- Location: Silver Spring Majestic 20
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine relates the story of the mutant antihero Wolverine, whose original name is James Logan (Hugh Jackman). Entering the story as sickly child, James has a rough time of it, to say the least. On the same day his mutant powers emerge in the form of a set of bony claws, he kills the man who turns out to be his real father. From then on, James and his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber) spend their prolonged lives fighting in everything from the Civil War to Vietnam before finally facing, and surviving, a firing squad. This brings them to the attention of Major Stryker (Danny Huston), who is understandably interested in adding the nearly invulnerable brothers to his mutant special forces unit, Team X. Predictably, it isn't long before James gets fed up and strikes out on his own.
- When we encounter James many years later, he's living in near isolation with his girlfriend, Kayla (Lynn Collins). Their situation is so obviously idyllic that we assume something bad is about to happen, and we're right. After Stryker stops by to warn James that somebody is killing his former teammates, Victor leaves Kayla's bloody body in the forest. This is exactly the motivation James needs to reenlist with Stryker, who promises him the means to kill Victor. As I'm sure is obvious, this involves grafting the hardest metal in the world to his bones in an immensely painful operation. Although Stryker intends a double-cross, James overhears and erupts from his adamantium bath as the raging Wolverine. The rest of the film follows his attempts to get revenge on Stryker, Victor, and pretty much anybody else who gets in the way.
- From this description, you might think that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a terrifying bloodbath or, at the very least, an action-packed revenge story. In fact, it is a dull trip through the largely unnecessary details of a character's eventually forgotten past. It probably doesn't help that the events in his life, which are strung together about as coherently as the film's laborious title, mostly involve a bunch of c-list mutants. You'll forgive me if I have trouble caring about such comic book luminaries as Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), John Wraith (will.i.am), or Bradley (Dominic Monaghan). By comparison, the Blob (Kevin Durand), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), and Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) are practically superstars. By the film's end, I knew more about Wolverine's life, but cared less. So much for origin stories.
- Another serious problem is that Wolverine just never seems angry enough. His father is dead, the love of his life is dead, and Wolverine is really...miffed. No doubt he's off to write some letters once he's done hosting the Academy Awards. It's hardly the level of feral rage that would ever lead to an evisceration and, really, isn't that what this character is all about? In my opinion, the three things you need to know about Wolverine are that he has a) razor-sharp metal claws, b) anger management issues, and c) amnesia. Unfortunately, this film appreciates only one of these things, and, although I never thought I'd be writing this, sometimes razor-sharp metal claws aren't enough.
- Patrick Stewart has an excellent cameo near the end.
- The characters of Cyclops and Emma Frost were also in this movie.
