X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

US, 2009, 107 minutes, Colour.
Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Houston, Will i Am, Lynn Collins, Kevin Durand, Dominic Monaghan, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, Ryan Reynolds, Julia Blake, Max Cullen.
Directed by Gavin Hood.

Whether it was the character of Wolverine or the personality of Hugh Jackman portraying him in the three X Men films, but the Marvel Comics powers-that-be decided that the time was right for another X Men instalment, this time venturing into a prequel: Who is Wolverine? Where did he come from? Whence his powers and his claws?

South African director, Gavin Hood, won an Oscar for the 2005 Best Foreign Language Film for Tsotsi, a dark story of post-apartheid South Africa but a story of redemption. He then directed Rendition. Like many another director from outside the US, he must have dreamed of making a big Hollywood action movie. He has now done it and achieved it successfully.

So, where did Woverine come from? He is Canadian. His name is Jimmy Logan. He was born in the early 19th century. He has a brother named Victor. Both were mutants who could never die. They both felt deep-seated rage but Jimmy turned it to the good and fought in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam. So did Victor but he was vicious.

Naturally enough, this is the kind of person that governments need for special missions. We know that from the other X Men films. However, Jimmy and Victor are recruited by Stryker who uses them for power purposes and is up to no good. When Jimmy rebels and works as a lumberjack in Canada, Stryker is still plotting and wants to turn Jimmy into an unbeatable, immortal agent. It doesn't quite work out that way. Stryker doesn't always count on Victor and underestimates his unpredictability. Ultimately, there is a psychological contest with Stryker and a physical one with Victor and a mutant creation that is supposed to be invincible, formerly one of Stryker's team, Wade.

And there are plenty more complications.

Hugh Jackman exhibits his usual ruggedness and some charm and makes Wolverine (a poetic name given to him by his wife) quite credible (at least while he is there on the screen). And Liev Schreiber is a frighteningly convincing Victor (who has different kinds of claws). Danny Huston is more quietly sinister as Stryker. Ryan Reynolds is Wade. Lynne Collins is Wolverine's wife.

Of course, special effects and stunts are important and always very impressive: fights, chases, mysterious mutant behaviour, helicopters exploding, nuclear power funnels crashing...

And, at the end, who should be there but Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier arrives to welcome the imprisoned child mutants and take them to his school and set the series going (along with an add for a box set of the three movies in High Definition and Blue Ray – for the first time!)?

1.The interest in an X-Men? prequel? The origins of Wolverine? Of the school?

2.The film as spectacle: the Canadian landscapes, the history, Canada in the 1840s, fighting in the civil war, World War One and the trenches, World War Two and the Normandy landing, Vietnam combat? The forests of Canada? The contrast with Nigeria and the action, seeking for the metal? The island, the laboratories, the nuclear station? The special effects, the stunts? Atmospheric score?

3.Mutants and the possibilities, their powers, the families, their effects, immortality?

4.Canada as a frontier, Jimmy and his illness, his father’s concern, neglect of Victor, Victor’s father, the confrontation between the two fathers? Jimmy’s rage, killing Victor’s father, discovering that it was his own father, fleeing the house, Victor pursuing, the mutual protection, their subsequent lives?

5.Their fighting together in war, Jimmy as a helper, Victor being more savage? The behaviour in Vietnam?

6.Nigeria, the mission, the discussions, the search for the metal, the political deals? The fights? The team: Wade and his talking, swordplay? Agent Zero and his violence and vengefulness? Chris Bradley/Bolt, his power with energy? Dukes, his fighting ability? His fists? John Wraith and his powers? Victor and Jimmy? The action, the deaths? Victor and his extreme brutality? Jimmy leaving?

7.Jimmy as a lumberjack, the work in the forests, the trees, his life, home, his wife, teacher, the bond between them? The story of Wolverine and the loneliness of the wife, the moon, the wolf baying at the moon? A native Canadian story? Stryker’s arrival, warning? Victor and his attack, Logan sensing it, running, arriving too late, his wife’s death? The irony of Kayla and the faking of the death, her being blackmailed by Stryker, his hold on her sister? Her reappearance, supportive of Jimmy, not giving in, urging him on, her death?

8.Stryker in himself, sinister but calm, intelligent, government agency, assembling the team, the secrecy, the search for the metal? His experiments, wanting to create a mutant with superpowers? The experiment with Logan, the insertion of the metal? Logan’s escape? His other prisoners? Victor helping him? Going to warn Logan – but wanting to get him involved? His responsibility for the pretence of Kayla’s death? The irony of Kayla and her confrontation with Stryker at the end, mind-bending, persuading him to go into exile?

9.The death of Bolt, his work at the sideshow, the lights, the customers, Victor killing him? Fearlessness?

10.Logan and his escape, the visit to Las Vegas, seeing John Wraith, seeing Dukes, his getting so fat? The bouts with him in the ring, punching, insulting him, trying to get the information about where the island was?

11.The car chase sequence: in Canada, the open highway, the helicopter pursuit? Zero and his shooting, the crash?

12.Remy, the gambler, New Orleans, the clash with Logan, persuading him to guide him to the island?

13.The island, the nuclear facility, Kayla’s presence, the other prisoners, the experiments? Logan and his invading? The fights, the confrontation with Wade, his mouth disappearing?

14.The fights, Logan and Victor, their banding together against Wade, Wade and his powers, speed, the sword? The slicing of the funnel? Destroying it?

15.Stryker, the money for the experiments, the general and his killing him? The experiments, the metal, into Logan’s brain, the process of the operation, Logan having to die, suffer, reviving? Stryker wanting to erase his memories? Logan rebelling?

16.Stryker as a megalomaniac, his ability to erase Logan’s memories? Kayla persuading him to go into exile?

17.The children and their freedom, Remy returning, helping them escape, Xavier and the picture of the school, the future – and audience familiarity with the mutants as they grew up? Wolverine as being part of these mutants – the symbol of his name? His loss of memory?

18.The final glimpse, and his saying he was drinking to remember?

19.His meeting the elderly couple, escaping from the experiment naked, going down the waterfall? Their sheltering him, giving him clothes, feeding him? Their kindness, Victor catching up with them, their deaths?