Even after watching Hugh Jackman completely bomb as the host of the 81st Annual Academy Awards last Sunday, I’m still anxious to see how X-Men Origins: Wolverine turns out. Will it be another comic book themed movie disappointment, or it will it be the start of an all new movie franchise like 20th Century Fox is banking it will be? I hoping it turns out to be a huge success, but who knows. Wolverine definitely has one thing going for it: Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed a.k.a. Sabretooth.
Just check out these latest movie stills of Schreiber as Sabretooth released last week! How much better does Schreiber’s Sabretooth look than the Tyler Mane version we got in 2000’s X-Men? Yes, there were aspects of Mane’s Sabretooth that more closely resembled the Sabretooth we’ve all come to know and love, but at the end of the day he was nothing more than one of Magneto’s low level henchman who looked more like a WWE wrestler than one of the most feared mutants on the planet.
What’s really great about Liev taking on the role of Victor Creed is that he can actually act! I never imagined a movie studio casting a real thespian in the role of the muscle-bound killer. This brings a new dynamic to Sabretooth’s adaptation to the silver screen because while we all know ‘tooth is a cold blooded killer, he is also a master manipulator who is much smarter than he looks. I expect great things from Schreiber and hope he is given the opportunity to explore on screen what makes this feral assassin tick.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens in theaters across the US on Friday, May 1, 2009.