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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with DAN CARRIER
Published: 30 April 2009

Hugh Jackman in Wolverine

Wolverine Hugh’s still got X appeal

WOLVERINE
Directed by Gavin Hood

THIS is a bit more than your run-of-the-mill superhero flick: it avoids the traps such offerings as the Dark Knight and Spiderman stumble into by refusing to pretend to be anything other than a straight-up action film with some spectacular special effects and utterly wacky nonsense as the basis for a plot.
The fourth in the X-Men series, this time we focus on perhaps the best loved of all the characters – Wolverine.
Starring a very watchable Hugh Jackman in the lead, it is a bio-pic of the character, explaining how this creature came to exist.
A basic run-through of the story goes like this: it is the early 1800s and two children begin to learn that they possess some weird powers. Super strong, immune to pain and with bones that grow into weapons, the pair witness a family tragedy in the opening sequence and then take to the hills.
Skip through the proceeding couple of centuries and we learn that Wolverine and his brother Victor Creed (Liev Schrieber) have for years been used as violent killing machines by the military. They are part of a crack group of mutants, people with special powers used like a Swat team.
But one day our hero decides he has seen too much killing, and heads off to the Canadian Rockies for some peace, quiet and wholesome loving provided by his belle, Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). It is here he reverts back to his original ego, Logan, and earns a living as a lumberjack.
But of course he is far too valuable to the military to be allowed to be left alone. Baddie Colonel Stryker (Danny Huston) tracks him down to seemingly warn him that there is a murderer out there hunting mutants.
But Stryker’s motives are not all they seem – and poor Wolverine also has to confront an unhealthy urge to kill his brother.
While this film is riddled with silliness, it is still an exciting watch.
From the two leads’ amazingly bad facial hair, to a Frankenstein sub-plot, there is something quirky about this instalment. It puts the previous three in this four-parter to shame – totally stupid and all the better for it.

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