Straight from the pages of Marvel Comics

MANILA, Philippines - Film review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Bryan Singer took the X-Men stories and turned these into slick and smart thrillers for the big screen. He brought logic to the fantasy. It didn’t matter if you had read every X-Men comics ever published or if you had never heard of those mutants. You would still get a clear idea of what was going on and how the Marvel Comics myth relates to present-day social ills.

Then X-Men 3 came along with Brett Ratner at the helm and it was one big mess. Wrong decision. He should have stuck with Jackie Chan. It felt sad watching the much-loved series end with a dud. But such things happen. So I thought, that’s it. No more X-Men at the movies.

Then came the news that X-Men Origins was reviving the series and the first mutant at bat is Wolverine. Singer is not directing but Gavin Hood is. He directed Tsotsi, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. So he should know how to tie up all his loose ends and motivate his cast into believing they are indeed mutants. If he succeeds, fans can look forward to more Origins flicks about the other X-Men.

A big hit at the box-office, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is about Logan’s life before he got the X-Men and Wolverine tags. That means the story covers 175 years. That is how old Logan is because he cannot die and has instant healing ability. That is why he is shown fighting in the American Civil War in the 1860s, during World War II and in Vietnam in the ‘60s. All these sequences are nicely done and might send kids to their history books to check out facts.

It is not only the battle scenes Hood does well. In fact the director who also made the thoughtful thriller Rendition serves up an audio-visual treat in Wolverine. The whole package feels like watching a comic book come to life in glowing colors as the well-timed thrills escalate into a terrific finale.

Those things though are only to be expected in an X-Men or any superhero movie. But since the title says Origins, the thing moviegoers are really interested to find out is how Wolverine got those claws. Forget the explanation on how he became a mutant. He was just born one. Maybe someday, there will be a film that antedates the story of Origins and we will get to know why. But for now, it is only about those claws.

I will not tell you how Logan got those superhard things on his knuckles though. It will take out some of the fun of watching. Suffice to say that Hood also gets that down pat with an easy explanation. Just rest assured that kids will be mouthing adamantium and wondering if it is real after seeing the flick.

Hood ups Ratner on execution but he is still no Singer who can effortlessly blend comics sensibility with real life. That means logic in Wolverine remains scarce. There is also not much dialogue or character explanation. Everything is just here or there or wherever required to complete a scene.

The best word I can think of to describe Hood’s work is adequate. He pretty much breezes along through one event after another in comic book fashion. Read. Turn page. Read. Turn page. You might carp about that and want something substantial. But hearing the oohs and aahs and applause from the kids watching will cause you to change your mind. This is the comics.

Now if there is something nobody is likely to complain about, it is that Hood did not get his X-Men right. The cast is excellent and the X-Men look like how readers imagined they should. A pity though that there is already a lot of Liev Schreiber as Logan’s half-brother Victor who becomes Sabretooth, in this one. His character is so well-delineated here and Schreiber is such a fine actor that his work in Wolverine might have caused him to lose his own Origins movie.

I won’t say though that he is better than Hugh Jackman who really accomplished the impossible when he became Wolverine. The mutant is not the usual superhero. Although he is on the side of the good, he is not the sort you would want tailing you in some dark alley. I’ll take Iron Man over him anytime. Like, hello! Even the Incredible Hulk has his lucid or normal moments.

Logan’s life though is on a constant struggle plateau and he is not working or moving towards anything. Will he change? Will he die? Or at the very least, will he at least show some sign that he is happy about something? Grunt. Or anything! Grunt again. But Jackman makes his Wolverine work. He makes audiences empathize with his predicament and X-Men fans simply adore him.

You can double the adoration in my case. Because I do not only think of Jackman as Wolverine while watching. I know he is a song and dance man. Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. Curly in Oklahoma. A Tony awardee as Peter Allen in the Boy from Oz. He is all bright lights and beautiful music. Then he turns around, gets the whiskers on, glowers at the camera and if provoked enough puts out the claws and becomes Wolverine. Just like that.

And not to forget. Hood has also provided lots of eye candy in the movie for those who see Jackman as The Sexiest Man Alive. They will see him shirtless, pants-less and in other stages of undress. The guy maybe primitive but he is certainly sexy.