Just as what the title is suggesting, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is about how the famous mutant came to be the way he is at present. With Hugh Jackman in the title role, the movie was supposed to be about Wolverine’s violent past, romance, his relationship with Sabertooth and the Weapon X program. The writers tried to squeeze all that in less than two hours of running time.
The opening credits showed how Wolverine and Sabertooth fought alongside each other through various wars and finally got themselves involved with Stryker’s group. It was hinted in X2 that Wolverine had a violent past but X-Men Origins: Wolverine shows that Wolverine was the saint and Sabertooth was the evil one.
Aside from Wolverine and Sabertooth (Liev Schreiber), X-Men Origins features other mutants such as John Wraith (Will.i.am), Blob (Kevin Durand), Bolt (Dominic Monaghan), Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and a young Cyclops (Tim Pocock).
As much as I love seeing all of them in the movie, it felt like they were there just to please fanboys like me. In my opinion Gambit was underutilized by the writers. Where was he when Wolverine was rescuing the other mutants from Stryker?
Logan (Hugh Jackman): I thought you were the Moon and I was your Wolverine. Turns out you’re the Trickster, and I’m just the fool who got played.
The love story of Logan and Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins) felt like it was forced into the story. We find Wolverine in a cabin with Kayla. There was no background as to how they met or why they fell for each other. Oh yeah, she did have that power of persuasion that can make anyone for her including Wolverine. Her death was an important element of the plot because it made Wolverine seek revenge just to find out that she’s not dead yet. She will be in the end though.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine sugar-coated Logan’s violent past. It failed to show what his relationship with Sabertooth was all about. Other mutants were more interesting than Wolverine. He was lucky to have his memory erased in the end. I wish the same would happen to me after viewing the movie.
