X-MEN ORIGINS:WOLVERINE

The rabid Wolverine is back in his fourth film installment, but where as the first three was a team effort WOLVERINE is all about the man with the claws. The film opens in 1845 in the North-Western Territory of British North America. A young James Howlett (future Wolverine/ Logan) witnesses the slaying of his father John Howlett by his friend Thomas Logan (Victor Creed's father). This traumatic event is the catalyst for James' latent mutant power to rise to the surface and so does his claws of bone. In a fit of rage young James plunges his claws into Logan. But with his dying breath Thomas Logan reveals to James that he is his biological father. The young Victor Creed helps his half-brother James to escape the clutches of an angry village mob and the two brothers pledge to look after one another. Preceding the scenes in 1845 the two brothers now adults, are shown battling in a montage of historical wars. During the Vietnam War they are recruited by William Stryker into Team X, a motley crew of mutant mercenaries. The mayhem the team is forced to commit takes a toll on Logan's conscience and so he quits and disappears. This is the end of Act 1 and the actual beginning of the plot.

Released in the U.S. on May 1^st 2009, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE stars Hugh Jackman (Wolverine/ Logan), Liev Schreiber (Sabretooth/ Victor Creed) and Danny Huston (William Stryker). The supporting cast includes Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool/ Wade Wilson), Taylor Kitsch (Gambit/ Remy LeBeau) and Lynn Collins (Kayla Silverfox). The screenplay is co-written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and the movie is directed by Gavin Hood.

SVF: The entire first act feels like a documentary, similar to something you would see on the Biography Channel. By centering on the history of the Wolverine character a number of questions are answered. Such as his approximate age, the beginnings of Logan's and Creed's relationship and the discovery of the metal called adamantium. Only after the history lesson does the actual plot begin. Now going by his biological father's last name, Logan lives a quiet and quaint life with his girlfriend Kayla up in the Canadian Rockies. But the murder of Kayla ignites the inner rage in Logan and brings his sibling rivalries to a boil. This is ultimately a revenge flick and there's nothing wrong with that. The plot is unpretentious and the narrative is straight forward. Wolverine is portrayed as a complex character with his share of inner demons and dreams for the future. Sufficient subplots such as treachery, revelation and payback keep the story moving forward without any areas of lag.

DMP: The character of wolverine first graced the covers of Marvel Comics in 1974, and has become the second most popular Marvel Character of all time (right behind Spiderman). He was the first anti-hero & the quintessential bad boy in the marvel gallery. It is not over complimentary to say he is a icon of American literature. He has been known as an superhero for the average joe, with a tough exterior and animal/primal instincts, but it’s his mysterious past that has been continuous appeal for avid readers. In fact since this was such a major attraction to readers, his origin was not written until much later in 2002. This was done with great care so not to upset history & persona of the character.

I wish the writers of this film took the same care to bring the origin to life on screen. Considering the audience unfamiliar with comics had come to love the character over the past 3 X-MEN films, deserved a great origin story.

The ‘brothers’ montage in the beginning was a useful plot tool to fast forward the story to it’s current point. Unfortunately the whole first act moved way too quickly. The remaining 2 acts were just a mess as they attempted to jigsaw puzzle subplots incoherently. There is no character development whatsoever! For a character driven film surprisingly all the characters here played on a single note, there is no arc in their evolution, very 1 dimensional! They are either bad or good, and when there is a change it is literally a flip of a switch rather than a slow growth. It’s only fair to expect more coming from a series (X MEN 1 & 2) which despite having over a dozen characters in each film focused on the story of about 3 at time, and let them grow and evolve. Other than Logan, Creed and Stryker all other characters didn’t even serve a purpose for being in the film!

The characters have absolutely no motive for any of their antics and in some cases a feeble explanation. Sabertooth never gives a reason for why he turns on Wolverine other than their senseless sibling rivalry. The ‘special’ team characters also seem so bland whether they are slaughtering a village of African innocents or confronting each others personal bouts. Deadpool was comic relief, Agent Zero(probably a reference to his personality score), The Blob(aka Fatbastard), Bolt, John Wraith(who’s as stiff and awkward as Black Cowboy Robot), were all moving props! They are void of any real emotion. The heart of the main character is based on the animal/human element….but this movie lacks any human element...hell there’s barely any humans in the film! This was another mistake which previous XMEN films didn’t make, their characters were all very human in their insecurities, hurts and frustrations. The simple proof that this movie had no heart was the lack of empathy or concern I had when any of the characters died!

SVF: The dialogue is succinct and to-the-point. At times overuse of clichéd one-liners seem to dumb down the movie. But it is worth mentioning that the character of Wolverine is not a prolific orator, he's more of a "Dirty Harry meets John McClane" and you can't expect him to be verbally eloquent just because he's in a more serious film.

DMP: Dialogue was kept simple and to the point. An animalistic yell of “RUAWWWW!” would have been effective if used once maybe twice by our wild lead. But after the 10^th & 11^th time the sense of menace is gone and becomes laughable(and also makes for a great drinking game:). In fact Wolverine never truly became fearful to anyone. He was supposed to become a frightful and intimidating force deformed nature to his foes, friends and even the audience. This was especially important as he became the ‘animal,’ but this transition happened with no significance or threat.

SVF: The cinematography is mediocre, the Special FX is surprisingly average for a big budget movie and the action scenes are repetitive.

DMP: The special FX was horrendous and cheap; a few memorably bad examples are Zero jumping into chopper, Gambit climbing up the ladder like a lemur, jumping into the water from the helicopter, Patrick Stewart's de-aging face, the CG helicopter and ‘jungle book’ painted background Patrick Stewart steps out of, The Blob wearing the borrowed FAT BASTARD's suit didn’t help. Making the claws CGI (as opposed to the perfect prosthetics in X1 & X2) was a fatal mistake. The claws looked like a rendering from ‘Roger Rabbit’, the bone claws were worse and looked like ‘chopsticks’ borrowed from Chinese Dragon, every mutant’s ability to jump a round as if their shoes had ‘blubber’ was very ‘video-game-like’ behavior. Forget that they messed up a currently popular character Deadpool, but the whole last action sequence was straight out of MORTAL COMBAT. The sword/action sequences in BLADE ’98 from 11 years ago were far superior to this scene.

The action was simply poor and clichéd giving us nothing new. All 3 face-off fight scenes with Creed & Logan begin the exact same way, the unoriginal, over dramatic 100 meters sprint, I’ve seen more brutal fights with similar scenes courtesy of JCVD in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER’ 92. It doesn’t matter how brutal the fight scenes are when we are told at the opening credits that both characters heal to the point of invulnerability, there is no tension about the damage they might receive in a battle. This is where creative ideas are supposed to come from the directors/writers to make us feel tense about the mortality of these characters. It’s also a little silly to find so many characters with blades, claws, swords but we never see any blood!

The explosive action of the chopper was probably the most prominent but certainly unimpressive. I would like to think BLACK HAWK DOWN or THE MATRIX had better, similar scenes! Each action sequence has been bettered by prior films.

SVF: WOLVERINE is a well cast film. Liev Schreiber is surprisingly sinister as Victor Creed/ Sabretooth. Danny Huston is perfect as the ambitious and ruthless William Stryker. Lynn Collins' performance is natural displaying sexual chemistry with her leading man and Hugh Jackman takes this version of Wolverine to another level. Sadly the supporting cast is forgettable, especially Will I. Am's one-dimensional portrayal of John Wraith. The Black-Eyed Pea certainly needs to stick to his day job.

DMP: The 3 leads of Logan, Creed and Stryker were well cast. The sad thing is even the supporting cast despite being all good actors put up a poor performance(except the will.i.am who was a God awful mannequin throughout). Even Lynn Collins had potential as a good love interest, she played a single note throughout. The total blame for this falls on the director for not getting the best out the actors and writer for not giving these thespians better material.

SVF: WOLVERINE is definitely not a faultless film. Many comic book fans will whine about the screen writers not being faithful to the source material. Stuck-up Armchair Film Critics with their turtle-neck t-shirts and cups of cappuccinos might say that the film is unmemorable, lacked quality dialogue and there are no lessons to be learnt. To all I say "This is WOLVERINE not FORREST GUMP." Wolverine has been voted the No. 1 comic hero of all time so audiences will continue flocking into theatres to watch the sequels.

DMP: The unimpressive plot provokes a few rhetorical questions; Why would Stryker spend all the time/effort/money to find a rare metal, find a 1 in a million matching subject for procedure with little chance at success. And when it works out and the subject gets uncontrollable immediately (after the experiment) try to kill him? Initially Stryker was trying to hunt/kill Logan using his best mutants/weapons/machinery, but waited till the end to use the special gun with the ‘silver’ bullets (very clichéd Werewolf nuance!)? And even when he was told that it wouldn’t kill him, he’ll settle for ‘taking away his memory?

There are no answers to these questions as they are the plot holes existent due to sloppy writing and hurried production.

SVF: This is the first big budget film directed by Gavin Hood who previously directed character driven dramas such as TSOTSI and RENDITION. You would think that Hood was the ideal choice as director to help explore a character more elaborately but he fails in his attempt. WOLVERINE suffers from the same dilemma as SPIDERMAN 3 and X-MEN 3; too many characters, so little time. Why is the kid Cyclops even in this movie? The film's biggest mistake is that it's merely a shallow back story. The story could have been better if more in-depth concentration was placed on the psychological elements of human nature versus animal nature. The "feral or primitive side" could have been to Wolverine what "fear" is to Batman and what "rage" is to The Hulk. This would have enriched the character incredibly. Alas X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is a well made action film, all the loose ends in the subplots are tied up and the ending is spectacular. But if THE DARK KNIGHT is the new benchmark for the superhero genre, then WOLVERINE needs a century worth of evolution.

DMP: Fox had been going head to head with Gavin from the beginning. Considering he’s South African , politico/war issues were very real to him. His prior films TSOTSI and RENDITION both had elements of dealing with government or decay of human society. He had attempted to bring this (along with other elements) to WOLVERINE but Fox shut him down. This article gives some insight to his inner workings.

Deadpool’s character was thrown in here as a plug for XMEN ORIGINS: DEADPOOL Gambit was introduced cause he too will co star with Deadpool, plus the fanboys have been waiting for his on screen debut since 2000. The young Cyclops along with the weird pre-aged Prof X was there to introduce their spin off XMEN ORIGINS: FIRST CLASS. Actually this was the reason for the unnecessary imprisoned young mutants, as they will all be part of the series/movie which will get the typical Fox treatment of DAWSONS’CREEK meets TWILIGHT!

It was rumoured that Fox had capped their production budget, this clearly showed with the piss poor special FX. Especially when comparing to films from last year such as IRONMAN & HULK which had ‘quoted’ the same amount ($150 mil) but gave us far better, polished products. I feel this will be the result of all future XMEN films from Fox until the movie rights come back to the capable & faithful hands of Marvel Studios. This is sadly a very forgettable film for an unforgettable media icon.

S. V. Fernando: 3 COCONUTS

D. M. Pieries: 2 COCONUTS

THE ESCAPIST

A hardened convict (Frank Perry) serving a life sentence decides to escape from prison in order to reach his alienated daughter. The daughter's life hangs on a thread after suffering a drug overdose. Time is of the essence, as Perry puts together a motley crew of convicts and sets in motion an impetuous plan to escape.

Released in the U.S. on March 30^th 2009, THE ESCAPIST features a capable cast of actors led my Brian Cox (Frank Perry), Joseph Fiennes (Lenny Drake), Dominic Cooper (Lacey) and Steven Mackintosh (Tony). The screenplay is co-written by Daniel Hardy and Rupert Wyatt and the film marks the feature length directorial debut of Wyatt.

The plot of THE ESCAPIST utilizes an incomplex tried and true recipe. Take one 'Jailhouse Savvy Lifer,' give him a reason to escape, mix in a few colourful inmates, a plausible escape plan and Voila! Add to that the 'Typical Penitentiary Sexual Predator' along with the 'Scared Straight Newbie' and then we have subplot. Frank Perry receives a letter from his estranged wife saying that their daughter is in a bad state following two heart failures. Unable to do anything while incarcerated Perry has nothing to lose and everything to gain, so the decision to escape is obvious. The plot is elementary when compared to such great prison break movies like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE GREAT ESCAPE. But what sets this film apart is purely plot structure. The film opens simultaneously by showing Perry's reason for escape and the beginning of the actual escape. This clever order of storytelling gives the film a fresh feel. Instead of using the entire first act to build up to the escape, this inventive use of parallel storylines keeps the film spontaneous. The story prevents itself from becoming lethargic with these sudden bursts of tense scenes.

The dialogue is a mish-mash of English and Irish slang providing authenticity to its characters. Simple dialogue for a simple plot.

I am a fan of films that display a unique visual atmosphere. The cinematography does not disappoint, it creates a harsh prison environment. The colour palette is faded and almost has a matte finish to it. It highlights the cold and dingy mood of an old prison. The editing is also a contributing factor to the overall feel of this movie. But what stands out is the unique score of the film. With its gritty violin riffs and fast paced drums, the score is the most memorable element of the film.

THE ESCAPIST is clearly an Actor's Movie. Comprised of a number of recognizable but unknown actors, this film relies on its ensemble cast. Joseph SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE Fiennes tries his hand as the 'Tough Guy,' but at times he seems too concerned about trying to look rugged. Dominic MAMMA MIA Cooper plays the new con on the block with fragility and nuance. Steven UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS Mackintosh gives a sinister and engaging performance as the resident sexual predator. But much of the acting praise is deserved by Brian X MEN 2 Cox, who also Executive Produced the film. Cox's role of Frank Perry was tailor-written for him and his commitment to the character is evident. I am unaware as to the extent of Cox's character research but he gives a believable performance as the 'slammer seasoned' Perry.

THE ESCAPIST is a good first time effort by director Rupert Wyatt who had only previously directed a few short films. Unfortunately the subject matter has been overused, and the characters are somewhat clichéd. But the ending gives this film a bit of redemption. The crafty twist at the conclusion sets this story apart and links the flashback scenes with the present scenes. The directing is well rounded and competent. Although the film is lacking in certain areas this is one of those British Indie Flicks that is worth the watch.

Rating: 4 COCONUTS
S.V.Fernando