It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

Rating: 4/10 (24 May 2009)

Wolverine is a character that has only ever worked as a mystery wrapped in an enigma simply because once you start to probe too deep into comic book mythology, all you end up with are twists and turns that lead nowhere. To know all the nuances of every single character and where he fits in at a given time frame, you would have to have read every single piece of Wolverine/X-men fiction ever put on paper. I doubt that even Stan Lee could make much sense of it all. Marvel-type comics are designed as escapism fantasy for teen-age boys, full of action, off the wall characters and absurd story-lines. When Wolverine came on stage, he was supposed to have this staple aspect to him; unknown, haunting history that he would find out about piece by piece, but never quite assembling the whole puzzle. That was the point, "troubled" characters of Marvel-type comic book worlds are never supposed to be demystified because without that, they become proportionally uninteresting to how big the mystery around them was.
And then came this movie. This strange, unusual summer blockbuster to try and put the record straight. What we wound up with is a simple, paper thin story populated with uninteresting characters, full of noise that means nothing. Wolverine turned out to be a gentle soul, for some reason immortal (as far as I can tell, or is he supposed to be around 150 years old by the end of a film), and in no way interesting. He seems to be caught in the stream of life (read: retarded storyboard plot of this movie) without any power to do anything about it. He is just swept along, poor gentle bastard. He is a really nice guy, once you get to know him, no moral ambiguity in any of his actions (not quite the way I pictured Wolverine).
His brother started out as a bad guy from his first bad-guys look in his first scene, and pretty much stayed there the whole movie. Never does he have a single ounce of motivation for anything he does. I guess he is just bad to the bone and that's it.
Then there are all those secondary characters that could have been mildly interesting for a non-fan viewer if they where not all made of scenes and lines that are barely enough for cameos. I mean, Blob or Gambit or Deadpool (especially his final incarnation) all have pretty decent foundations and could have all made fine characters if writers decided to give them maybe just a few lines of actual dialog, instead of one liners and puns. Actually, that is mostly everything that any characters say throughout the movie. There is also a whole part with some surprisingly trusting old people that didn't made any sense, but you'll get used to things not making sense in this movie by then.
And then we have to mention the action. Much has been said on this subject, and, I must say, action sucks in this movie. That confrontation with the helicopter was obviously designed to be impressive, but turned out to be as bland as scenery they shot it on. And it could have been at least okay if just for a second you cared about what happens to anyone, which you don't. Action without any perceived peril for anyone important is pointless. There are also some laughable moments, like when he fights the Gambit and then chops of fire escape ladder piece by piece, but does it super fast. Won't even mention the "moon legend". Very, very bad piece of cinema lore.
Final confrontation is almost okay, but only because of the villain. Jumping and chasing on the edge of a nuclear reactor is imaginative, once again, in theory, but falls apart in the execution. I am not sure where all the millions were spent, but apart for some cool explosions and nice cgi backgrounds, it doesn't show up on screen.
After all that, it would seem that movie has no redeeming qualities, and that is only partially true. Despite very, very bad writing, uninterested direction (from the beginning it becomes just a string of loosely connected scenes with not much in between) and truly uninspired action scenes, film does have a decent cast. Actors are trying their best with what they are given to work with.
But, what sets this movie apart and is at least two stars of my final score, is it's unusual atmosphere. I am not quite sure where exactly it comes from, but surprisingly bleak visual style, whole Canadian lumber-mill part and chillingly effective final boss (oh god, if it only wasn't just a cardboard cut-out!) all amass to give a fine and surprising edge to a summer movie that doesn't quite deserve it. Oh, and another star is a result of the fact that movie goes harmlessly by. You wont be thrilled but neither will you be bored.
Bottom line is that Wolverine, stripped bare and revealed, isn't all that interesting. Studio greed is the main motivator behind this bland movie, and it is more than obvious on the big screen.