Should've been better

Rating: 6/10 (30 April 2009)

What makes the Wolverine character so compelling in the comics is his psyche. It's not his claws, or his strength, or his anger, but how he deals with all three that make him such a varied and interesting part of the Marvel universe. Unfortunately, X-Men Origins: Wolverine gets everything wrong. Instead of being the story about a man who evolves and changes as his experience shapes him, the film is pretty much dedicated to action and sacrifices what made previous iterations in the X-Men series so good. This film should've focused on Wolverine and his own conflict, rather than simply have him running around trying to exact revenge on his brother.
Speaking of Sabretooth, he's probably the part of the film that made the least amount of sense. Wolverine is after him for killing his wife, modifies his body to kill him, and then SAVES him at the end. It completely defeats the point of the overarching revenge story, and makes the film confusing in that respect.
During the war, as well, I don't understand why Wolverine is such a good person. He killed an adult as a child, for God's Sake. His brain is damaged, and he should've had mountains of hostility, like his brother. Instead, Wolverine is shown as a contrasting "good guy" to his brother, which didn't make any sense. The character didn't evolve at all in this film, and all of his relationships with other characters were confusing and ruined by the plot. I also liked how, for some reason, Wolverine receiving his jacket from an older couple was more of an evolution for the character than killing people in the war. The film gave it more screen time than some of the most important moments in Wolverine's life.
This is an average film, and nothing more. The plot is convoluted, it tries to be an action film when it shouldn't and the acting is simply alright. It's a good popcorn movie to see in theatres, but it's not going to be remembered the way the first X-Men movie was.