Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman Rocks in ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ But Movie Falters

BrianTT — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:57:02 -0600

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – How did Wolverine get to Northern Alberta, Canada, where he makes his first appearance in a bar cage match in Bryan Singer’s “X-Men”? And what about all those flashbacks to his dark past and the experiments that turned him into a legend? “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” with Hugh Jackman attempts to answer those questions and more but proves that perhaps some mysteries are better left unsolved.

The first big summer movie of 2009 has all of the ingredients of a buzz-worthy blockbuster - star power, a brand name, major CGI effects, a marketing budget that end world poverty, tie-in toys and games, etc. So why does the final film feel so anticlimactic?

Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar, as the fierce fighting machine Wolverine, who possesses amazing healing powers, adamantium claws, and a primal fury known as berserker rage.
Photo credit: Fox/James Fisher

Before I get too far, I should be blunt - “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is not that bad. But it’s also not good. It’s one of the most balanced-out, down-the-middle, apathetic shrugs of a summer tentpole that I’ve seen in the many years that I’ve been following the summer blockbuster. There’s just no life to it, no creative energy in either a positive or negative direction. The best word to describe Gavin Hood’s action film is unremarkable, negatively or positively. By the time “Star Trek” lands in seven days, most people will have forgotten this film even exists.

The shockingly methodical and by-the-numbers screenplay by David Benioff and Skip Woods opens over a hundred years ago, where we meet the boys who would become Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Victor/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber). Remember the Victor Creed who worked with Magneto in Singer’s first film? Yeah, forget that. The character and history have been reimagined from both that film and the comics, turning the two legendary characters into brothers.

Logan and Victor are vicious soldiers but the latter goes too far, clearly letting his animal bloodlust take control. When a firing squad proves useless against the mutants, William Stryker (Danny Huston) recruits them for a team of deadly mercenaries including Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), Bolt (Dominic Monaghan), John Wraith (Will.i.am), the man who would become The Blob (Kevin Durand), and the legendary Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds).

Stryker’s team is in search of Adamantium, the substance that even casual Marvel fans knows will eventually be a key to Wolverine’s powers. Things get intense and Logan runs for the Rocky Mountains, where the film finds him in domestic bliss six years later with his girl (Lynn Collins) and a nice lumberjack gig. Wolverine learns that his former team is being hunted down like animals and soon his past comes to his front door, forcing him back into action and to deal with the animal side of his personality.

There are certainly a lot of answers in “Origins”. Young fans will love just finding out how Logan got his cool name, where his Adamantium bone structure comes from, why he doesn’t remember anything about his origin, and more. But it all feels too easy. Yes, the actual gaps are filled in but the character’s blend of toughness and humanity that is on display in just the first few scenes of Singer’s “X-Men” is never clarified by this film.

Why? Because this is slick entertainment. “Origins” is never dirty, dark, gritty, violent, sexual, or ‘anything’ enough. I longed for even a stand-out line or a character twist that I didn’t see coming a mile away. It feels like the safe, easy way to appeal to the massed when it comes to the origin of their character. Take no risks and you won’t anger your fans. Of course, no risks means no rewards.

The opportunity to write an edgy back story for what is a very, very dark character in the Marvel Universe has essentially been turned into family friendly fare. Even the production feels safe. The artistic design is horrendous, featuring sets that look like back lots. When they go to get Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) in New Orleans, it looks less believable than a sitcom version of the legendary city.

Even the dialogue sounds written by a machine. Logan/Wolverine is a funny character. There are no memorable lines in “Origins”. If I heard someone talk about their “animal side” one more time, I was going to unleash my berserker rage.

I know, I know - it’s JUST a superhero movie, right? That argument no longer holds water. You could go all the way to the top and look at the believable world and the grit of “The Dark Knight” to see why but you need only look at Singer’s “X-Men” films, both of which were far more unpredictable and interesting than “Origins”.

With all of the criticism, why not completely ignore “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”? There are a few things about it that work. No one can lodge any complaints at Jackman, who wears this part like a second skin by now. He’s so comfortable and charismatic that he rescues the film from complete disaster on more than one occasion. Even better is Liev Schreiber as his brother, the only character who feels like he has any dirt under his fingernails. Schreiber has been doing great work for years and his casting was the best decision made in pre-production on the entire film.

I also have to give Hood credit for choreographing action sequences better than I thought he would. There are a few fights, including a climactic one between three legendary Marvel characters, that are interesting and entertaining to watch. And the film is well-paced. I was never bored. I was just never that interested either. And shouldn’t the first big summer movie warrant higher praise than “not boring”?

“Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” set a high bar last summer. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” doesn’t even come close to jumping over it.

‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ stars Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Liev Schreiber, Dominic Monaghan, Lynn Collins, Danny Huston, Daniel Henney, and Taylor Kitsch. It was written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and directed by Gavin Hood. It opens on May 1st, 2009. It is rated PG-13.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

‘Australia’ With Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman Gets Lost in Own Cinematic Outback

BrianTT — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:51:19 -0700

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and newcomer Brandon Walters star in Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia”: a sweeping, grand epic in the tradition of “Gone With the Wind” that gets away from its talented director, the writers he worked with and the team he hired to film his passion project.

Luhrmann and co-writers Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan take an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to adding elements of classic romance, historical epic, cultural statement and war movie into their sprawling vision of some of Australia’s most formative years. Taken separately, those divergent elements in “Australia” nearly work. When the film is viewed as an entire experience, the final combined product is ultimately unsatisfying and woefully disjointed.

The Drover (Hugh Jackman) and Sarah (Nicole Kidman) are plunged into upheaval and romance in “Australia”.
Photo credit: James Fisher

The first half of “Australia” details the formation of a rather unusual family made up of The Drover (Hugh Jackman), lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and a half-white, half-Aborigine child named Nullah (Brandon Walters). Lady Ashley comes to the land down wnder to check on her husband and their patch of land (Faraway Downs) only to find her significant other executed and their cattle being stolen.

She needs The Drover’s assistance to drive the remnants of her family’s herd to the city of Darwin and sell them right under the nose of King Carney (Bryan Brown). He’s the ruling meat baron of the island nation. Trying to evade Carney’s nefarious associate, Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), The Drover and Ashley fall for each other. The two naturally become parental figures for the charming young man who helps them across the Australian outback.

Newcomer Brandon Walters portrays a half-Aboriginal, half-Caucasian boy in “Australia”.
Photo credit: James Fisher

There could literally be an intermission and an act-two title card for the second half of the film, which picks up a few years later in the days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. What’s not often taught in history classes is that – following the day that will live in infamy – the Axis troops moved South and unloaded on Australia. They destroyed the city of Darwin in the process. The hero, heroine and child of “Australia” therefore must survive the Japanese army to keep their unconventional family together.

While no one has ever accused Baz Luhrmann of subtlety, his over-the-top bravado was first and foremost in the service of a love story in his red-curtain trilogy (“Strictly Ballroom,” “Romeo + Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge!”), which made the emotional excesses not only forgivable but essential to their success. While the romance at the center of “Australia” definitely works, the material around it feels outside the scope of Luhrmann’s strengths. The attempts at cultural statements about the treatment of Aborigines, the maternal bond needed between Ashley and Nullah and the material with the boy’s grandfather all fall flat.

Sarah (Nicole Kidman) and The Drover (Hugh Jackman) find romance during their fateful journey across Australia.
Photo credit: James Fisher

What’s worse is that the pacing of the “Australia” script never feels right. There’s too much weight to elements that merely stretch the running time to epic length and not enough to the ones that might have given Luhrmann’s film some lasting emotional power.

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY
View our 23-image “Australia” slideshow.

RELATED READING
Read more film reviews from critic Brian Tallerico.

Even the creative people behind-the-scenes of “Australia” feel a little overwhelmed by the unfocused material. While cinematographer Mandy Walker knows how to frame a pretty picture (something our 23-image “Australia” slideshow clearly proves), she never gives the film the visual confidence it needs to be truly memorable.

With the sets, costumes and even the score, every element feels “good enough” without registering beyond the closing credits. The film is shockingly easy to let go of when the lights come up. The true classic epics that Luhrmann wanted “Australia” to emulate never were.

A successful epic is more than just the sum of its expansive parts. They need to blend together into a cohesive vision. Kidman, Jackman and Walters don’t hit a false note in the film. It’s just that the song they’ve been given to sing meanders, changes rhythm and is ultimately much too forgettable.

“Australia,” which is directed by Baz Luhrmann, stars Nicole Kidman, High Jackman and Brandon Walters. The film opens on Nov. 26, 2008.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Tepid Con Job Spoils Sexual Intrigue in ‘Deception’ With Ewan McGregor

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:01:00 -0600

CHICAGO – Despite its timid title, “Deception” has all the right ingredients for a decent tale of mystery: a strong premise, sound acting and the famous femme fatale. It even starts with a promising conviction: How does a background player in life deal with initiation into a secret society?

Michelle Williams (left) and Ewan McGregor in “Deception”.
Photo credit: IMDb

The real mystery is why this strong beginning led to a such weak and conventional conclusion.

Ewan McGregor portrays Jonathan McQuarry: a mousy accountant who specializes in corporate audit assignments. His life is long hours, ever-changing clients and little social reward.

While completing a routine audit at a law firm, he meets an attorney named Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). After bonding over tennis and a strip club, Bose lets McQuarry in on a secret: He belongs to “The List”.

The List is a sex club that allows anonymous coupling with no strings attached. It’s used by power brokers who presumably have no time for relationship entanglements.

Ewan McGregor (left) and Maggie Q in “Deception”.
Photo credit: IMDb

McQuarry is let in on The List when he accidentally switches phones with Bose and the encounters start ringing him up.

One such encounter – the enigmatic “S” (Michelle Williams) – gets coerced into further meetings by McQuarry despite the rules against fraternization between members on The List.

Their bonding leads to a closer relationship that triggers several strange occurrences involving kidnapping, blackmail and McQuarry’s knowledge of corporate accounts.

While this is a film about the con, great cons don’t telegraph themselves like this one.

Though three actors with great reputations work hard on their characters, the script gives them highly improbable circumstances on which to settle. While Hugh Jackman seems to be having fun with everything, he doesn’t seem to have the chops to tackle the less savory parts of his character.

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY
View our full “Deception” image gallery

RELATED READING
More film reviews from critic Patrick McDonald

Though Michelle Williams gives her “S” persona an appropriate aura, her development afterward is confusing. The List is the coolest and most dangerous element of the film.

There is an amazing montage with McGregor trysting with various ladies including an older sexpot played by veteran Charlotte Rampling. There seemed to be more happening in the exchange between McGregor and Rampling than the rest of the main story’s complex con game.

That should have been the movie. Another problem was the love story that develops between “S” and McQuarry. Williams plays it like she they were feeding her pages as she went along.

There’s no overall sense that the two have the type of intense, abiding love that would allow for the risk factors to make this whole charade make sense. She is a woman of uncertainty – OK – but she carries that blank slate all the way. The web is simply too tangled in practicing this deception.

“Deception” opened on April 25, 2008.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com