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Leon Reviews "X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE" [Blu-ray]
It’s important to me that I state this over and over so that EVERYONE knows where I’m coming from:
I had hopes that ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ would be good.
I was really rooting for it….rather I was rooting for Hugh Jackman.
I give almost sole credit to Hugh Jackman for this unbelievable renaissance of superhero movies he had over the last ten years. True, Blade was the first but it was the way Jackman made the character of Wolverine come to life (and dare I say, “sexy”) that turned what could’ve been a one-off X-Men movie into the juggernaut (pun intended) franchise that launched so many other (Spiderman, Hulk, Iron Man) franchises. Now as a producer, Hugh Jackman threw his heart and soul into this movie, performing 80% of his own stunts and showing up anywhere and everywhere to promote it. I empathized with his heartbreak when news that an unfinished cut of the entire movie was leaked to the internet (which I firmly believe was a publicity hoax perpetrated by Fox Studios) was all over the media. And even though I didn’t hate ‘X-Men 3: Last Stand’ (yeah, I’m the guy), I was looking forward to seeing what he and the crew would do to restore the X-Men franchise to its former glory.
So, what the hell happened?
I won’t bore you a literary autopsy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine when I can invite you to watch this entertaining video where I discuss my findings with some of my esteemed colleagues. Please enjoy:
Yup. Some- Ol’-Bullshit.
I can tell you that watching it at home on blu-ray (where the picture and sound quality may is much better than theater I saw it in) dulls the sting a little but hasn’t changed my feelings about the movie. It still takes one of the most mysterious and interesting characters in all of fandom and reveals his secrets in a way that mediocre at every turn. Unless watching two mutants that instantly heal bloodlessly stab each other for nearly two hours doesn’t bore you, in which case this could be the moving you’ve been dying to see.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Audio Commentary - ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ has two audio commentaries, and while they offer some technical insight neither is riveting. The first is from director Gavin Hood, who doesn’t do much other than passionlessly give a few details on shooting. The other is from producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter who work better if only because you have two people commenting with banter instead of one. Seems like the obvious choice would’ve been to just have the one track with all three of them—or even better, Hugh Jackman. Duh.
• The Roots of Wolverine - Stan “The Man” Lee, creator of the original X-men and Len Wein, creator of Wolverine, have a fun chat about the origins of the X-Men and, more specifically, Wolverine. The two basically take turns laughingly interviewing each another and patting each other on the back. Stan Lee, despite popular opinion, spends a significant amount of time praising Jack Kirby contribution to the creation of the X-Men. When this began I thought this was going to be painful but it quickly became my favorite segment on the entire disk.
• Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins - Producer Lauren Schuler Donner talks about how they initially wanted to tell the Wolverine in Japan story, but how the studio insisted that they give audiences an origins story first. There’s a bits that touch on the sculpting of Wolverine’s bone claws and Hugh Jackman’s muscle-up diet. Otherwise this is the kind featurette I get sick of on these things. It’s more promotional fluff than anything else, where the cast and crew discuss what it was like to work on the movie and how “amazing” everybody was.
• Deleted and Alternate Scenes - Four longer-than-they should be deleted or alternate scenes because they’re book ended my plenty of footage that’s actually in the movie. One with a young Storm that walks up as Logan leaves the village in Africa; Sabertooth at Wraith's boxing ring; an alternate memory erase sequence; and the famous alternate ending with Logan drinking "to remember" at a bar in Japan. This one, which actually had some meaning is super short and won’t mean anything except to comic book fans.
• Weapon X Mutant Files – Info on the nine mutants featured in the movie and mini-interviews with the actors and what they thought about playing their characters. You learn that most of Ryan Reynold’s dialogue was improvised, which isn’t a big shock since it’s the only dialogue with any life to it.
• The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Sequence – Next to the Stan Lee/ Len Wein interview, this is the best of the featurettes. You pretty much get everything you need to know about the production of the film, how deep Hugh Jackman’s commitment to it went and just how hard everyone worked to pull off the most impressive sequence of the film. It also showed me exactly where this movie started to suck. Not the sequence itself (I still think it is awesome), but in how blow-dried and “GQ” Hugh Jackman is in every scene, no matter what. Compare him to how genuinely gritty and dangerous he looked in the X-Men movies. Through out this movie he’s like a male model that’s been told, “Okay, give me fierce!”
• Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere - A short glimpse at what it was like at the world premiere of the movie that was held in Tempe, Arizona. Crazed fans, and beautiful movie stars waving to them. Boring.
• Ultimate X-Mode - You get to pick from four different U-Control PiP features to play along with the movie. "X-Connect" allows you to see Gavin Hood and Lauren Shuler Donner appear occasionally offering insight into the correlations between this movie and the three other “X-Men” movies. "The Director's Chair" is Hood explaining at length the different techniques that were used to make the various scenes in the film. It also offers an extensive amount of behind-the-scenes footage. "Pre-Visualization" is storyboards and rough CGI animations of select scenes. "X-Facts" give you trivia throughout the film.
• Live Lookup - Did you just spot someone in the movie that you recognize, but can’t quite put your finger on it? Well, as discussed earlier this week, via BD-Live, Live Lookup lets you look up actors in the movie that you recognize and their IMDB.com references. Click on their picture and the IMDB.com gives a list of credits…not that you couldn’t just find there names in the credits and do that on your own.
• Fox on Blu-Ray - HD trailers for the ‘X-Men’ trilogy and another for ‘Night at the Museum.’
• Easter Eggs -
You can purchase X-Men Origins: Wolverine here.
I had hopes that ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ would be good.
I was really rooting for it….rather I was rooting for Hugh Jackman.
I give almost sole credit to Hugh Jackman for this unbelievable renaissance of superhero movies he had over the last ten years. True, Blade was the first but it was the way Jackman made the character of Wolverine come to life (and dare I say, “sexy”) that turned what could’ve been a one-off X-Men movie into the juggernaut (pun intended) franchise that launched so many other (Spiderman, Hulk, Iron Man) franchises. Now as a producer, Hugh Jackman threw his heart and soul into this movie, performing 80% of his own stunts and showing up anywhere and everywhere to promote it. I empathized with his heartbreak when news that an unfinished cut of the entire movie was leaked to the internet (which I firmly believe was a publicity hoax perpetrated by Fox Studios) was all over the media. And even though I didn’t hate ‘X-Men 3: Last Stand’ (yeah, I’m the guy), I was looking forward to seeing what he and the crew would do to restore the X-Men franchise to its former glory.
So, what the hell happened?
I won’t bore you a literary autopsy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine when I can invite you to watch this entertaining video where I discuss my findings with some of my esteemed colleagues. Please enjoy:
Yup. Some- Ol’-Bullshit.
I can tell you that watching it at home on blu-ray (where the picture and sound quality may is much better than theater I saw it in) dulls the sting a little but hasn’t changed my feelings about the movie. It still takes one of the most mysterious and interesting characters in all of fandom and reveals his secrets in a way that mediocre at every turn. Unless watching two mutants that instantly heal bloodlessly stab each other for nearly two hours doesn’t bore you, in which case this could be the moving you’ve been dying to see.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Audio Commentary - ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ has two audio commentaries, and while they offer some technical insight neither is riveting. The first is from director Gavin Hood, who doesn’t do much other than passionlessly give a few details on shooting. The other is from producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter who work better if only because you have two people commenting with banter instead of one. Seems like the obvious choice would’ve been to just have the one track with all three of them—or even better, Hugh Jackman. Duh.
• The Roots of Wolverine - Stan “The Man” Lee, creator of the original X-men and Len Wein, creator of Wolverine, have a fun chat about the origins of the X-Men and, more specifically, Wolverine. The two basically take turns laughingly interviewing each another and patting each other on the back. Stan Lee, despite popular opinion, spends a significant amount of time praising Jack Kirby contribution to the creation of the X-Men. When this began I thought this was going to be painful but it quickly became my favorite segment on the entire disk.
• Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins - Producer Lauren Schuler Donner talks about how they initially wanted to tell the Wolverine in Japan story, but how the studio insisted that they give audiences an origins story first. There’s a bits that touch on the sculpting of Wolverine’s bone claws and Hugh Jackman’s muscle-up diet. Otherwise this is the kind featurette I get sick of on these things. It’s more promotional fluff than anything else, where the cast and crew discuss what it was like to work on the movie and how “amazing” everybody was.
• Deleted and Alternate Scenes - Four longer-than-they should be deleted or alternate scenes because they’re book ended my plenty of footage that’s actually in the movie. One with a young Storm that walks up as Logan leaves the village in Africa; Sabertooth at Wraith's boxing ring; an alternate memory erase sequence; and the famous alternate ending with Logan drinking "to remember" at a bar in Japan. This one, which actually had some meaning is super short and won’t mean anything except to comic book fans.
• Weapon X Mutant Files – Info on the nine mutants featured in the movie and mini-interviews with the actors and what they thought about playing their characters. You learn that most of Ryan Reynold’s dialogue was improvised, which isn’t a big shock since it’s the only dialogue with any life to it.
• The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Sequence – Next to the Stan Lee/ Len Wein interview, this is the best of the featurettes. You pretty much get everything you need to know about the production of the film, how deep Hugh Jackman’s commitment to it went and just how hard everyone worked to pull off the most impressive sequence of the film. It also showed me exactly where this movie started to suck. Not the sequence itself (I still think it is awesome), but in how blow-dried and “GQ” Hugh Jackman is in every scene, no matter what. Compare him to how genuinely gritty and dangerous he looked in the X-Men movies. Through out this movie he’s like a male model that’s been told, “Okay, give me fierce!”
• Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere - A short glimpse at what it was like at the world premiere of the movie that was held in Tempe, Arizona. Crazed fans, and beautiful movie stars waving to them. Boring.
• Ultimate X-Mode - You get to pick from four different U-Control PiP features to play along with the movie. "X-Connect" allows you to see Gavin Hood and Lauren Shuler Donner appear occasionally offering insight into the correlations between this movie and the three other “X-Men” movies. "The Director's Chair" is Hood explaining at length the different techniques that were used to make the various scenes in the film. It also offers an extensive amount of behind-the-scenes footage. "Pre-Visualization" is storyboards and rough CGI animations of select scenes. "X-Facts" give you trivia throughout the film.
• Live Lookup - Did you just spot someone in the movie that you recognize, but can’t quite put your finger on it? Well, as discussed earlier this week, via BD-Live, Live Lookup lets you look up actors in the movie that you recognize and their IMDB.com references. Click on their picture and the IMDB.com gives a list of credits…not that you couldn’t just find there names in the credits and do that on your own.
• Fox on Blu-Ray - HD trailers for the ‘X-Men’ trilogy and another for ‘Night at the Museum.’
• Easter Eggs -
You can purchase X-Men Origins: Wolverine here.
Tags: bd-live, blu-ray, hugh, jackman, lee, origins, stan, wolverine, x-men
Add a Comment
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Comment by Ivan RG on October 13, 2009 at 11:57am -
woow leon you inspire long comments, ill keep it short.
Good review, terrible movie
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Comment by Razor Fox on October 11, 2009 at 12:09pm -
Yeah I cant really add any comments that havent been summed up better below. I pretty much agree with everything palladiamorsdeus said below me (apart from the fact I'm pretty certain Wraith is NOT nightcrawlers father, apart from the hint in the game I dont think its canon.)
I fear for the deadpool movie. The only way it can work at all is to set it apart from this movies continuity and make it a standalone movie. I doubt many non comic fans would even notice. most people I spoke to didnt even realise that the monster at the end was Ryan Reynolds. a few of my buds were like "no way that bad ass ninja guy at the start? I wondered what happened to him. he should have had a bigger part."
A real shame, this movie COULD have been kickass if handled right.
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Comment by Palladiamorsdeus on October 7, 2009 at 12:06am
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X-Men 3 was a horrible film made worse by the fact that it had 1 and 2 behind it. 1 and 2 were both pretty good movies, but 3.....wow.....it was like every developed a sudden case of dementia, and WEREN'T themselves. The story was bad, the acting was mediocre, the plot was tired, and it just left you feeling dirty.
Wolverine.....oh where to begin.......Wolverine is a very dark character. He is the epitome of anti-hero. He is dangerous, has a short temper, and isn't afraid to kill whoever gets in his way. It takes YEARS of being on board the X-Men for that to even begin to level out. The Wolvie we get here is......I don't even know. He has a VERY apparent conscious, for one, and that is definitely not early Wolverine. They wanted some kidified hero, and Wolverine that ain't. They were trying to cash in on both his comic book fame and his movie fame, as well as Jackmans fame. But Fox, obviously, didn't want to go R with it, and where Wolverine is concerned, that's a problem. With the X-Men, there are plenty of times you can go PG or PG 13 and have it be okay. With Wolverine alone, and especially in the earlier years, you can't do that. Wolverine means high body count in the language of comic books, plain and simple. What we got here was.....I don't even know. It seemed like incidental bystanders died more often then the villains Wolvie was supposed to be killing, and with the total lack of actual violence...... You also have Logans lack of a bad attitude. At no point in this movie did I feel like Wolvie was being the smartass he is known to be. He was just another generic, 'misunderstood' good guy.
And those are just the blunders with Wolverine himself. The story was....I don't even know what to say. They elevated Sabertooth, gave him something more then his feral intelligence, made him Wolverines....brother...? Made him as unkillable as Wolvie, and managed to totally destroy his character. Deadpool.....oh Deadpool.....I'm not even going to start. I have no idea how they are going to do a Deadpool movie if they even kind of base it off of this trash. Everyone, including Deadpool here, was a badly done cameo meant to increase the fame of the movie by 'name dropping', and it failed miserably. I'll bet most of people weren't even aware that this movie featured Nightcrawlers father. You know the guy that teleports around? Yea, him. And Nightcrawlers mother? Mystique. But the only way you might even sort of begin to guess who his father is is because of that teleportation.
I've gone long winded here, so I'll only touch on the action. The action scenes were badly choreographed and poorly done, and the only time I even sort of got into the action was during Wades attack on the upper floor of the building at the very first of the movie. His style, along with his quirky sense of humor, made for one of the only entertaining action scenes in the entire thing. The much lauded 'helicopter chase scene' did NOTHING for me. It felt boring and cardboard, and that ending would have ruined it all anyway. The game had a better ending then that garbage, with Wolverine actually stabbing Zero in the chest before talking to Striker.
Play the game if your a gamer. Avoid the movie like the plague. Some old Bull !@#$ for sure.
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Comment by Stephen White on October 5, 2009 at 5:42pm - I thought it was awesome,and my friends enjoyed it but, it needed work on the effects and really needed to be rated R.
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Comment by randy on October 5, 2009 at 5:19pm - This was by far the summer film that really pissed me off, transformers 2 was awful and a lot worse, but I was pretty much knowing that could happen.I thought this was going to be a decent action flick, I had no Idea how sour things could get with this film.
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Comment by David Bowie on October 5, 2009 at 4:42pm - What Leon also forgot to mention is that wolverine's claws because of high definition blu-ray look faker than before
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Comment by Darrell Duncan on October 5, 2009 at 4:09pm
- The problem with this movie, is FOX wanted a family friendly version to up their profits. Wolvierine is a Dark Dark character. The origin missed a huge potential tie in that explains the attraction Wolverine feels for Jean Grey that would have added to the movie that is again dark. Wolverine done right is rated R with at least as much gore and blood as the last Rambo movie had in it. And lets just not go into the amnisia bullet bullshit at the end.
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Comment by GODZILLA3000 on October 5, 2009 at 9:38am -
This should have been a weapon x movie...
With better special effects
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Comment by Guitaro Man on October 5, 2009 at 6:31am - Don't worry, Leon, I don't hate X3 either.
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Comment by Don Panini on October 5, 2009 at 2:43am -
During the movie I kept thinking to myself "Was this originally made for the Sci-Fi channel?"
It was very strange to be sitting in a theater watching a movie with mediocre dialogue, mediocre acting, mediocre character development, mediocre script and mediocre CGI altogether.
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