Recently we caught up with X Men Origins: Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman. As the name implies it gives the background of how Wolverine. came to be what he is. It’s all about what shaped him and what turned him from a mutant with bone talons that came out of his hands to an indestructible creature with talons of steel.
Basically James gets fed up with the violence and killing. He tries to walk away from Team X, the group of mutants led by Major William Stryker. He settles down as a lumberjack with the woman he loves. But he finds it’s not that easy to walk away from Team X or his brother and live his own life. They won’t let him go. When his woman is murdered, hate and rage take over and James, now known as Logan, wants to kill the one responsible. He learns it is his brother – Victor. Since he can’t defeat Victor, he submits to experiments with Stryker to make him stronger and completely indestructible.
How you reaction to this movie is going to depend a lot on your view of a movie and what you expect from it. If you take it, as what I commonly refer to as ‘a boy movie’– that is it is a bit of mindless escapism purely for entertainment value and not in depth characterization, then you will probably enjoy it. It is an adventure tale with a main charcter with superhero powers, non stop action and not a lot of thinking required. It is what my husband described as ‘a lot of fun.’
However, if however you want to dig deeper and look at the themes that come out in the movie then that’s an entirely different matter. For example the kindness of two strangers is rewarded with death, not by Wolverine but by those hunting him and his association with the couple. Wolverine is outraged by this attack on innocent people. Before that when Wolverine says he doesn’t have a choice about what he does, the kindly man says, ‘we all got a choice?’ Did Wolverine have a choice? That is something parents could debate with their teens after watching the movie.
The other thing that struck me was the repeated theme that, ‘brothers look out for each other ‘ and ‘brothers stick together,’ as Victor tells Jimmy later to become Wolverine. Of course the reality is that’s not always what happens because it is Wolverine’s brother who is one of those trying to kill him, so what sort of message is that sending to young people about family relationships? Later the brothers combine to fight against a common enemy. Yet it still doesn’t change the situation between them, Wolverine tells him. Victor is still the enemy.
Again it all comes back to your view of why you want to see this movie. If it’s for a couple of hours of escapism, and you don’t mind the violence, you’ll enjoy it. My adult daughter descried it as ‘a great movie! You just can’t not write a good review about it,’ she told me, ‘It’s great.’ While I wouldn’t go that far, I was happy enough to watch it, though I could have done with less violence.
However, if you go to watch this sort of movie, that’s what you expect to get. We see a lot of fighting and things being blown up or decapitated but it’s not actually shown graphically. Even though at times we saw his steel talons going through people, there were instances where the violence could have been even more graphic. So perhaps, at times, the violence was tempered. As an example when he beheaded someone, you see the head after it has been cut off rather than the actual act and when Wolverine’s woman is murdered, it wasn’t shown in detail. The scene cuts to reveal after the event.
It is the violence that raises the issue about its appropriateness for the age group. The violence is fairly continuous throughout the movie. I admit to being surprised at the PG13 rating. To my mind the excessive violence deserved a higher rating than that. Personally I would not take anyone under 15 or so to see it. But I was told by others including a high school teacher who’d seen the movie, ‘that’s what kids watch and are used to these days. It’s about on par with other movies of the genre.’ All I know is if our son was 13, he wouldn’t have been going to see it.
There is a nude scene in which we see Wolverine’s butt and there is another scene of implied sex, but we are spared the graphic details. As for language there are a couple of words. By today’s standards they are not that bad. I’ve heard a lot worse and more frequent in many other PG movies. There is a little humor used at times to lighten the mood, which was good.
Would I have chosen to watch it, if my husband didn’t want to see it? Probably not, even though I like Hugh Jackman. But I suspect many people will happily watch and enjoy it.
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