X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

When we were little, my brother wanted to be Gambit or Cyclops. Meanwhile, when other girls would have wanted to be Jean Grey or Rogue or Storm (not many girls wanted to be Mystique), I wanted to be Wolverine. I don't even know why I'm very much drawn to this character. Maybe because of his dark blue-yellow costume (I used to like yellow). Maybe it was the claws (I'm a paws and claws person). Maybe it was his solitariness (I don't like people). Or his suppressed feelings morphed into rage (no comment). Probably it was altogether. I don't know exactly. I have almost forgotten about this. Then the movie came, I don't know why I was so determined to watch it. Every time I went pass the theatre, I was intrigued to see it. So, I did. I watched it.

During the movie, I felt like I wanted to know things about him. Like Harry Potter fascinated to search for his ancestor. I was fascinated to find out about how he ended up being the dark blue-yellow costumed superhero with adamantium claws. Although I had known the story (my brother being a Marvel-freak), still, it was captivating to find out own my own.

The movie itself was not that good in a way that pieces of the story where X-Men characters were introduced were a bit in a rush, such as when he met Gambit (which also not like what I was expected as a jaw-dropping-French-descent-ladies-man superhero). Although, I can understand because this was seen from Wolvie's point of view (he would probably be more appealing when it were told from Rogue's point of view). Scenes such as how they met Cyclops was also sort of forced to be included in the movie. This resulted in the relationship between Victor Creed (later became Sabretooth), which was Wolvie's half brother and Kayla (which on later Marvel comics became Silver Fox) to be less explored, in which I think should have been worked on more intensely rather than focusing on how Wolverine randomly met all of the other Professor X's future students.

I also find it hard to picture that Zero was actually an Asian descent, because if I'm not mistaken Zero, which will be Maverick eventually, was born sometime before the Cold War, lived in Germany, and had blonde hair. So, I assumed he would be Caucasian, instead of Korean. However, as Hollywood movie are putting in some Asian flavour (especially Korean, for instance in movies like Yes Man or He's Just Not Into You or Nick and Norah Infinite Playlist), I was not really that surprised. It may well be a subtle political act of America for countering the paranoia of the made in Korea rockets (the ship, not the arugula).

I don't think I need to explain further for the special effect. It is not like what I have expected. The make up was okay in some part, but bad in some others. I think the make-up artist concentrated more on Logan and Victor's make up that they forgot to pimp the other characters, most prominent poor make-up was Blob (I didn't know that the name Blob was initiated by Blob himself, out of his inner insecurity). I mean if Hollywood can do Mrs. Doubtfire, what's the harm in prepping a fictional comic book character? However, I had to admit that Victor was giving me all the goosebumps. Schreiber out beat Jackman. How he crawled like a big wild cat. Or caressing through cold metal with his claws. Then smiling, showing his fangs. Goosebumps!

I also think that the plot is jolting every now and again. With the opening scene of Logan (or still James, Jimmy for Victor) in his childhood then killed his biological father to the scene where they took part in almost every war there were in America, I thought that the movie would be exploring more about Logan's character, how he reached that Wolverine phase. Instead, the movie was about the major stages in his life, since the beginning until he became Wolverine. It would be more interesting to explore on his relationship with Victor, from brothers to buddies to arch nemesis, from Victor calling him Jimmy then changed to Logan, then Jimmy again.

Still, I like this movie very much, because I like Wolverine so much. I was a bit disappointed to see there are too much action and not so much plot and drama. Well, it's kind of hard to adjust when my standard prequel movie would be Batman Begins to the least. I mean, it's not rocket science to build a good story and a thrilling action, if The Dark Night and StarWars can do it, why not do it to one of the most celebrated comics? It's Marvel we're talking about here!

But, Kltpzyxm, anyway. I would zap myself to watching this movie over and over again. This movie gives me the warmth (and the creep) like when I watched Prince Caspian. So, my rate for this movie is four stars, all for personal reasons.