X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (2009, Blu-ray released September 15, 2009 – MSRP $39.99)
A friend of mine dragged me to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine in the theatre this past summer. I was completely prepared to despise it, having read some early reviews and watched enough previews and specials to tell me that this film wasn’t for me. It pretty much delivered exactly what I expected – mindless action loosely connected through ridiculous plot threads and plastic characters. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a lot more to like about it upon my second viewing of the film, on the Blu-ray disc!
This is not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. It might not even be good. But there’s a lot of fun to be had. And Hugh Jackman is so absolutely watchable in the character that even at its worst, Wolverine ends up being a pretty good time. Unless you’re a fan of the comic books, that is.
You see, I used to read X-Men. And I, like every other comic nerd in the 80s, thought Wolverine was the shit. I was delighted when I found myself loving Bryan Singer‘s interpretation of the characters in the X-Men films. They came across as real people, for the most part. They reacted honestly. The work felt sincere. I didn’t think it could be done but the character of Wolverine in particular had been brought to life so successfully that it became hard to imagine anyone but Jackman in the role. Cut to 2009 and things just don’t feel right anymore. Jackman is still amazing but the movie doesn’t feel genuine nor does it echo what made the character special in the comic. When I was growing up, Wolverine was a man of mystery. And that was a lot of his appeal. He was a man without a past who lived by his wits and his fists (or in this case, claws) much like the Clint Eastwood‘s of Hollywood adventures past. And that selfish, cocky front he would paint would only reveal his softer core after a long process. The lead character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one without claws (figuratively speaking, of course). Without any bite or mystery whatsoever. He’s soft and laid bare and with that, so much less compelling than he could have been.
Upon my second viewing of the film, I discovered that if I was able to distance myself from my expectations of the character, from what I knew of his comic book incarnations and from the potential the X-Men films had promised, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is actually quite a fun film. In particular, the first half of the movie works. And almost any scene between Wolverine and Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) is a sheer delight! The whole mess starts to fall apart after Wolverine gets his metal claws and goes on a road trip, where he runs into random mutant after generic mutant. What a missed opportunity! Instead of allowing us to experience the character struggling with the tragedy of the “experiments” conducted on him, trying to piece himself together and regain the humanity that was robbed from him, we get a couple of scenes of mild discomfort, some glib remarks and crap-load of fight scenes. That being said, if you’re just looking to watch Hugh Jackman act like a badass for a couple of hours, you’ll enjoy the hell out it!
X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks and sounds like a million bucks on Blu-ray! This is almost reference quality material. When you want to show off your home theatre set-up, you could do a lot worse than popping in this disc. And the soundtrack will give even the slickest system a work-out. Wow! This is amazing stuff. With a great sense of ambiance and directionality, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is one of the finest I’ve heard on Blu-ray to date.
There are a ton of special features on the Blu-ray disc but none of them really floated my boat. Perhaps I wasn’t invested enough in the film to care but if I had to pick the most compelling extras, I’d shoot for the commentary track from producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter. They easily out-chat director Gavin Hood, who offers up nothing more than a running description of what you’re seeing on screen in his commentary track. Donner and Winter are a lot more engaging to listen to and have a lot of stories to tell. I also found the “The Roots of Wolverine” featurette kind of fun. It’s a sit-down chat with X-Men creator Stan Lee and Wolverine creator Len Wein. Pretty funny guys with a lot to say. There are also a handful of deleted scenes you won’t care about, some puff-piece studio featurettes, a cool IMDB look-up feature and a whole lot more.
Read a full run-down of the Blu-ray disc and all of its special features here: X-Men Origins: Wolverine Official Blu-ray details announced
I loved Wolverine on Blu-ray! I am not familiar with the comic so I had no expectations except for seeing a fun super-hero story put to life on the big screen (and thanks to my BF, our screen is pretty big which makes the Blu-ray quality shine even more!) Not to mention the fact that I usually fall asleep for most of the movies we watch, but this one kept me alert the entire time. Actually, I fall asleep in the middle of movies.
I also like the special features, well some of them. The conversation with Len Weir and Stan Lee was SOOO awkward, don’t you think? Although, I admit that it did give a bit of insight to the comic book origins of the story. I liked the short background documentaries on the different characters, but the weird action-figure-trading-card-like beginnings to each one was just ridiculous. They made the characters look and feel kind of disingenuous because you felt that the actors were suckered into doing the monologues at the beginning.
Oh. I also like your blog. Thanks for your hard work.