THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
In X2, it was revealed that Wolverine volunteered for the procedure that gave him the adamantium that made hims unstoppable, leading to his amnesia. Many moviegoers wondered how that played out and we got just that in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
PLOT
The film reveals that the lead character's birth name was James Howlett. He was born in the 1800s and gained his claws at 1845 as a child, becoming a runaway with his brother Victor Creed aka Sabretooth. They become mercenaries for William Stryker but Logan eventually leaves due to their lack of empathy. Six years after he left, he resided in Canada with Kayla Silverfox whose ability allows her to persuade anyone she touches. His happiness ends with her being found dead, deducing that Victor is responsible. When finding him, he loses a fight to him easily. Stryker offers him the adamantium procedure in order for him to get revenge. After being given the known metal, he breaks out of the facility when overhearing an attempt to wipe his memory. He temporarily hides at a house of an elderly family who warmly welcome him but they are shot down by Stryker's disciple Agent Zero (Daniel Henney). When he kills him in return, he then promises to kill Stryker after he does so to Victor. When visiting teleporter John Wraith (will.i.am), he discovered that after he left, Stryker had been hunting down mutants. And with knowledge from Fred Dukes, it is noted that Stryker's been experimenting on the mutants Victor abducts. Logan goes to New Orleans with John to get Remy LeBeau aka Gambit to take him to the island, where he escaped from Stryker. Gambit's power is to convert the potential energy of any object into kinetic energy, causing an explosion; The size of the object determines the magnitude of the explosion. After their exchange, he agrees to take him after the Wolverine promises to release other mutant prisoners. When arriving, Logan discovers that Kayla is still alive and she explains she was temporarily flatlined by Victor and was forced by Stryker to surveil him, in exchange for her sister to be freed from experimentation. Logan fights Victor again but spares him. He then helps free the mutant prisoners, including Kayla's sister Emma (Tahyna MacManus) whose skin came turn diamond hard (NOT EMMA FROST). He ends up fighting Weapon XI who is supposably another mercenary Logan knew, Wade Wilson. Weapon XI has multiple abilities that help him fight off his opponent but Victor aids his brother to defeat him, causing the destruction of the island. When helping the children get out of the facility, Kayla is wounded in the crossfire and the mutants are rescued by Charles Xavier. Logan finds her but he is shot by Stryker with adamantium bullets, causing his amnesia. Kayla dies from her wounds after persuading Stryker with her powers to walk away until his feet bleed. When Logan recovers, he does not remember anyone or himself but when reuniting with Gambit, he tells him his name and the film ends with the two mutants leaving the island separately.
THOUGHTS
When seeing this film in 2009, I recall enjoying it but as I got older, I started noticing its many problems. While it tries to be faithful to the stuff surrounding our main character, it is highly unfaithful to the franchise's continuity and the rest of the source material. Few action scenes were entertaining but they don't age well due to the outdated visual effects. I mean everything about this movie is all over the place and there ain’t enough pros to defend it. There were so much things in this story I couldn’t ignore because I was irritated. Like why does Logan ask Stryker about their first mission only after they’re already there? That sounds like something he should’ve asked on the plane, even if he wasn’t gonna get an answer. I find it weird how Victor doesn’t get involved in that sequence because he only scales the building and waits for the rest to finish the job. It felt out of character for the guy that’s shown as bloodthirsty. You wanna talk about out of character, Wolverine’s senses is still a problem he was only able to smell Victor when it was too late for Kayla’s presumed demise. I’m tired on how they can’t get this part right about the protagonist. Also, how the hell did Zero find Wolverine in the first place? Was there a tracker on him or is Zero that good on finding people? I really wish something was clear about this movie. I get that Zero wasn’t told about the adamantium bullets which is why he didn’t take it, but why didn’t Stryker tell him? If he did, their problem would’ve been dealt with much quicker. It was cool when Gambit fights Wolverine for the moment, but I don’t buy it that he ran two blocks to do a sneak attack. He was knocked out by Wolverine and the timeframe only gets more confusing on when he got up and started running. If there was a scene for that shot, that should’ve been in the cut for some sake of continuity. I want to like this cast but again, it wasn’t enough to have a satisfying viewing. Hugh Jackman still holds it down as Wolverine and Liev Schreiber kept things interesting as Sabretooth, but it felt uninteresting that they were brothers. Forget the fact that it wasn't in the comics because even if it was, I don't think it works either way. Personally, the one scene I enjoyed the most that kept me invested to sit through the rest of the film is the opening montage of both brothers involved in many wars, all the way up to the Vietnam War. It's so intriguing to see because its an obvious implication of the character's immortality that is done very well. Danny Huston is good as the cunning William Stryker, but I still prefer Brian Cox's depiction. The mid credits of him being questioned of General Munson's death, someone he killed to protect his experiment, is very unnecessary because it has no effect in his arc at all. Killing him in general wasn’t enough because he wasn’t the only one who knew about Jason. So the fact that we don’t know if Stryker had a killing spree, killing government officials to keep his secret safe is irritating. I can complain on how weird it felt seeing a de-aged Sir Patrick Stewart but the presence of Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tim Pocock) was another unnecessary addition to the film because it becomes confusing on the character's age, hence the continuity error. I want to find it interesting on when did Charles find out about these mutants during his obvious use of Cerebro, but does his helicopter really have enough room for the amount of kids joining him? I personally don’t think it’s big enough. I tried to enjoy Lynn Collins as Kayla but I couldn't stop thinking about Jean Grey, due to how I personally believe the actress looks similar to Famke Janssen. I didn't hate Kevin Durand as the Blob either but he is misplaced, mainly because he is known for being part of Magneto's brotherhood, not a mercenary. Dominic Monaghan is completely wasted here as technopath Chris Bradley, compared to his appearance in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I actually did enjoy Taylor Kitsch as Gambit because he arguably gave a strong resemblance to his counterpart and backed it up. I truly felt the charm and sneakiness that he's all about. It is a shame that 20th Century (Fox) Studios couldn't make a solo movie for this character before the company was bought by Walt Disney. Since this is the case and if the X-Men are likely to be introduced in Marvel Studios' MCU, then I do hope that this movie shines the brightest and if an actor like Channing Tatum is on board, then it will likely be as entertaining as any other blockbuster. Lastly, the biggest disappointment of this movie is the depiction of Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds is charming with his given time but its messed up that rather than becoming a red colored wearing fourth wall breaker, he becomes a speechless discount Baraka from Mortal Kombat. If the rest of the prior problems haven't pulled you from the movie, than that will. It’s even more awkward that the Weapon XI form of the character is played by martial artist and actor Scott Adkins, instead of Reynolds. In short, Gavin Hood gave us the worst adaptation of the X-Men franchise due to being highly unfaithful to the source material. If you have a poor taste in film, then you'll likely enjoy this movie like some others do.
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