Spotlight

For F*** Magazine

SPOTLIGHT 

Director : Thomas McCarthy
Cast : Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci, Billy Crudup
Genre : Drama
Run Time : 128 mins
Opens : 21 January 2016
Rating : NC-16 (Some Mature Content)

It was 2001, and facing great opposition, one small band of intrepid reporters uncovered the truth behind a string of child sex abuse cases. Spotlight tells their story. The Boston Globe’s new editor Marty Baron (Schreiber), arriving from Florida, reads a small column about a paedophile priest whom Boston’s Cardinal Law was aware of and yet did nothing to stop him. Baron assigns journalist Walter “Robby” Robinson (Keaton) and his team to go after what appears to be a much larger story. Alongside Robinson, Michael Rezendes (Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams), Ben Bradlee Jr. (Slattery) and Matt Carroll (James) comprise the Spotlight team, the oldest newspaper investigative unit still active in the United States. Because of the sensitive nature of the case and how strongly institutional Catholicism figures in the city of Boston, the Spotlight team faces an uphill battle in illuminating the sobering, horrifying truth of the pattern of abuse that has been perpetuated by the city’s priests.

            Directed by Tom McCarthy and co-written by McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight has emerged among the stronger contenders of the 2015-2016 awards race, premiering to “sustained applause” at the Venice Film Festival. As moviegoers, we’re used to seeing fearless, heroic reporters ducking out of the gun sights of assassins or going toe to toe with Lex Luthor, getting rescued by Superman at the last moment. Spotlight presents a portrait of real-life reporters and the good that they’re capable of doing. It’s a cinematic embodiment of journalistic integrity and a measured, objective handling of a potentially provocative topic. There’s nary a whiff of embellishment and McCarthy avoids a vulgar, sensationalistic approach to the subject matter at every turn. As the cliché goes, this is a movie about “men and women just doing their jobs”, and the realism and credibility McCarthy brings to the film is just the right way to celebrate the accomplishments of the Spotlight team.

            There’s a nobility and a worthiness to the story being told, of course, but seeing reporters standing around the bullpen comparing notes doesn’t exactly scream excitement. Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, who also lensed the Boston-set Black Mass, adds just the right amount of dynamism to the proceedings while restraining from distracting flashiness. There is a clarity to the progression of the story in the sequence of events without it getting too dry. At the same time, Spotlight never loses sight of the human toll of the case. A cleverly-edited sequence which intercuts Pfeifer and Rezendes interviewing two very different victims conveys how many young lives were affected by the scandal without descending into hokey sentimentality.

            Spotlight boasts a luminous ensemble cast who breathe life into unglamorous unsung heroes. Keaton doesn’t get as juicy a part as in the earlier award season darling Birdman, but is still able to bring a charisma to the role of the Spotlight team’s fearless leader. Schreiber’s Marty Baron is the outsider that is desperately needed to examine and evaluate the situation from a distance and without his impetus, the investigation probably wouldn’t have happened, or would at least have been significantly delayed. As a reporter who’s less of the plucky Lois Lane archetype she portrayed in State of Play, McAdams gets some excellent scenes where Pffeifer has to maintain her composure in difficult confrontations with victims and perpetrators alike.  Ruffalo is the stand-out as the dedicated, passionate, somewhat awkward Rezendes. He mostly plays opposite Tucci’s Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing the victims. Garabedian is prickly and suffers no fools, but is ultimately well-meaning. Michael Cyril Creighton and Neal Huff both turn in affecting performances as but two of the many victims traumatised in their youth.

            A level-headed telling of the events that’s not out to shock or function as a smear piece, Spotlight offers great insight into the way investigative reporters conduct their inquiries and the positive impact that their work can have. Sure, the quiet, even-handed approach favoured by McCarthy may sacrifice superficial excitement, but Spotlight’s lack of self-conscious prestige picture artifice is refreshing. Spotlight is more concerned with lauding the Boston Globe journalists than delivering a searing takedown of the Roman Catholic Church, which is just as well. Pragmatic without being detached, compelling without being heavy-handed, Spotlight’s unassuming nature is the ideal reflection of the work ethic displayed by the journalists it is about.

Summary: This account of the Spotlight team’s investigation into the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Boston is concise, fair, dignified and respectful, brought to life by a powerhouse cast.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Pawn Sacrifice

For F*** Magazine

PAWN SACRIFICE

Director : Edward Zwick

Cast : Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard, Liev Schreiber, Lily Rabe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Robin Weigert

Genre : Drama/Biography

Run Time : 114 mins

Opens : 1 October 2015

Rating : PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)

Awards movie season has officially begun with this prestige biopic focusing on chess champion Bobby Fischer, often considered the greatest player of all time. Fischer (Aiden Lovecamp as a child, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as a teen and Maguire as an adult) is a chess prodigy from Brooklyn, developing a love for the game at an early at age. At 15, Fischer becomes the youngest player to earn the title of grandmaster. In the meantime, the Cold War heats up and Fischer is adamant on taking on and beating the Russians, considered the best players in the world. Represented by manager and attorney Paul Marshall (Stuhlbarg) and backed up by fellow grandmaster William Lombardy (Sarsgaard), Fischer works his way up to the 1972 world championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland. His opponent: world no. 1 Borris Spassky (Schreiber) of the USSR. As Fischer’s fame and ambition grows, so does his mental instability and paranoia, leaving his sister Joan (Rabe) worried for his well-being as the eyes of the world are fixed upon him, his opponent Spassky, and the chessboard.

            Bobby Fischer has been a magnet for fascination both within and outside the world of chess and has been the basis for several documentaries and narrative films. Pawn Sacrifice combines two subgenres that have proven popular with Academy voters – the “tormented genius” biopic and the historical sports drama. The screenplay by Steven Knight landed on the 2009 Black List of best-liked scripts making the rounds in Hollywood. Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, who have a “story by” credit, also penned the biopics Ali and Nixon.  

Director Edward Zwick knows audiences in general might walk into this with the preconceived notion that chess is boring and inaccessible. As such, he drums up the stakes and the thrills, establishing the background political intrigue. “We’re at war – only it’s not being fought with guns and missiles, not yet – it’s a war of perception: the poor kid from Brooklyn taking on the whole of the Soviet Union,” Marshall tells Fischer. Quite the opposite of “this is not the start of World War Three/ No political ploys,” as the lyric in the musical Chess goes. Pawn Sacrifice has inevitably drawn comparisons to the likes of A Beautiful Mind and The Imitation Game and it is certainly in that mould. There is the feeling that the events have been embellished for dramatic purposes, but then again, what biopic hasn’t done that?

            Thanks to the production design by Isabelle Guay, the costume design by Renée April and art direction by Lisa Clark and Jean-Pierre Paquet, Pawn Sacrifice authentically captures the feel of the era in which it is set; all of it bathed in cinematographer Bradford Young’s warm hues. Zwick is gunning for mass appeal and seems determined for the film not to get stuck in the “arthouse” pigeonhole, even as it clearly primed to compete at the Oscars. To establish the period, flashes of news footage showing John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon are spliced into the montage of Fischer climbing the ranks. It can come off as clumsy and on-the-nose, but it’s not egregious enough to pull one out of the movie entirely.

            This is squarely star and co-producer Maguire’s film to carry, and a role like Bobby Fischer is one many actors would kill to sink their teeth into. Fischer is portrayed as petulant, arrogant and socially inept; Maguire gamely tackling the challenge of playing a protagonist who is inherently difficult to sympathise with, but whom we have to root for. Maguire puts a great deal of effort into capturing the real-life Fischer’s mannerisms and Brooklyn accent, resulting in a performance that is good but not transcendent. Maguire is sometimes too hysterical, Fischer’s paranoia and instability manifesting on the surface level without enough nods at what’s festering deeper within his mind. Fischer’s involvement with the Worldwide Church of God sect is given passing attention – exploring his religious affiliation would have made for rich if risky material. Fischer’s anti-Semitic rants, in spite of his own Jewish roots, are touched on – a crucial element that makes his fall from grace all the more tragic.

            Schreiber is a commanding presence as Boris Spassky. We don’t get to spend a great deal of time with the Soviet chess team, but there is an effort made to characterise them beyond being Ivan Drago-esque “I must break you” types. Schreiber’s Russian line delivery is convincing and his equally-driven but more composed Spassky is a pitch-perfect dramatic counterpoint to the zealous Fischer. Sarsgaard, as the level-headed priest/semi-retired player who becomes Fischer’s coach, is subtly comic while being the reserved straight man. Michael Stuhlbarg has a tendency to play up the stereotype of the harried manager seen in many a rock star biopic, closer to a caricature of someone from the era rather than an authentic portrayal, but given Fischer’s varied antics, it is very easy to empathize with the man who had to keep everything under control.

            While it isn’t the deep portrait of all-consuming obsession and the thin line between genius and madness it is pitched as being, Pawn Sacrifice is a gripping and entertaining biopic. For those unfamiliar with the Bobby Fischer story, it is a straightforward, coherent account of the events and serves up an intriguing slice of history. And yes, it’s Spider-Man taking on Sabretooth in chess, a game that is typically the domain of Professor Xavier and Magneto. So much for getting through the review without making that joke.

Summary: Pawn Sacrifice falls shy of greatness, but there’s no faulting Zwick’s play of couching the biopic as a thrilling high-stakes historical tale.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

The Last Days on Mars

For F*** Magazine

THE LAST DAYS ON MARS

Director: Ruairi Robinson
Cast:         Liev Schreiber, Romola Garai, Elias Koteas, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen, Yusra Warsama
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Run Time: 99 mins
Opens: 5 December 2013
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)

Scientists, engineers and other experts managed to pull off the first moon landing in 1969, but in the intervening 44 years, a manned mission to Mars has yet to become a reality. We have however had no shortage of cinematic trips to the red planet, including the "duelling Mars movies" of 2000, Mission to Mars and Red Planet. Lynn Collins played a Martian princess in last year's John Carter and in this film, her X-Men Origins: Wolverine co-star Liev Schreiber gets to walk upon the crimson dust himself.



It is the final day of the Aurora 2's Martian expedition and the crew of astronauts, having grown testy after six months on the planet's surface, are preparing to hand off to the next crew and head home. Kim Aldrich (Williams) in particularly has become increasingly difficult to work with. Suddenly, scientist Marko Petrovic (Kostić) makes an unexpected, earth-shattering discovery: microscopic life on Mars in the form of bacteria. Petrovic falls into a fissure and Captain Charles Brunell (Koteas) and engineer Vincent Campbell (Schreiber) lead a rescue mission that goes south, resulting in the crew members getting infected by the bacteria one by one, creating an "every man for himself" situation. Vincent and Rebecca Lane (Garai) attempt to flee their colleagues-turned vicious foes, stuck upon an alien and inhospitable planet.



Medium-budget science fiction pictures are an interesting genre; the filmmakers behind such movies intending that their product be able to compete with high-gloss Hollywood films at a fraction of the cost. More often than not, audiences are able to spot the cracks. So, it is worth noting that The Last Days on Mars definitely has decent production values, the sets, costumes, visual effects and especially those nifty rover vehicles all quite believable. The film was partially shot on location in Jordan, which doesn't completely pass for Mars; the depiction most moviegoers are used to being redder and harsher than the expanses of desert on display in the film.

Unfortunately, while it looks alright, the film's limp story squanders the potential of its setting. It is very poorly paced and drags in many spots, and although it opens intriguingly enough, there is no element of mystery. What could have been thought-provoking and cleverly ambiguous instead quickly descends into a run of the mill horror flick, with the leads running from space zombies. There's nothing unique to the undead creatures and whenever they tussle with a character, the film kicks into full shaky-cam mode. It also seems that the plot was lifted wholesale from the Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars.



We don't get a lot in the way of characterisation, but Liev Schreiber certainly is a competent leading man and does make a decent astronaut. Schreiber handles the moments in which Vincent is conflicted and turns emotional as well as the action beats. Romola Garai's Rebecca Lane is effectively vulnerable as the female lead but it does seem that both she and Vincent turn into "horror movie survivors" very fast. Elias Koteas is dependable as he usually is and Johnny Harris plays a sufficiently detestable self-centred character, but there's no standout acting moments and the most personal you're going to get is Vincent and Rebecca discussing how much of someone's personality remains after he has been infected with a zombie virus.



While some zombie movies begin with an alien pathogen arriving on earth by way of a meteorite making impact, this cuts out the middleman and has the astronauts infected directly. Even then, it's not a new idea and The Last Days on Mars is disappointing in how dull and conventional it turns out to be.

SUMMARY: Mars is not very interesting to look at, and neither is this ultimately generic sci-fi/horror offering.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

By Jedd Jong

The Butler

For F*** Magazine

THE BUTLER

Director: Lee Daniels

Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Minka Kelly, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams, David Banner
Genre: Biography, Drama
Run Time: 132 mins
Opens: 24 October 2013
Rating: NC-16 (Some Coarse Language)

Through literature, comic books, film and television, we’ve become acquainted with the likes of Alfred Pennyworth from the Batman stories, P.G. Wodehouse’s creation Jeeves, Iron Man’s butler and later artificially intelligent assistant Jarvis, The Addams Family’s butler Lurch and Green Hornet’s chauffer-sidekick Kato. As butlers, valets and the like, these characters are privy to the most intimate details of their employer’s lives and are granted full access to the houses of prestige in which they live and work. In The Butler, audiences are introduced to Cecil Gaines (Whitaker), a character based on the real-life figure Eugene Allen, who was butler to eight United States presidents over 34 years.

Cecil grew up on a cotton plantation where his parents (Carey and Banner) were often brutally mistreated by the farm’s owner Thomas Westfall (Pettyfer). A teenaged Cecil escaped to start anew, breaking into a pastry shop, desperate for food and shelter. He is taken in by Maynard (Williams III), a master servant who shows Cecil the ropes. Eventually, his efforts are recognized and Cecil is employed as member of the White House butler staff. Cecil juggles his home life with wife Gloria (Winfrey), sons Louis (Oyelowo) and Charlie (Kelley) with his important occupation, keeping order in the corridors of power. He fosters a working relationship with his colleagues Carter (Gooding, Jr.), James (Kravitz) and his boss Freddie (Domingo) while rubbing shoulders with those who have taken on the position of leader of the free world. At the same time, the African-American Civil Rights Movement unfolds around Cecil, many of his loved ones right in the thick of it.



The Butler is a film that undeniably stems from a noble desire to put a historically and culturally important story up on the big screen, something that required the effort of a whopping 41 producers and executive producers. Depicting this swathe of American history through the eyes of a butler allows the audience an “in”, a point of view through which all this is made accessible. The film is almost overwhelmingly earnest and heartfelt, but at times, this is to its detriment.

Much has been made of the historical inaccuracies The Butler packs in. “Cecil Gaines” is a fictionalization of Eugene Allen: the fate of Cecil’s parents is a gross exaggeration and did not befall Eugene’s parents, Eugene didn’t get his start in the butler biz by breaking and entering, Eugene only had one son, not two, and that son was not as entrenched in radical activism as Louis Gaines was in the story, Ronald Reagan’s own son has come forward to oppose the depiction of the president’s attitudes towards race in the story, the list does go on. There are times when these embellishments feel contrived and blatant; the “drama dial” turned up to 11 and resulting in histrionics. The film comes off as something of a CliffsNotes version of the Civil Rights Movement, touching on the milestones and turning points and fitting them into the story with varying degrees of success.



The film boasts a truly impressive roster of stars, led by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker. He lends a down-to-earth, laconic charm to Cecil and easily embodies the character’s solid work ethic and makes it very believable that the butler would be a well-liked personality in the White House. Oprah Winfrey resists the urge to turn the film into a vanity project as Cecil’s chain-smoking, sometimes-brusque but ultimately well-meaning wife. The duo of Lenny Kravitz and Cuba Gooding, Jr., as the staffers Cecil spends the most time with on the job and who soon become personal friends of his, are excellent as friendly, comforting faces in the midst of the volatility and uncertainty depicted.

The casting of the presidents is a double-edged sword: on one hand, there’s the novelty factor and on the other, it really can pull one out of the movie and there will be viewers fighting with every fibre of their being not to yell “President Cyclops! President Snape! President Sabretooth!” at the screen. Liev Schreiber is entertaining as Lyndon B. Johnson, bringing some of his eccentricities (getting his daily security briefing while on the loo, for one) to the screen. James Marsden is a passable JFK, but John Cusack makes for a terrible Nixon. Alan Rickman is caked under unconvincing prosthetics to play Ronald Reagan, and the casting of Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan has ruffled some feathers. David Oyelowo is fiery as Cecil’s older son who heeds the clarion call of activism, becoming a “freedom rider” and eventually a member of the Black Panthers. The scene in which the freedom bus is ambushed by Klansmen is genuinely suspenseful.



In spite of all its shortcomings, the film comes together as a surprisingly cohesive whole and does manage to be genuinely moving and compelling at times. This is a story of great import, but the heavy-handedness and melodrama do weigh it down and threaten to drown out and not enhance its message. Danny Strong’s screenplay is competently written, but does feel burdened by the socio-political message worked into the fabric of the film. Does The Butler smack of Oprah Winfrey-backed Oscar bait? If you’re feeling cynical, certainly. But there is a significance and gravity to the film that demands respect, and the story it endeavours to tell is worth our time.

SUMMARY: Cecil Gaines’ odyssey is ungainly at times and the film does have its moments of over-embellished bombast, but there are inspirational and engaging aspects to The Butler that lift it above that.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Salt

Movie Review                                                                                                             9/8/10

SALT

2010

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Directed by: Phillip Noyce

Released by: Columbia Pictures

Two groups of people think the Cold War is not over: conspiracy theorists and Hollywood. The Cold War provided a wealth of tales for filmmakers to spin, and the latest in this line is Salt, which uses the popular Cold War myth of Russian sleeper agents brainwashed as children and implanted in the United States, waiting to strike.

            The film opens with CIA operative Evelyn Salt (Jolie) being tortured in a North Korean prison. Her boyfriend Mike Krause (August Diehl) cooperates with the CIA to negotiate her release through a prisoner exchange.

            Two years later, Salt is happily married to Krause and is planning their anniversary celebration. In walks Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), a supposed Russian defector and former power player in the Soviet government. He offers Salt the information that a sleeper agent of the former Soviet state will assassinate the current Russian president, Boris Matveyev (Olek Krupa), at the funeral of the American vice-president.

The problem? Orlov states that the agent is Salt herself.

Ted Winter (Schreiber), Salt’s friend and colleague at the CIA is sceptical about Salt really being a Russian spy. However, Peabody (Ejiofor), another fellow agent, is certain that Salt’s allegiance lies with the Soviet Union and that she will kick-start a war between the US and Russia with the murder of the Russian President. The two form an uneasy alliance hunting down the woman they thought was their ally.

This sends a desperate Salt on the run, jumping off the tops of vehicles, hanging off the ledges of apartment buildings, knocking people out with spider venom, crawling through the sewers of New York and so on, leading to a climax in the Presidential bunker beneath the White House.

In many ways, Salt is a textbook spy action-thriller, but unlike most textbooks, is one I would not mind reading again. Director Noyce is a master of the genre, having helmed Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, both starring Harrison Ford.

However, much unlike those films, Salt borders on the fantastical and owes its existence more to other spy franchises than Tom Clancy novels. For example, the North Korean sequence is straight out of Die Another Day, and at one point Orlov uses a shoe with a hidden switchblade as a weapon, ala Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love. Salt on the run from her superiors and coming to terms with her true identity, whatever it may be, is reminiscent of the Jason Bourne films, and Salt’s disguises-including dyeing her hair from blonde to black-brings to mind the television series Alias, starring Jennifer Garner.

What sets the film apart from scores of similar movies is its star, Angelina Jolie. The film was originally written for a male lead, with Tom Cruise attached to it at one point, but this reviewer is glad that Jolie got the part in the end. Cruise was right when he said the role was too similar to that from his Mission: Impossible movies.

The audience is meant to doubt where Salt’s loyalties lie at times, but they never stop rooting for her. It is also great to see Jolie back in her element kicking butt, like she did as action girls in fan-favourites Wanted and the Tomb Raider films. Especially impressive is that most of the stunts were performed by the actress herself. Jumping off a bridge onto a moving semi-truck probably wasn’t one of them, though.

The supporting cast is more than decent. Schreiber does a good job as someone who appears truly sympathetic of Salt’s plight and ready to defend his friend. Because Ejiofor’s character spends most of the film hunting down our hero though, his character is more unlikeable. He even punches Salt at one point.

Orbrychski oozes untrustworthiness as designated villain Orlov, playing the stereotype of the Russian general to a T without overly hamming it up. Diehl is also good as the nice guy husband, in a reversal of roles from that of typical spy films. However, Hunt Block as the US President has only one expression, that of wide-eyed shock and confusion, and is never really believable as the leader of the free world.

The action sequences in Salt keep the film at a brisk pace. While it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, it does stretch the imagination. Salt appears to be made out of a much harder rock than her namesake, bouncing off vans and trucks and jumping down elevator shafts. Evelyn Salt is a veritable one-woman Special Forces unit, but that is arguably part of the fun.

Mention must also be given to the score by James Newton-Howard, which is perfect action movie music, complete with rhythmic percussion, stirring strings and blaring horns. It manages to be kinetic at times and ominous at others.

Unfortunately, the movie is weighed down by an ending that is utterly preposterous and implausible, even in another universe and one that will have everyone going “what the hell?!” However, I’ll admit it was really hard to see the twist coming.

Salt is definitely watchable, but it rarely rises above being just that. The movie has no edge, no distinction other than Jolie. Still, you could do far, far worse this summer if you need to kill a couple of hours at the Cineplex. In the end, it’s fun and, after all, a little salt goes a long way to make a bland meal delicious.

RATING: 3.5/5 STARS

By Jedd Jong Yue

X Men Origins: Wolverine

So here's more of the older stuff I've written.

Movie Review                                                                                                                                 18/5/09

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

2009

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston

Directed by: Gavin Hood

Released by: 20^th Century Fox

            The X-Men film series began in 2000, paving the way for almost all of the superhero films this past decade. Now, the franchise is expanding with “origin” movies that endeavour to explore the individuals among the myriad of X-Men out there. After Brett Ratner’s noisy, empty and pointlessly-violent X Men: The Last Stand, I’m afraid to say that this half-baked prequel/spinoff does not fare so much better.

            As the title suggests, the focus of the film is the angsty, fan-favourite anti-hero Wolverine (Jackman). The film opens in 1845, where the sickly James Howlett (Troye Sivan) experiences a family tragedy and escapes with his half-brother Victor (Michael-James Olson). It is quickly revealed that both possess unusual powers, especially the sickly and weak James who actually has retractable claws made of bone. Also, both are practically immortal, as the opening credits sequence of the brothers charging in battle through five different major wars establishes.

            In the aftermath of an incident in which Victor goes violently overboard and James (now Logan) defends him, they are approached by Major William Stryker (Huston) who recruits them into a “special” team. The mutants who make up Team X include wise-cracking assassin Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), teleporting John Wraith (Will.i.am.) lethal marksman Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), electricity-controlling technopath Bradley (Dominic Monaghan) and the indestructible Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand). Led by Stryker, they go on their first mission together in Nigeria and Logan splits when things go awry.

            Years later, Logan appears to be enjoying an idyllic new life as a lumberjack in the Canadian Rockies, living with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). Victor, now going by the moniker Sabretooth, abruptly re-enters Logan’s life when he apparently kills Kayla, driving Logan to take revenge. He agrees to cooperate with Stryker, who is serving his own evil agenda, and has his skeleton bonded with the super-alloy Adamantium (as all self-respecting comic book fans would remember). Post-op Logan (who now calls himself Wolverine) escapes Stryker’s Alkali Lake facility and Agent Zero is sent to track him down. Meanwhile, Logan is dedicated to tracking down Victor which leads to several brutal encounters between the two. Their former teammates also get caught up in the conflict.

            Logan slowly uncovers Stryker’s plan to capture and conduct military experiments on mutants, and seeks the help of the telekinetic Remy LeBeau /Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) to take him to Stryker’s base of operations, where the climatic showdown between Wolverine, Sabretooth and a surprise villain Stryker has been working on takes place, as the captured mutants flee and are rescued by a familiar face.

            Now, despite much hype and circumstance, Wolverine is almost a complete letdown. The movie seems dutiful but almost reluctant to tell the Origin story, and too many superficial attempts are made to appeal to the fans – even a surprising cameo at the film’s conclusion does little to help this predicament. It seems to be perpetually stuck in a no-man’s-land sort of quality level, being almost the definition of average in parts. After a while, the film stops struggling to reach high ground and slumps towards a climax that is only moderately enjoyable.

           

            In terms of story, the Oedipal conflict between Wolverine and his half-brother Sabretooth seems more rote than epic and despite being played out with enough gravitas by the two leads, is weak and severely under-developed. Wolverine’s personal vendetta against his half-brother seems to be the poorly-made adhesive struggling desperately to bond too many other subplots.

            The screenplay by David Benioff and Skip Woods is clunky at best, and it seems that the apple has fallen far from the tree in that the first two X-Men films directed by Bryan Singer dealt with big themes while delivering the action goods, while this movie only somewhat achieves the latter. Writers such as David Hayter and Tom DeSanto were able to do far more in those movies than this prequel ever will achieve. Academy-Award winning director Gavin Hood, who got his Oscar for the South-African 2005 film Tsotsi, is also not the right director for this film. His direction brings to mind Marc Forster’s work for the recent Bond outing Quantum of Solace. Both directors have more of a dramatic background and struggled significantly with their big-budget blockbuster-type films. Hood tries but fails miserably to insert pathos into the action proceedings; the romantic scenes between Logan and Kayla are painful to watch, for one. Ultimately, Hood seems to be no more than Hugh Jackman’s errand boy, doling out a generic actioner for the star.

            This leads us on to the undeniable point that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a Hugh Jackman vehicle. He is okay, but only okay, as the titular character. We’ve all come to accept him as the definitive screen Wolverine since the first X-Men picture, but he does little more than in the three main films that went before, which is a big part of why this flick disappoints. Soon enough into the film, a slight odour of the “vanity project” kind wafts unpleasantly from the screen – it seems as if Jackman desperately wants to be the centre of attention, even at the expense of the movie’s overall quality.

            Liev Schreiber is very good as Sabretooth, definitely a notch or so up from former-pro-wrestler Tyler Mane’s barely articulate beast in the first X-Men film. The Shakespeare-trained actor excels in sparring, both physically and verbally, with his half-brother, and these battles make for the best moments of the film. However, Schreiber is given fairly little wiggle room by the restricting screenplay. He tries to make the most of it, but even that barely suffices. Even the usually-great Danny Huston struggles to step up to the plate as William Stryker. Granted, Brian Cox left a tough act to follow as the older Stryker is X2: X Men United, in which he emanated quiet menace very effortlessly and could stand up to Patrick Stewart and even Ian McKellen when he shared the screen with them. Here however, Huston appears to simply go through the motions, like most everyone else.

            As for the rest of the cast, the filmmakers have a host of great characters at their disposal, many surefire fan-favourites straight from the comics, but do little with any of them. These incarnations are relatively faithful to the comic book source material and it is evident that most of the actors are having fun with this movie. However, this ensemble is a truly very mixed bag – first time actor Will.i.am (more famous as the frontman of the Black-Eyed Peas) is painfully stiff as John Wraith but Taylor Kitsch is suave and even a tad dangerous as Gambit. Unfortunately, without giving too much away, the filmmakers end up doing the unforgivable to a promising character and just about ruin the last act of the movie.

            X-Men Origins: Wolverine is far from this year’s The Dark Knight; in fact it is not even the equivalent of The Incredible Hulk, which was at least a little engaging. Not once does one get sucked into or immersed in the world that this movie tries to create. To be fair, there are many action sequences and whatnot that are plenty of fun, but they stop at being just that. “Plot twists” seem predictable and inconsequential and even the computer-generated effects of this film look barely as convincing as those of its predecessor X-Men films. After a while, it seems that mutants are being pulled out of a sack and flung onto the screen in the hope of placating restless moviegoers, which is a prime example of how not to go about an X-Men film. One would think that the Wolverine character’s mythos would make for ripe material and a most excellent film – apparently, not so. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a mediocre effort that is watchable only at its best.

RATING: 2.5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong