X-Men Origins: Wolverine (From Herald Series)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

1:37pm Wednesday 29th April 2009

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Hugh Jackman sharpens his retractable, adamantium claws in Men Origins: Wolverine, a spin-off from the X-Men films, expanding the back-story of one of the franchise’s most popular characters. Screenwriters David Benioff and Skip Woods have the unenviable task of entertaining ardent fans of the comic books while forging links with the three blockbuster films.

In the end, they please no one entirely, punctuating a poorly paced narrative with explosive action set pieces overloaded with digital special effects. The variable quality of the computer trickery and some overly enthusiastic editing reduce the impact of these pivotal sequences. There are also a few glaring continuity errors. When Wolverine interrogates an adversary his adamantium claws, used to keep the subject in place, vanish from certain angles. The underwater transformation begins with the lead character wearing a pair of dark shorts that evaporate by the time he leaves the pool. Cue shots of Hugh Jackman’s pert posterior.

Mutant best friends Logan (Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) fight side by side in the American Civil War, then two World Wars and in Vietnam, until shady military man William Stryker (Danny Huston) approaches them with a tantalising offer.

“I’m putting together a special team with special privileges,” he confides, introducing James and Victor to Team X: a merry band of mutants including sharp-shooter David North (Daniel Henney), super-strong Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), master swordsman Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), teleporter extraordinaire John Wraith (will.i.am) and the electrifying Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), who can make technology do his bidding. Disillusioned by the senseless killing, Logan leaves the fold to pursue a ‘normal’ life in Canadian Rockies with girlfriend Kayla (Lynn Collins). But the men in charge of Team X refuse to let their prize asset walk away, pitting the clawed warrior against his one-time brothers in arms.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a haphazard introduction to an iconic character, which doesn’t tell us a great deal about a man constantly at odds with his animal instincts.

Logan certainly isn’t the brightest cub in the litter. It takes an inordinate amount of time for the brawler to twig that he is a pawn in a bigger game, and then more time still to punish those who betrayed him because the screenplay forces him to drag his claws through a ridiculous, cartoonish boxing match with The Blob.

Jackman snarls and sheds the odd tear during the simplistic romantic subplot but genuine emotion is waylaid by the action. Schreiber and Huston are two-dimensional baddies and the other members of Team X have insufficient time to make their mark.

The Disney Channel’s phenomenally popular Hannah Montana transformed Miley Cyrus into a teen pin-up virtually overnight when the series debuted in 2006. Now Miley returns to the big screen in the perky pop princess’s first dramatic feature, searching for love in this sentimental rites-of-passage drama, interspersed with musical sequences.

Hannah Montana – The Movie is drizzled with sentiment and peppered with wholesome values, promoting the family unit and the value of enduring friendship ahead of material wealth. Each narrative twist and turn is clearly signposted, giving the target teen audience plenty of time to get their tissues ready as Hannah makes the most important decision of her life.

To her classmates and most of her friends, Miley Stewart is just a normal, clumsy teenager, struggling to fit in. However, to millions of screaming fans, she is global pop superstar Hannah Montana: a secret known only to her father Robbie (Billy Ray Cyrus), brother Jackson (Jason Earles) and close family and friends including Lilly (Osment).

When Miley loses sight of her humble beginnings, her father drags her back home under false pretences to Crowley Corners, Tennessee, where her grandmother Ruby (Margo Martindale) welcomes her with open arms. At first, Miley resents being taken away from her glitzy lifestyle and personal assistant Vita (Vanessa Williams). But the teenager soon settles back into small town life, enjoying a flirtation with childhood crush Travis (Lucas Till). When a developer threatens the quiet of Crowley Corners, Travis suggests a benefit concert fronted by Hannah Montana. Can Miley juggle twin identities and evade the roving lens of paparazzo Oswald Granger (Peter Gunn)?

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