Far better than I expected

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2009)

To tell you the truth I'm pretty surprised by all the negative reviews I've been reading on the IMDb and elsewhere on the net (AICN for example). I thought X-Men 1 and 2 came close to being masterpieces and that X-Men 3 sucked big time. The Wolverine movie however is well made, exciting and surprisingly effective. But that's an opinion from somebody who doesn't know anything about the comics. To me Wolverine is mainly a movie hero and maybe that can make a big difference.
Two elements make this movie really work. Liev Schreiber - a very underestimated actor - does a great job as Wolverine's brother Victor/Sabretooth. It's their love/hate relationship that is the main subject in this story and that really keeps it interesting. In the first minutes of the movie this is well established. The opening credits are really beautiful.
Second: the story. I really love the story. It has romance, betrayal, vengeance, action, a touch of immortality... All the good elements are there in the right doses.
Yes, I really love this movie. I hope to see more of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the future, because there are a lot more adventures he can and should have. Maybe director Gavin Hood can repair some of the damage that Brett Ratner did with a X-Men 3. Because an X-Men 4 - with hopefully Josh Halloway as Gambit - would be a great spectacle indeed.
There's only one big thing that really puzzled me. So the Liev Schreiber character is actually the same Sabretooth we see in X-Men 1? Because the two characters really don't seem the same in the two movies. Everything they have "experienced together in the past" (in the prequel) seems forgotten in X-Men 1 (when they only fight each other).
Anyway, go see this!
8,5 / 10