Claws of fury

Rating: 5/10 (30 April 2009)

Like its titular hero, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" goes by through its rote proceedings with such single-mindedness in removing any hint of mystery in a comic book character whose enigma is one of his selling points. Which is not to say that the first prospective summer blockbuster this year is the worst Marvel Comics-based film there is but, while sporadically diverting, it's a tepid and shallow rendition of the mutant team's most famous member.
In a quick intro during the opening credit sequence, Wolverine a.k.a. James Howlett (Hugh Jackman) and half-brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) are seen fighting together at the American Civil War, the two World Wars, and the Vietnam War, where after Victor kills a superior officer, the two are sentenced to death through firing squad but due to their superhuman healing ability, the two are simply locked behind bars. This, however, gets the attention of William Stryker and recruits the two to Team X, a special ops team of mutants assembled to kill other mutants. Their latest killing spree in Nigeria, however, racks James' conscience and forces him to leave the team and take on a new life as a logger in the Canadian Rockies under the new alias Logan, and with new girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). But when Victor kills Kayla and Stryker has an offer too hard to resist, Logan sets out to become Wolverine and sets his sights on killing Victor.
From here, Gavin Hood's ("Tsotsi", "Rendition") comic book saga pretty much becomes a frustratingly one-trick origin story, predicated to repetitive - albeit stylish - action setpieces and obsessed with flaunting Jackman's naked body and metal claws, yet neither racking up significant impetus nor a sense of grandeur throughout the episodic script by "The Kite Runner" scribe David Benioff. While all made mildly engaging by Jackman, Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, and Will.i.am, and the much-awaited feature film debut of Gambit (disappointingly brief as his appearance may be), "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" remains a predestined narrative, an inherent prequel problem that would have been fine had the means was as fetching as the ends.