The 2009 prequel to the X-Men franchise, Wolverine, a movie which was to explain the mysterious origins of the character Wolverine, are actually done in the other original X-Men movies. While it might seem like a good idea to entirely introduce a character. However, in my opinion, sometimes explaining a character’s origins spoils the mystique. I personally believe that wolverine is one of those few characters that do not need a solid back-story because mystery is the nature of the character. Do we really want to know how the Joker got his scars?
Let’s talk about the character’s introductions and development. The movie starts with a montage on Wolverine and his brother Sabertooth’s childhood and the wars they participated in as they grew older, starting with the civil war all the way to Vietnam. Well, the montage was extremely unsatisfactory, in my opinion. The movie shows us this, but it does nothing in the development in character. The relationship is so glossed over till it’s difficult to understand how they’re connected at all. There was nothing complex to show the bond between them. How close were they? Why participate in the wars? Why were they doing what they were doing? Sure you could say, ‘Use your imagination’. But that defeats the purpose of an origin story.
The romantic element of the movie between Silverfox and Wolverine was forced and abrupt. We are thrown into a romance so fast that it's over before you can blink an eye. Having just introduced the character, Silverfox is killed off roughly fifteen minutes later. We are left wondering why we should care about this. Who was she anyway?
Besides, there were many unimportant scenes and stuff added into it – adding Gambit just for the sake of it. Gambit is one of the most long awaited characters to be shown on screen, but he was on screen hardly more than 15mins. He was mostly underutilized and doesn’t feel like gambit. I should say the introduction of characters was badly done.
The movie then introduces us to Team X. Again, the movie does nothing to explain anything about them. They are just another addition in the plot. The movie does this numerous times - adding characters without developing character. Bryan Singer’s first two X-Men’s movies had flashbacks to Wolverine’s past – operation to insert adamantium into Wolverine. However, in the 2009 prequel, the scene was over in 5 minutes seemed less painful than the flashbacks that Bryan Singer did in the X-Men movies, and that was less than 10 seconds. Bryan Singer’s take on it was a lot darker and violent. We could actually feel the impact and pain as the scientists inject the adamantium into Wolverine, but the scene in the prequel does not have impact as it did in the X-men flashbacks. In my opinion this scene was the most important scene in the story but they way they executed it was done in a very poor fashion. No impact whatsoever.
Wolverine and his brother join the team but Wolverine soon learns that Stryker has no regard for innocent lives. The sociopath brother stays, while Wolverine departs. Again here, why do they act both different? Wolverine has morals, but his brother is a sociopath who indulges in violence. Why do they act the way they do? Unfortunately, the movie does not go on this, and instead tells us, ‘Wolverine is the good guy, Sabertooth is the bad guy. That is all you need to know from this scene.’
The idea, could have explain Wolverine in more detail, thus giving him more character development. However, the movie fails to build up character, and it was done in a very shallow way. I believe the movie was the studio’s decision to milk the franchise for more money. Story did not matter to them. It was just another blockbuster summer flick, and that was the main problem of the whole movie. Marvel produces good comics with interesting storyline. That’s what kept us Marvel fans to follow the sequels. There was more action, action explosion and explosion, gradually neglecting the good storylines of Marvel Comics.
Those were just my point of view.
Actually a review written for my English assignment :)
