X-men Origins: Wolverine

Director: Gavin Hood
Rating: ** (out of 4)

Yet another Hollywood's attempt to revive a tired franchise by revisiting the origins. Some scored with flying colours; take Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' and Martin Campbell's 'Casino Royale'. Some failed: take 'Hannibal Rising', 'Exorcist: The Beginning'.

How is this latest return-to-origin version to the X-men franchise? Sorry to say, it's a pretty soulless superhero flick.

In my most recent review prior to this, I praised Derek Yee's 'Shinjuku Incident' as a movie with heart, which cares about its characters. 'X-men Origins' provides a contrast to that. Like many of the lesser superhero flicks, it cares more about the super power than the character's human story. What exactly is driving Victor Creed, Wolverine's half brother, in behaving like a reckless animal during the war? No idea. Why did Wolverine and Victor fought in wars after wars? No idea. How do the 2 brothers feel about each other? No idea either.

In fact, just when the film is about to develop some much needed tender human moment, the moment when Wolverine lives with a kind, old couple, the film just blew them away.

Too bad.

Such flaws has been plaguing a lot of lesser superhero flicks. The better ones, like Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight', and Sam Raimi's Spiderman Series, wisely focus more on the character's human story: their struggle, their life choices , their moral dillema. The lesser ones, like 'Fantastic Four' and 'X-men Origins', are more interested about showcasing superpower.

Much of the story is hardly believable. The romance between Wolverine and Kayla is thinly sketched to the extend that when she was killed, I hardly cared. The rage that ensued, to the extend that Wolverine is willing to be transformed into a monster by some crazy experiment in order to seek revenge, is hardly convincing as a result.

The only saving grace to this movie is the plot. The plot, at least gives us a reason to keep watching. Still, that proves to be too little too late, unable to save it from mediocrity.

All the more disappointing is the fact that this movie is directed by Gavin Hood, whose terrific 'Rendition' was on my top 10 list for 2008. I hope that he goes back to making good serious drama, and spend less time making soulless blockbusters like this.

I have nothing against the X-men Series. In fact, I find the first 3 in the series as descent movies worthy of a 3 star rating. At the very least, the characters have personality, making them fun to watch. This latest entry is soulless, and mediocre at best.