. He and Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber),who later becomes Sabretooth of the X-Men trilogy, are brothers with similar powers but are poles apart in terms of their thinking. The elder brother i.e. Victor embraces his animal nature and gives in to the temptation becoming a killing machine (why is the elder brother always the bad one?) while the younger brother Logan can still differentiate between the right and the wrong and refuses to kill innocents. Victor kills a superior officer in the Vietnam war and Logan defends him resulting in both of them facing the firing squad. With their super-accelerated healing, Sabretooth and Logan survive and are invited by Major Stryker (Danny Huston, not a patch on Stryker of X2) to join Team X, a team of mutants under the command of Stryker. Logan gets disillusioned by the methods employed by Team X and walks away from Team X and Victor.

Rest of the movie is how Logan becomes Wolverine, gets admantium claws instead of the default bone claws he was born with, fights off a super-mutant created by Mutant X and loses his memory. The emotional angle which is now a de-facto standard in all superhero movies is there but neither the loss of loved one nor brothers uniting against a common threat has any emotional impact.

The action in Wolverine is good without being spectacular. X-Men Origins:Wolverine is a story of vengeance but the audience does not connect with the angst of the hero or his motive for revenge. Hence, the end result is just another run of the mill action film without any multiple viewing value.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine has earned money for 20th century fox but at the cost of dragging the X-Men franchisee further back after the disappointing X3. There is also an attempt to do a Marvel by putting an end credit scene just like the Iron Man or The Hulk but it is a disappointment and does not tie with the beginning of X-Men movie. It seems there is one more movie in the making for Wolverine as a prequel to X-Men. Let's hope it is not as forgettable as X-Men Origins: Wolverine.