Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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| Year: | 2009 |
| Country of origin: | USA |
| Director: | Gavin Hood |
| Genre: | Wolfy prequel |
| Starring: | Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Will.i.Am |
| Rating: | 3/5 |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458525/ |
| Tagline: | No tagline |
| Favourite line: | "Welcome to the war." |
X-Men prequel that, unsurprisingly given the title, fleshes out the back story of everyone’s favourite mutant, Wolverine.
The plot:
In 1845, a young Logan witnesses the death of the man he believes is his father. The trauma of the moment triggers the mutant gene within him.
Fleeing, along with step-brother Victor, also a mutant, the pair spend the next 120 years fighting in whichever war happens to be raging at the time.
By the 70’s, the pair are in Vietnam, when Victor attempts to rape a native and, when guns are drawn, Logan feels the need to protect his brother.
Thrown into custody, the pair face a firing squad, but it seems they have a chance for redemption: join the mutant organisation known as Team X, led by the charismatic Stryker.
When it transpires that the team are hardly moralistic, Logan leaves, but in so doing sets in motion a sequence of events that will result in the death of the one closest…..
It’s an origins story, so the usual problems are present:
1 – A lack of jeopardy. As viewers, we know that Wolverine (Logan) has to survive so, no matter how perilous his position seems, we cannot worry for his life.
2 – Fan-boy pleasing, so it can get a bit confusing, particularly for those of us who have never read a comic book in our lives.
There have been five X-Men movies in total and, truthfully, none of them have been awful. 1 was good, 2 was excellent, 3 was the least satisfactory and, here, at part 4, steam does appear to be running out because, though in no way dreadful, it is just a little bit dull. No matter the scale of the special effects set-piece, it was hard to retain interest.
Huge Assman, as Wolverine, seems to be sleep-walking through most of it, content simply to look muscular and vaguely lupine, whilst Liev ‘dullest man in Hollywood’ Schreiber has the charisma of a boiled potato that has been squashed flat by someone with a club-foot.
Some, then, just not much.
Though I can’t really find anything to truly criticise, here, neither can I find anything to justify a recommendation.
X-Men fans only need apply, I suspect.
Just desperately, desperately average.
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