On September 15, 2009, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released X-Men Origins: Wolverine on DVD and Blu-ray disc. The two-disc Blu-ray includes commentary by Hood, another commentary by producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter, the featurette "The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein", the featurette "Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins", 10 character chronicles, two more featurettes, a trivia track, deleted scenes with commentary from Hood, two alternate sequences, a Fox Movie Channel premiere featurette and imdb BD Live technology. Disc two of the set includes a digital copy.[121] In addition, a Wal-Mart exclusive 3-disc set, which includes a standard DVD copy of the film was also released.[122] The two-DVD special edition includes the two commentaries, the featurette with Stan Lee and Len Wein, an origins featurette, deleted and alternate scenes, and an anti-smoking PSA on disc one; disc two has a digital copy of the film. The single-disc DVD release has the origins featurette and anti-smoking PSA.[121]
Richard Corliss of TIME commented on the film's standing among other Marvel films, saying that it is "an O.K., not great, Marvel movie that tells the early story of the prime X-Man, and attempts to make it climax in a perfect coupling with the start of the known trilogy." He also said that "superhero mythologies can be so complicated, only a lonely comic-book-reading kid could make sense of it all."[130] James Mullinger of GQ also commented on the structure of the story in saying that the "film clumsily tries to explain the origins of James [Howlett], AKA Wolverine, which had wisely only ever been briefly referred to in the original X-Men saga. In doing so, it creates a fairly bland plot which is full of holes."[131] Lou Lumenick of the New York Post was generally more favorable towards Origins, stating "Fortunately, Jackman is well-matched with Schreiber, who can sneer with the best of them and wears fangs well. The two have three spectacular battles together before squaring off against a formidable enemy atop a nuclear reactor."[132] Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor also praised Jackman's performance, saying that "Hugh Jackman demonstrates that you can segue effortlessly from a tuxedoed song-and-dance man at the Oscars to a feral gent with adamantium claws and berserker rage."[133] Claudia Puig of USA Today considered the movie "well-acted, with spectacular action and witty one-liners".[134]
This pulse-pounding action thriller sinks razor-sharp adamantium claws into the mysterious origins of Logan/Wolverine: his epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed/Sabretooth, and the ominous Weapon X program that unleashes his primal fury. Along the way, Wolverine also encounters legendary new mutants, including Deadpool and Gambit. You'll go "berserker" for this deeper, darker, more-spectacular-than-ever chapter of the X-Men saga![1]
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" finally answers the burning question, left hanging after all three previous "Wolverine" movies, of the origins of Logan, whose knuckles conceal long and wicked blades. He is about 175 years old, he apparently stopped changing when he reached Hugh Jackman's age, and neither he, nor we, find out how he developed such an interesting mutation.
But wait! -- you say. Doesn't "X-Men Origins" at least provide a learning experience for Logan about the origins of Wolverine? Hollow laugh. Because we know that the modern Wolverine has a form of amnesia, it cannot be a spoiler for me to reveal that at the end of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," he forgets everything that has happened in the film. Lucky man.
On a scale of aluminum foil to adamantium, X-Men Origins: Wolverine rates a mid-gauge sheet metal. Sturdy as an early-summer tent pole yet fragile enough to snap once the heavy fronts roll in, Fox's notoriously leaked actioner should stand strong against the gentle breeze of Battle for Terra, though it's likely to be blown away by the blustery winds of Star Trek and Terminator Salvation a few weeks out. From a non-fanboy perspective, it has some exciting action and colorful characters; unfortunately, the special effects vary from impressive to embarrassing, and some additional trimming at the story level might have helped elevate the metallurgical rating to steel status. If the plot sounds a bit operatic, well, it is. This being an origins story, screenwriters David Benioff and Skip Woods work to strike a careful balance between plot and action, and while they largely succeed, the results aren't always satisfying. After the frenetic opening credits scene and an action-packed intro, it takes a while for the action to pick up again; when it finally does, it comes only in brief bursts that get progressively more intense leading toward the final confrontation -- an exciting, occasionally dizzying fight against a single genetically engineered mutant that possesses the power of many. It's in this scene that Nicolas de Toth and Megan Gill's editing truly shines, and Gavin Hood's talents as an action director are fully realized. As anyone who saw Tsotsi can attest, Hood does have a talent for staging coherent action scenes, and moviegoers tiring of the Bourne school of ADD action filmmaking will appreciate the fact that Hood always gives us a solid sense of spatial relations. Not only does this help to ensure that we lose ourselves in the action, but also that every blow carries actual impact rather than just devolving into an ineffective montage of flying fists and bone-crunching sound effects. It likely goes without saying that Liev Schreiber possesses more than enough talent to take over the role of Sabretooth from Tyler Mane, and while the latter made a formidable impression with his brief but memorable appearance in X-Men, the former has the dramatic chops to lend the monstrous character a much-needed human dimension. Humans and monsters merge in the character of William Stryker, a snake in human's skin instilled with reptilian verve by Danny Huston, but the real showstopper here is Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), a frightening Frankenstein-like mutant of few words. His disturbing appearance gives the final showdown a much-needed gruesome edge after a series of conspicuously bloodless action sequences. Perhaps the trick to enjoying X-Men Origins: Wolverine is to not ask too many daunting questions, and to keep in mind that, like any comic-to-screen adaptation, these aren't the "official" origins of the character, but his comic-book genesis as filtered though a Hollywood lens.
From the award-winning studio Raven Software, the video gameenlists players to experience the tormented origins of Wolverine,from his escape of the Weapon X facility to the jungles of Africaand beyond. The game is currently in development for the Xbox 360TM video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system, Windows PC, WiiTM home video game system, Nintendo DSTM, PlayStation2 computer entertainment system and PSP (PlayStationPortable) system, and is not yet rated by the ESRB.
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