X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

Rating: 4/10 (12 May 2009)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review
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Director - Gavin Hood Cast- Hugh Jackman, Live Schreiber, Taylor Kitsch, Will.i.am, Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Monaghan Running Time- 107 minutes
So the Summer Movie Season begins, like Iron Man last Summer. Comic book movies hope to be the starting gun to an eventful few months in movie land. This one another form Marvel the company responsible for the majority of Superhero movies along with 20th Century Fox add X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the list of X-Men movies. This hoping to reignite the series after a disappointing 3rd installment in a once bright series and open up possible franchises for Fox who have thus far had a bad year at the box-office. Sadly whether it makes money or not (it will) is a huge letdown. This a prequel to the X-Men trilogy tells the story of Jimmy Logan/Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman). It shows how Wolverine became the clawed and fuzzy memoried mutant we came to love in the other movies. We begin in the year 1845 (Wolverine ages slowly due to his mutant powers). A short and pointless introduction to his brother ,Sabretooth/Victor Creed(Live Schreiber) , his father and a hilarious twist and Logan and his brother are off to fight in the Civil, First World, Second World and Vietnam Wars. They murder a military officer, are sentenced to firing squad survive and become members of a special mutant team run by the government, all in a matter of minutes. This is where the film runs in to its fair share of problems. They focus on some of the least interesting of the heroes where as the others are ordered to a back seat role. The most fascinating and arguably anticipated of the new team is Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) is given a small role that makes you wish it was his movie and not Wolverines. One thing that can be said is the movie is filled with action albeit mindless action at times. The writers couldn't seem to make up their mind on what to write about. A tragic romance story or a Powerful Superhero Film. What we end up with is a disgusting hybrid. They throw in too many plot twist. The answers to which have been seen already from the three X-Men movies any other twists are laughable. One could make the argument that the previous movies will not have been seen by some and in that case they may work but hardly interesting to the rest of the audience. Some redemption can be found in the films ending. Linking the 3 mile Island disaster to the climactic battle is quite clever. Yet the movie is not sure when to end. Even putting one of six short endings after the credits to tie up one of the characters. The other five are shown at different cinemas. So if you want to find out what happens to your favorite you have to see it elsewhere. Trust me its just easier to leave the beast be.
4/10