Director: Gavin Hood
"Wolverine" is a stirring action movie that reveals the origins of James Logan, known as the Wolverine, one of the main characters of the X-men.
The gripping opening takes place in Canada in 1845, where the young James Howlett (Hugh Jackman) in the first few moments of the film loses his father, but discovers his mutant powers and his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber). The brothers agree to look out for each other, and eliminate anyone who stands in their way. They are later shown fighting side by side in numerous wars, which eventually harden and craze one of the brothers.
The story develops quickly, as Victor and James are approached by William Stryker (Danny Huston), who offers them membership in Team X 's which allegedly embraces mutants and provides them with the special place they deserve. Here both brothers discover who they truly are and start following the paths they've chosen for themselves.
Throughout the film, James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine continues to ask himself whether a mutant is really an animal or a human, and whether his energy lies in vengeance, or forgiveness and love. At times he seems to be leaning toward his darker side, but this is not very believable because his wrath is always justified.
On the other hand, Victor Creed (later known as Sabretooth) fully develops into a dark hero, celebrating and enjoying the dark side but at the same time keeping a few surprises up his sleeve.
The complexity of Wolverine's character is that he seems to be neither bad nor good 's he isn't just balancing on a thin line between the two worlds, but simply belongs to neither. His personality might also be seen as emotionally cool inside, and not merely as a result of unfavorable circumstances or pain. Both brothers are cat-like independent figures, and both of them are hardened in their own way.
Few other familiar mutants are depicted in the movie 's the most prominent is probably Gambit. There are also many characters with various powers who have never been shown before 's even though not all of them survive the harsh times. On the other hand, you can never be sure with mutants.
To enjoy the movie, one must suspend knowledge of the comic books and former films' material. Most of the negative comments are those by the fans of the X-men, upset with some deviations from the original material. There are, however, a few movie scenes that are a bit illogical and it is hard to follow the sudden changes of moods and unreasonable actions of the characters.
"Wolverine" is not a bad movie for lovers of the comic book / superhero films. It is gripping and fast-paced, has beautiful shots of stunning nature, amazing special effects and scenes with Hugh Jackman naked.
There are a couple of bonus scenes, one just at the beginning and one at the end of credits, so do not rush out at the end of the movie.
Now showing in all three Baltic states