Written by: William Bradley.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is shaping up as a big summer action hit. But it's a big step back from what genre fiction's been doing lately.
Big comic book and scifi movie extravaganzas can make big points about society, sometimes even catching the zeitgeist, as we saw with 2008's The Dark Knight. The X-Men series has been at the forefront of this, exploring the changing nature of humanity, our relationship with technology, and the concept of otherness in a mass society. And doing it amidst unique powers, cool tech, and some bracing action.
Unfortunately, most of that which intrigues one intellectually and moves one emotionally is missing in the fourth entry in the franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
It's not a bad movie. (And it does provide an amusing explanation for one of the most famous events of the 1970s.) In fact, it is shaping up as a big hit. It's a pretty good action flick, but the movie lacks the intellectual depth and soul frequently found in the X-Men series. I was entertained. But it's going to fall far short measured against the Star Trek and Terminator movies coming later this month in the cultural significance sweepstakes.
The basic plot seems borrowed, at least in part, from Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1985 action vehicle, Commando. Somebody is killing members of Wolverine's old special ops team, and his old commanding officer visits him to discuss it. Bad things ensue.
Like the reboot of Batman, this picture is an origin story. But it explains, well, nothing, before jumping into the action.
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