The character Gambit is in large part one of the initial reason I started reading comic books as a child. I can remember being in Eckerd’s Drugs when I was about seven years old with my parents. In the front of the store was a rotating metal magazine rack filled with various different comic books. I can’t recall exactly what issue it was, but it featured Gambit as one of the main roles. I was instantly enamored with the character so much so that I began riding my bicycle down to the store every week when I received my allowance to see if there was a new issue out. To this day, Gambit continues to remain, of all the vast X-Men cast, one of my favorites. So, when I heard last year that the new X-Men movie was to feature Gambit and Wolverine (another of my absolute faves) I just about fell out of my seat with anticipation. As regular readers of my reviews know, I try my best not to become to attached prematurely to any project I know I will be reviewing because I like to have an open mind as I take my seat in the theater. Having my hopes too high usually ultimately leads to some sort of disappointment. However, in the case of this film, I must confess that I was unabashedly looking forward to X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE with the same enthusiasm that I experienced as a child in that drugstore in Texas. I even had the Gambit wallpaper on my laptop for several weeks before the movie’s premier. If only it had lived up to all of the massive hype and my own lofty expectations. If only…


Now, this is not to say that I did not enjoy this film. Au contraire, I actually found it quite delightful to watch. It was, in a simple word, a “fun” movie. It was definitely not the awe-inspiring masterpiece that was the DARK KNIGHT from last year or the recently released sci-fi epic STAR TREK, which will no doubt be winning award after award later this year, but WOLVERINE was an enjoyable movie-going experience. That is, so long as you don’t pay too close attention to the details. Many hardcore X-Men fans will be a bit disappointed in the portrayal of some of the characters including the ominous, supposedly omnipotent, Dead Pool, which I found to be far too easily defeated in the end battle scene between himself, Sabertooth and Wolverine. One Wolverine fan pointed out that there are subtle differences in character design as well, which might only be noticeable to us geeks but are there nonetheless, such as the placement and implementation of Wolverine’s steel claws which are slightly different from that of the actual comic book (this apparently really irked this one fan I spoke to). The other area of detail in which the movie was lacking was the set design, which I often felt was flat and uninspiring as if the CGI overlay with the built sets simply wasn’t cohesive and fluid. Certain sets, such as the New Orleans fight scene between Gambit and Wolverine in an alleyway, look like Broadway musical sets, as if you could lean on the walls and have them fall down around you. These are artistic aspects which creatives such as myself find hard to overlook and, unfortunately, become very distracting from the overall film.


While I felt that the actors in this film did a far better job in their performances than I had even anticipated, the script they were working with felt, at times, hollow and far too full of cliche one-liners and quips. There simply wasn’t enough background or dramatic build between the characters for some of the “witty” banter to be truly effective and in the end it simply came off as cheap. Again, I would like to state that I thought that the actors did a fantastic job with the script at hand and provided the audience with a fun, entertaining film that flew by in what felt like the blink of an eye. Hugh Jackman was sexy and brooding as Wolverine, Liev Schreiber was feral and powerful as Sabertooth and Taylor Kitsch oozed Creole charm as Remy LeBeau / Gambit. It was worth my $8 to see these characters brought to life, alone. I simply hope that in the next X-MEN ORIGINS movie, the screenwriters take a little more time to fully establish an emotional connection between the audience and the film. While WOLVERINE was obviously intended to have an extreme emotional pull with the pain of his loss over Silverfox (Lynn Collins), the events happen so quickly and without sufficient motivation that the audience is unable to make the leap and completely invest in Wolverine’s emotional strife and his all-consuming desire for revenge.


As I said in the beginning, I did enjoy WOLVERINE for what it was, a fun, fast-paced action flick full of sexy, brooding comic book characters. It is definitely a film that needs to be seen on the big screen so I suggest catching a matinee before it leaves the theaters. However, if you ask me what movie to see this weekend…I’m probably going to tell you to see STAR TREK instead if you have to chose just one. Especially any women, or men, out there who would like to see a full 5 seconds of Hugh Jackman’s naked posterior racing across the screen!

Tags: comic book, Dead Pool, fantasy, Gambit, Hugh Jackman, liev schreiber, movie, review, Sabertooth, Science Fiction, taylor kitsch, Wolverine, X-Men Origins: Wolverine

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