Tuesday, May 5, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 9 'Wolverine' Woes Oberst's latest a true team effort The latest chapter in the X-Men saga disappoints with lackluster effects BY ANDREW LAPIN Daily Film Editor Even by superhero movie stan- dards - hell, even by "X-Men" movie standards - "X-Men Ori- ' gins: Wolverine" looks remark- X-Men ably fake. Take Origins: aside the screen saver-quality Wolverine backgrounds for 20th a minute and Century Fax just focus on the Ctury Fo claws. Logan, andShowcase a.k.a. ol' Wolvie (Hugh Jackman, "Australia"), gazes at his claws in wonderment numerous times throughout the film, but there's never any sense thatthree stainless blades are actually protruding from his knuckles. Instead, it just looks like there are three animated lines that the special-effects guys shined up by pressing a button. Believing that Wolverine's claws are real should be a major factor in audience enjoyment of a film based entirely around his character; after all, they're on the freaking promo poster. But the fact that they're eas- ily discernible in any given shot as cartoonish computer effects is akin to surgically removing the part of a young man's brain that enjoys comic books. Yes, of course they're fake. But for the price of a movie ticket, is it too much to ask for 107 minutes of being convinced they're real? Apparently so. The origins of Wolverine include him discovering his mutation at an early age, and the film's (admit- tedly cool) opening credits show him fighting in every major war of the past century alongside his brother, Victor (Liev Schreiber, "Defiance"). The two of them plow through unaged and unharmed because of the healing powers that come free with their mutations; Victor's is similar to Logan's, only with fast-growing nails instead of claws. They are approached by Lt. William Striker (Danny Huston, "30 Days of Night"), who By JEFF SANFORD Senior Arts Editor It looks like Conor Oberst, the former Bright Eyes heart- wrencher, has finally loosened up for good. Outer South COnor is the second O album from Oberst and Oberst since the Mystic the ostensible Valley Band dissolution of the Bright Eyes Outer South moniker, and Merge like his epony- mous debut, it works through a medium of jammy border-rock that barely resembles the precocious emo- folk that defined his past. But unlike 2008's Conor Oberst, his newest effort is more egalitarian, with "and the Mystic Valley Band" now accompanying "Conor Oberst" in your iTunes library. And the album's cover art features each musician's stoic mug while Oberst stands in the not-quite-center, unbalanced and blindfolded. Could this be some form of cryptic symbol- ism? Probably not. If anything, it signifies Oberst handing the wheel over to his backing band - at least for a few miles. More than any other Oberst record, songwriting has become a com- iunal effort. On Oberst, where the Mystic Valley Band was more of an incognito backing band, Mr. Oberst wrote all but one song. But now, the band mem- bers are writing their own, and even singing them, too. There are six songs written by some- one other than Oberst, and even though the Oberst-penned and -sung tunes are often the stron- gest cuts here, tracks like drum- mer Jason Boesel's "Difference Is Time" and "Eagle On a Pole" show off considerable songwrit- ing talent themselves. Retreating from the emo-folk of Bright Eyes. The constant shifting of lead singers can be distract- ing, but it also lends the album a pieced together, collage-type feel that contributes to the See OBERST, Page 10 "Prepare to be mauled by my drumsticks!" recruits them into a secret legion of mutants doing misdeeds for a mysterious higher purpose. Logan disapproves of these actions and leaves the group and his brother behind. The rest of the story focuses on Logan's attempts to seek revenge on his brother for attacking his lover, which leads him back into the hands of Stryker. An experiment is performed on him to channel his animal instincts and make him an unstoppable killing machine. The experiment is a rousing success, but Stryker still decides he wants Wolverine dead, which seems like an awful waste of time and energy on his part. It makes one wonder exactly what Stryker was hoping to accomplish with the experiment in the first place. Although we may not be able to predict exactly where the story is going, the film is obvious enough about its twists that anyone pay- ing the slightest attention can read several scenes ahead at any given moment. This is a problem for a film that's far too dependent on plot already. It's tough to rest emotion on Wolverine's plight when we can predict exactly where, under what circumstances and whom he'll be fighting in ten minutes. Some diversion comes from playing guess-that-mutant: Rec- ognizable characters like Cyclops and Wraith pop in for some effects shots, then retreat before they can contribute anything useful. All of this only adds to the idea of a mostly empty movie presented in not-shiny-enough plastic wrap- ping. It appears the filmmakers couldn't put in the effort to create an engaging, slightly unpredict- able story with characters that stick around. Everyone here's just going through the superhero-mov- ie motions. There's still some fun to be had, though. There's an engag- ing, climactic showdown between Wolverine and Weapon XI (Scott Adkins, "The Bourne Ultimatum"), a hybrid mutant with all the cool powers implanted from every- one else - he's like a bag of Chex Mix that can kill people. The spe- cial effects here still have a cheap, glossy look to them, and there's absolutely no substance to what's happening, but by this point it's quite clear the movie isn't going to be the next "Iron Man," or even the next "X-Men: The Last Stand," for that matter. With mid-level expec- tations dashed, all that's left is to enjoy this one decently assembled action scene. With all due respect to Hugh Jackman (who's still a fantastic snarler and well worthy of anchor- ing a decent action-movie fran- chise), here's hopingthe guydoesn't have to stare at his computerized claws again in the near future. rpI p: i\IYSr-TI I FYI -.1 I) Drugged, blindfolded and taken to grandma's living room.