Not Nearly As Bad As Its Reputation

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2013)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
It seems that this prequel has gotten mostly negative reviews and those who didn't have a mixed reaction to it either downright hated every second of it or simply wished that they had never viewed it. I personally don't see why the film has so much venom aimed at it because even though it's flawed there's still enough here to make it worth watching. What we've basically got is a film that gives us the backstory to how Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) came to be who he is. You'd think that with a plot like this you'd get some character development or at least really learn a lot about him but in fact you don't. Perhaps this is where some of the hatred comes from because you really don't get to learn too much about Wolverine other than a sequence in front of the credits. The credit sequence features Wolverine and Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) going through various wars in American history and I must admit that this here was the best part of the film. It actually made me wish the entire film dealt with the way these two men were involved in these real life events. However, that's not the case and what we're left with is the two of them constantly battling one another while various others around them get involved, get killed or reveal some sort of secret. For the most part I thought the film was entertaining enough to make it worth sitting through and there's certainly no doubt that Jackman owns the role by this point. I also thought Schreiber was extremely good as was Danny Huston and Ryan Reynolds. I do wonder why Wolverine and the Wade Wilson character are constantly stabbing people yet their blades contain no blood.