The most telling quote in the extras-laden Blu-ray release of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” comes from the man who gave birth to the hirsute hero.
“The less you know about a character, the more interesting they are,” says Len Wein during a lively chat with Marvel Comics God Stan Lee.
Wein is right, of course, something “Wolverine” told us back in May. But the film still has its appeal, from Hugh Jackman’s rugged lead performance to several eye-popping action sequences.
The Blu-ray edition’s extras offer a few more reasons to revisit the “X-Men” franchise spinoff.
The aforementioned Wein/Lee chat should be catnip to comic book fans. Who could ever tire of Lee talking about his comic creations?
Here, he breaks down the inspiration for creating a group of super mutants – he got tired of concocting clever origin stories for his superheroes, he says with a wink of self deprecation.
Lee adds how much his collaborations with artist Jack Kirby added to his comic creations, and he seems gob-smacked that we’re still talking about the X-Men so many years after he created the comic.
The obligatory deleted scenes don’t offer much besides a quick shot of a young Ororo – AKA Storm – in one of the movie’s early sequences.
Far better is a special effects breakdown of the motorcycle chase, with every key player behind the sequence sharing how they all worked together to make the moment happen. The sharp featurette illustrates how a smart combination of old-school effects and CGI can make for stunning results.
The disk also includes several commentary tracks, a series of X-modes which let people watch the film interrupted by production sketches and other behind the scenes tricks as well as character portraits of the key X figures in the film.
(Photo: Hugh Jackman reprises his role as the mercurial Wolverine in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” now available on DVD/20th Century Fox Home Video)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah, the summer’s second worst movie available on Blu-Ray. I can’t conceive of how someone over 15 could possibly enjoy this one. I got more hate mail for my 1.5 star review of this than possibly every other film I’ve ever reviewed put together.
Interesting, James. I’ve re-watched half of it … the dialogue is mediocre to awful, and the character motivation switches gave me whiplash.
But I think Wolverine the character is tailor made for the movies – and that it remains Jackman’s best role.
Yeah, never critique a geek favorite. It’s a recipe for poorly spelled hate mail.
I didn’t know kids knew so many dirty words! Funny how brave the computer screen can make people upset that you didn’t validate their ridiculous opinion.
I was very fond of Jackman in the previous installments, but here the character is a disaster. Uninteresting, lame, cliched, and a whole bunch of other pejorative words I don’t feel like thinking up.