Summer Movie Review: “Wolverine”

“Curse you, Christopher Nolan!”

You’ve raised the bar so high with “Dark Knight” that this otherwise perfectly likable comic book movie barely rates a “meh.’ Although frankly, even if you hadn’t, “Wolverine, Origin of the Whatever” would have failed to measure up to “Iron Man” or “Watchmen” either.

6’3” golden god Hugh Jackman returns as Marvel Comics’ diminutive super-hero James/Logan/Wolverine in this extension of the “X-Men” franchise. Shit blows up real nice, lots of bad guys get sliced and diced, Liev Schreiber (who was so brilliant as a young Orson Wells in “RKO 281”) gamely slums it up as Logan’s brother/nemesis Sabertooth… everybody seems to be having a good time. But speaking of time, if I had been wearing a watch, I would have been checking it repeatedly during the screening.

And in the film’s defense, I might have come away from it unimpressed at least partly because of my familiarity with the source material (comic book geek that I am). It’s like when I saw Michael Mann’s “Manhunter” in the theater years ago. It just felt so totally predictable to me that I went home disappointed, only realizing much later that its familiarity was the result of having read the source material years earlier under its original title, “Red Dragon.”

But even with that caveat, “Wolverine” still impressed only on a surface, technical level. Competently acted and directed and looking real fine, it hit all the marks it set out for itself; the real was problem with the film was a distinct deficit of ambition. The whole time I watched it, I kept wondering, “Was there any reason other than the studio’s bottom line for this film to exist?” And the answer kept coming back no.

And before “Dark Knight,” that wasn’t a question I asked myself about comic book movies. It was enough that the bad guys chewed the scenery, the babes were in body-hugging spandex (or naked and painted blue!) and shit blew up real good. And of course, that the filmmakers didn’t take too many liberties with the source material.

But after the troika of “Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” and “Watchmen,” just burning a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon isn’t enough anymore. Now that I know that comic book movies can hit all their whiz-bang-boom marks and still resonate on a deeper level, I’m going to expect them to.

“Wolverine” is agreeable eye-candy, but nothing more. Recommended for fans of the franchise and summer-movie lovers in general (and people who like to see Hugh Jackman shirtless; I’m looking at you, Doll), but if you already know Wolverine’s backstory or are hoping for a transcendent movie-going experience, you’ll probably go home feeling unfulfilled.