I find it quite odd whenever I see a movie and it leaves me debating within about all kinds of stuff. And I just saw one that did. When Lord of the Rings hit the shelves back in 1937, and was finished in 1949, no one could predict the intense passion and devotion it would attract from wannabe elves, orcs and rangers. So too when the first Star Wars movie graced the silver screen in 1977; devotion become obsession. For every literary masterpiece and cinematic triumph there has been countless comic books. Their characters capturing hearts and minds through drawings and minimal words. One such comic book character was Wolverine. Forever the bad boy with good intent, this guy was easy to latch onto by comic aficionados and fans of great story-telling alike.

There are exceptions to every rule, and in terms of adapting literary works into films the exceptions are those that manage to hold true to the essence of a story, its characters and events, while abiding by the myriad of requirements celluloid story-telling requires. The words-do-no-justice quality of The Lord of the Rings movies were hailed as masterful works of art. Star Wars turned the heroic journey into a boyhood fantasy of exploration of worlds unknown and a fight between good and evil. Comic book movies are no different; for every Dark Knight and Iron Man you have a Daredevil or Fantastic Four sequel. What makes X-Men Origins: Wolverine unique is that it has been caught between where its faith lies – faith towards the comics or that of the movies. With the latest installment of the X-Men franchise, the good, the bad and the ugly of this war of faiths is tested.

As the credits rolled I was filled with good, bad and ugly thoughts. The good managed to outweigh the bad. I was entertained with what I saw, whilst not having my mind truly tested. The essence of Wolverine seemed to be more akin to what was seen previously in the movies, and for that, Hugh Jackman deserves credit. There are only so many times you can grimace and smirk as a rabbid mutant; and he nailed it, again. Liev Schreiber was great as the demented Victor, and continues his fine form from Defiance. The story flowed so easily, perhaps too easily, and managed to stumble in a way towards an ending that slotted in nearly perfectly with the beginning of the first X-Men movie. There were light-hearted moments that made me chuckle, however I am not one to dismiss these as easily as others. I see great tragic characters such as Wolverine often joke about their misfortune; laughing in the face of adversity is so healthy. Oh and Ryan Reynolds is a gun, and I reckon he should do more action movies.

I guess a lot of what I like can also be un-liked, and fair enough. Yes, the story didn’t test my ability to keep track. No, this was probably not the Wolverine some may need to see from the comics. The ease of which the movie was paced didn’t really allow for many true shocks, surprises or twists. I felt like I had felt this progression before, but didn’t seem to care, as it was enjoyable. I wasn’t a big fan of the alteration of Gambit’s accent; but that was based purely from my own biased memories of the cartoon. The special effects were on a whole sub-par. You can really tell when ILM don’t do the magic.

The ugly side of the movie has more to do with the overwhelming feeling I had that far too many people with biased preconceptions will not give the movie a chance to be just that; a movie. There was a drastic alteration to one character much loved by comic book devotees, but for an outsider to that, it meant very little. Despite this I can appreciate that this will rub people the wrong way, however I think people may just not allow themselves a chance to enjoy the film. It goes without saying that worlds imagined and latched onto with the tenacity and ferocity of Middle Earth, galaxies far far away and a world shared with mutants, are always held up to a level of critique rarely matched. People are going to expect all comic book movies to have a depth like that of The Dark Knight; this movie doesn’t have that, but for what it does have, it does well.

The movie itself wont resonate within me for a long time, but it has challenged my perception of cinema to a degree where I have enjoyed debating with myself the issues mentioned. The film was far from pretentious, perhaps to a point where it may be forgotten about amidst the dust of The Dark Knight and Iron Man. It is outrageoulsy unfair to compare it to The Dark Knight because that movie had the impossible ingredient that makes a fantastic movie impact the world even moreso; and we all know what that was. Iron Man worked for me stronger than this movie because it made me laugh and excited to equal degrees. Wolverine was a great ‘good’ movie, and I recommend it for anyone who can leave their critical minds at the door and their biased invested histories (to a degree of course) aside to just be entertained.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 11:18 pm and is filed under movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.