Monday, April 28, 2014

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review









X-Men Origins: Wolverine


Release Date: 8th April 2009 - Australia
(premiere)


Production Companies
20th Century Fox (presents)
Marvel Enterprises (in association with)
Dune Entertainment (in association with)
Donners' Company
Seed Productions
Ingenious Film Partners (produced in association with)
Big Screen Productions (produced in association with)

Distribution
20th Century Fox Australia


Genre: Action

Rating: M

Runtime: 107 minutes


Budget: $150,000,000

Box Office Gross: $373,062,864 (Worldwide)


Plot Summary
Logan and Victor are two mutant half-brothers, born 200 years ago, suffered a great deal of childhood trauma and have always depended on each other. They're fighters and killers, as they've been through a few wars in American history due to their regenerative and self-healing abilities. In
modern times, a U.S. colonel
named William Stryker
recruits them and the other
mutants as part of a team
of commandos.

Logan then quits and becomes a logger. He falls in love with a local teacher. When Stryker offers Logan to rejoin his crew, he turns it down. However, the murderous Victor murders the love of his life, which causes Logan to seek revenge.


Cast
Hugh Jackman - Logan/
Wolverine
Liev Schreiber - Victor Creed
Danny Huston - William Stryker
Lynn Collins - Kayla
Ryan Reynolds - Wade Wilson
Scott Adkins - Weapon XI
Taylor Kitsch - Remy
LeBeau/Gambit
Will.i.am - John Wraith
Kevin Durand - Fred J. Dukes/Blob
Dominic Monaghan - Chris
Bradley/Bolt
Daniel Henney - Agent Zero
Tim Pocock - Scott Summers
Julia Blake - Heather Hudson
Max Cullen - Trevor Hudson
Troye Sivan - James
Michael-James Olsen - Young Victor
Peter O'Brien - John Howlett
Aaron Jeffery - Thomas Logan
Alice Parkinson - Elizabeth Howlett
Myles Pollard - Phelan
Stephen Anderton - Marcuse
Chris Sadrinna - Van Mier
David Ritchie - Dr. Cornelius
Asher Keddie - Dr. Carol Frost
Stephen Leeder - General Munson
Henry Brown - Curtis
Tahyna MacManus - Kayla's Sister/Emma
Jade & Joelle Tang - Mutant Twins
Phillip A. Patterson - Firing Squad Leader
(Cameo)
James D. Dever - Platoon Leader (Cameo)
Daniel Negreanu - Poker Player (Cameo)
Patrick Stewart - Charles Xavier/
Professor X (Cameo) (Uncredited)

Crew
Director - Gavin Hood
Screenplay - David Benoff and
Skip Woods
Executive Producers - Richard Donner,
Stan Lee and Avi Arad (Uncredited)
Producers - Lauren Shuler Donner,
Ralph Winter, Hugh Jackman
and John Palermo
Co-Producer/Unit Production Manager -
Louis G. Friedman
Co-Producer/Second Unit Director: Australia/
New Zealand - Peter MacDonald
Co-Producer - Marsha L. Swinton
Military Tech Advisor - James D. Dever
U.S. Casting - Debra Zane
Australian Casting - Christine King
Production Designer - Barry Robson
Supervising Art Director - Ian Gracie
Art Directors - Karen Murphy and Brian Edmonds
Art Directors: North American Main Unit -
Helen Jarvis and Michael Diner
Art Director: New Zealand Unit - Mark Robins
Assistant Art Directors - Simon Elsley,
Jacinta Leong and Michael Turner
Assistant Art Director: New Zealand Unit -
John Allan
Assistant Art Director: North American Main
Unit - Kirsten Franson
Set Decorator - Rebecca Cohen
Property Master - Richie Dehne
Costume Designer - Louise Mingenbach
Assistant Costume Designers -
Christine Bieselin Clark and Eliza Godman
Special Makeup Effects Designers and
Creators - Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr.
Key Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist -
Nikki Gooley
Special Makeup Effects: Amalgamated
Dynamics - Yuri Everson, Garth Winkless,
Steve Frakes, David Penikas, Tim Leach,
Karen Keener Manzel, Tamara Woodard,
Jan Pearce, Mike Larrabee, Justin G. Ditter,
Michael Heintzelman, Suma Adams,
Jason Barnett, Michael Broom, Peter Clarke,
Brian Clawson, Connie G. Criswell,
Dawn Dininger, John Donahue, Davis Fandino,
David Fedele, Hiroshi Katagiri, Matt Killen,
Steve Koch, Tim Martin, Matt Mastrella,
James McLoughlin, Kevin McTurk,
Ratna Pappert and Chris Walker
Director of Photography - Donald M. McAlpine
Helicopter Aerial Director of Photography:
New Zealand Unit - Hans Bjerno
Director of Photography: Second Unit - Brad Shield
Director of Photography: North American
2nd Unit - Larry Blanford
Cable Camera Operator: Second Unit -
Keir Beck
First Assistant Camera - Tov Belling
First Assistant Camera: North American
2nd Unit - Taylor Matheson
Location Manager - Gareth Price
Location Manager: North American Unit -
Ann Goobie
Unit Production Manager: North American
Unit - Ross Fanger
First Assistant Directors - Phillip A. Patterson
and Chris Soldo
First Assistant Director: North American
2nd Unit - James Bitoni
First Assistant Director: Second Unit -
Edward Brett
Second Assistant Director - Paul Barry
Second Second Assistant Director - Scott Lovelock
Second Assistant Director: Second Unit -
Drew Bailey
Second Assistant Director: North American
Unit - Misha Bukowski
Second Unit Director: North American
2nd Unit/Stunts - Brian Smrz
Stunt Coordinators - Glenn Boswell,
Dean Choe and Mike Mitchell
Fight/Action Design - David Leitch and
Chad Stahelski
Additional Fight Choreographer - J.J. Perry
Helicopter Pilots - Rick Shuster
and Frédéric North
Special Effects Supervisor - Dan Oliver
Special Effects Coordinator - Monika Stankowski
Special Effects Coordinator: North
American Unit - Cameron Waldbauer
Visual Effects Supervisor - Pat McClung
Visual Effects Supervisor: Hydralux - Erik Liles
Visual Effects Supervisor: Soho VFX - Allan Magled
Additional Visual Effects Plate Supervisors -
Christopher Townsend and Robin Hackl
Visual Effects Designers: Hydralux -
Colin & Greg Strause
Additional Visual Effects Supervisor - Craig Lyn
Visual Effects Producer - Greg Baxter
Visual Effects Producer: Soho VFX - Ryan Stafford
Visual Effects: Luma Pictures - Patam Shohadai,
Vincent Cirelli, Steven Swanson, Steve Griffith,
Justin Johnson, Pavel Pranevsky, Oliver Arnold,
H. Harden Hammond, Glenn Morris,
Raphael A. Pimentel, Alexandre Cancado,
Jared Smith, John Cassella, Loic Zimmerman,
Thanapoom Siripopungal, Joey Sila,
James Waterson, Michael Cashore,
Jason Locke, Ryan Sivley, Jennifer Gutierrez,
Christopher Sage, Anthony Grant,
Safari Sosebee, Mathieu Aerni, Julie Garcia,
John Riggs, Elaine Wu, Marcos Romero,
Andy Burmeister, Jessica Bakke, Erik LaPlant,
Katie Godwin, Chad Dombroya, John Hazzard,
Richard Sutherland, Satoshi Harada,
Sonia Yu, Dawrath Phoue, Jacob Harris
and Madiek Sokalski
Visual Effects: Rising Sun Pictures -
Thomas Proctor, Mara Hamilton, Dan Bethell,
Gemma James, Keith Herft, Nick Pitt-Owen,
Eric So, Laura Ingram, Norma Mulroney,
Timothy Jones, Campbell McGrouther,
Sam Hancock, Nick Murphy, Les Turner,
Premamurti Paersch, Martin Wiseman,
Rob Dorris, Justin Long, Damien Thaller
and Ian Cope
Editors - Nicolas De Toth and
Megan Gill
Supervising Sound Editor - John A. Larsen
Supervising Sound Editor & Sound Designer -
Derek Vanderhorst
Sound Designer - Ted Caplan
Sound Mixing - Paul Massey and David Giammarco
Additional Sound Mixing - James Bolt
Music - Harry Gregson-Williams


Review
As a true fan, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE was a mild disappointment. Despite this movie being below average, it inspired me to do the X-Men movie marathon, excluding the two I've already done. Most of you have expected Days of Future Past to arrive in cinemas for viewing, but let's move on to X-MEN ORIGINS. The film suffered from numerous production issues, such as rewrites to the story, executive decisions, clashes between Fox executive Tom Rothman and director Gavin Hood over its direction, etc. It would explain why Hugh Jackman is disappointed with the movie when he admitted that it fell short of his expectations. It has an unoriginal and confusing plot with poor execution and lacklustre CGI (such as Logan's metal claws and the part of the ending with the digitally de-aged Patrick Stewart, which looks too weird). Even the addition of Cyclops is redundant to the spin-off. Despite the forgetfulness and problems of the film and its continuity, there are a few strengths, like the action, which was good and the acting. But sadly, those aspects weren't enough to redeem the movie of its lesser quality.

For a few big surprises in the cast, we have Ryan Reynolds, and people think he's a good actor who wasted his potential in mediocre films. Reynolds is perfect as one of the mutants, the motormouth mercenary Deadpool. I complained that Reynolds' character (when he's not often portraying it in all of his scenes) is butchered from the comics and has completely undergone an unnecessary transformation in the climax that left him mute. In all fairness, it wasn't his fault. Liev Schreiber demonstrates his top-notch acting by playing Wolverine's half-brother/rival Sabertooth, his nemesis in the comics. Most movie audiences may have seen Taylor Kitsch in films like the overlooked sci-fi bomb John Carter. He debuted as fan favourite Gambit before becoming a major underrated star.

It's a shame that the first Wolverine movie did not meet the expectations of many fanatics eager to see the character's tragic backstory. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is not the film that the Marvel and X-Men aficionados had promised. I re-rank the second Wolverine feature that would surpass the first with a better storyline. Still, it would be best to see this movie just once.

Star rating: (4/10) Below Average

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