Union Square The Movie

Because the movie doesn’t tell you, I’m going to:  Wolverine originated out of the pent-up rage and disillusionment with authority that most Americans felt in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate.   He is the superhero version of Dirty Harry, and was popular for the same reasons: he was inner moral and good-hearted, but outwardly brooding, angry, and subject to fits of rage.   He had no patience for red-tape, two-faced politicians, or discussions about moral ambiguity.   He has the power to do the right thing, and the attitude to not care less if others don’t like him.

Unfortunately, this is not the origin Marvel Comics, 20th Century Fox, and director Gavin Hood have chosen to cover in their new movie.   Instead, they want to show us how Wolverine got his claws.   Why anyone really cares is beyond me (it always bores and kind of disappoints me to learn how superheroes became superheroes) but the entire focus of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is his physical development.   Pyschologically, emotionally, and in every other potentially interesting way, he’s the same guy at the end of the movie as he is at the beginning: an outcast with anger issues and a general distrust of authority.   But we already knew that, from the other X-Men movies.   Which makes one wonder why one should bother with this one.