Tags: adimantium

05/02/09

Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Worlverine- more comic goodness

Another week, another comic book movie.

When I was a kid and watched superhero shows on television, I was always most interested in the "origin" episodes because I liked history and enjoyed thinking about why things were the way they were ("papi, why do people buy those ugly cars?" "That, son, is America at its best. I'd like to see the Japanese make a T-bird").

1976 Thunderbird. Take that, Toyota!

So, I entered the Krikorian X-Men Origins: Wolverine with more built-in enthusiasm than I had for the previous X-Men movies, where the characters pretty much come fully-formed, as they would have to seeing as how X-Men isn't an organic superhero group like the Fantastic 4, but an all-star team.

As a historical document, Wolverine doesn't disappoint. In fact, it made me realize how profoundly ignorant I was about things Wolverine. I must have said, "Oh, so that's why..." a dozen times (conversing with oneself out-loud, inside of a crowded theater is a sign of mental health). It turns out that Wolverine's a mutant's mutant. Like many of today's Hollywood starlets and some beauty queens, Wolverine feels the need to "enhance" his natural gifts: Wolverine is born with extra bones that protrude from his hands, super strength, and near-miraculous healing powers. To this already impressive array, the government adds an adamantium skeleton, which makes him that much better.

Almost harder than implanting adamantium

Something else that makes Wolverine an appealing movie is that Wolverine himself is by far the most dramatically compelling (Halle Berry's Storm has her charms) X-Man. His super-powers are closer to Batman-Spiderman "realistic" than Superman fantastic. One can understand Wolverine's powers, unlike those of Gambit, a superhero concept that makes no sense to me. Wolverine isn't Hulk-like unstoppable either and his vulnerabilities are interesting: One can sneak up on him, chop off his head off with any of the adamantium shovels available at Home Depot, and be done with him.

Storm isn't in Wolverine, but who cares?

Wolverine starts in the early 19th century with Wolverine and his super brother running away from home and then we see a montage where the brothers take part in every American war since the Civil War. A secret government group recruits Wolverine and his brother into a super commando group, Team X. After a fairly spectacular assault on a strong man's compound, Wolverine leaves the group because of some nasty treatment of African civilians. Wolverine's brother is then involved in a series of mutant killings and Wolverine must stop him and the people behind the mutant hate crimes. He falls in love, too.

Good stuff:

Some very clever superheroes and the effects that go along with them. I like the super-fast blade guy, the pistol dude, and the teleporting black cowboy. One girl has the ability to influence men through touch (actually, almost all women have this ability) and her sister is "solid as a rock."

Overall:

Wolverine lacks the semi-profundity of Dark Knight and Iron Man, and the closest it comes to Spiderman's sense of fun is some bathroom humor (literally), but it's good. I feel confident in saying that if you liked X-Men, you'll like Wolverine.

Politics/Message:

Wolverine has a mild anti-government message, which suits me fine at this point in history. We see, for example, the disaster that can result from government-run health care, "I just wanted my tonsils out and they gave me an indestructible metal skeleton. This wouldn't happen at Kaiser." Like in real life, Wolverine has to leave Canada to get timely medical care (imagine the savings if we can isolate the "healing factor" gene. It'd be better than banning trans-fats). Wolverine can't get any nasty government atrocity work in Canada either. Conclusion: Canada is not the place to be a budding superhero or evil government operative.

All of the X-Men-derived movies have a strong "noble social outcast"/anti-prejudice theme, "We needn't fear people with huge claws that can tear open a tank, nor those who can manipulate the weather or control magnetism. If we took some time to get to know them, we'd see that they're just like us (except for the aforementioned potential to cause mass destruction with the wave of an adamantium-cored finger).**

Many people associate the X-Men themes with the current controversies over homosexual stuff in society. The Charles Xavier would definitely disapprove of a society that shuns Christian beauty contestants just for expressing the idea that society should prefer opposite-sex marriage.

**No, I'm not saying all mutants are dangerous. Some of my best friends resemble Nightcrawler.

Image from Amazon
Iron Man (Single-Disc Edition)