It turns out “memory” is the key to X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE and that’s a double-edged sword for the fourth installment of a franchise. By this time, movie audiences are a little too familiar with the X-Men story line, so clearly a re-boot of sorts is called for. And nothing serves that cause better than an origin tale. But it’s also a tacit admission that the franchise is in trouble. Since Wolverine, X-Men’s most memorable character, struggles with his own memory, it’s only fitting that he now takes centerstage. The trick is to re-vivify the story without alienating the audience’s memories of versions past. Unfortunately, X-MEN ORIGINS does a better job at continuity than revivification.

X-MEN ORIGINS wants to be the equivalent of Christopher Nolan’s re-launch of the Batman series, BATMAN BEGINS. But Nolan did a complete overhaul of the franchise, giving us a much darker, more grounded, and “realistic” caped crusader than the one Tim Burton and others had offered. This latest X-Men movie does no such thing. Although the other X-Men characters are, for the most part, not around, the same storytelling vibe from the other films is ever present and with Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine, there’s nothing especially startling or innovative in X-MEN 4. Sure, we’re given Wolverine’s back story but it doesn’t force us to reevaluate Jackman’s character in any significant way. His origins provide incidental biographical material and not much more. In fact, this X-Men is so overly familiar, it not only reminds us of earlier X-Men movies, it recalls a lot of other movies as well. Too many.

The scene in X-MEN ORIGINS with the most dramatic potential is Wolverine’s adamantine injection. Here we finally get to see how Logan literally becomes the Wolverine we’ve come to know. Submerged in a tank of water with giant needles full of adamantine piercing his skelton, we are literally witnesses at the creation. Recalling as it does the masterful transformation of Luke Skywalker’s father into Darth Vader in the final Star Wars film, this scene should have the same “shock of recognition” impact. Instead, this mythic creation is interrupted!

Despite being underwater and supposedly undergoing excruciating pain, Logan/Wolverine manages to overhear the mad scientist whisper he’s going to now wipe out his memory. (I guess wolverines have amazing auditory powers.) As wolverines are wont to do, he goes berserk, roars, and jumps out of the tank, giant hypodermic needles be damned! A grand myth-making moment is reduced to another run of the mill action sequence. With nothing on the screen to keep my attention at this moment, I found myself thinking of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and Jim Carrey’s mad scramble to interrupt the memory-erasing sequence he had volunteered for. Oddly enough, Wolverine and Carrey both struggle to keep their painful memories of lost love alive. (Wolverine’s raison d’etre is to revenge his murdered love; Carrey’s, to keep his soul intact.) A major difference? Carrey is in a cinematically adventurous movie, whereas Jackman is in a movie that’s far too derivative. How derivative? In addition to all the standard tropes of action movies and Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine for the fourth time, X-MEN ORIGINS is also littered with moments reminiscent of THE GREAT ESCAPE, MAD MAX, WATCHMEN, DEFIANCE, even AUSTIN POWERS. (I could have sworn The Blob was Mike Meyers’ Fat Bastard.)

Despite Wolverine’s best efforts, he finally does lose his memory after being shot in the head with special adamantine bullets. In one of the film’s two alternative endings shown after the final credits, Wolverine is sitting in a bar in Japan throwing back shots of liquor. He tells the bartender that most people drink to forget … but he’s drinking to remember. I think X-MEN ORIGINS would have been a stronger film if the filmmakers had been drinking to forget. It needed a spotless mind.