The absolutely perfect spin off with the perfect character to do it with!!

Rating: 9/10 (23 August 2009)

The Xmen films literally set a standard for Marvel superhero films and launched an epic array of the Marvel Universe characters some better than others but none, in my humble opinion, as good as, or as thoroughly created, or more brilliantly casted than X-Men. The top of that pile was Hugh Jackman who anyone would be convinced the character of Logan "Wolverine" was based off of and not the other way around. Jackman IS Wolverine and created one of the best heroes of recent years. It only made sense to give the X-Men character with the most complex, mysterious story line a terrific spin off to answer all or most of our questions and bring back the most kick butt member of the team while mixing in some of the other Marvel Universe characters. Right from the beginning the film just hooks you in with a very cool montage of various wars that Wolverine/Logan fought in with his close friend Victor Creed. But all falls apart when the rogue mercenary team goes too far and drives Logan away. The plot is perfect and has an amazing pace, and still manages to deliver incredible action sequences, fights, and Wolverine kicking serious butt even more and better than he did with X-Men. If by a third entry a character is usually reaching it's climax they proved they can rise away from that and made him even better than he was by the third installment of his original trilogy.
As stated before Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine. He made this character so real to fans of comic and film alike that no one could ever replace him. Best of all Jackman is a terrific actor so he delivers a great performance with depth and mystery and looks great doing it. He is amazing simply put. Liev Schreiber bursts onto the screen as Victor Creed otherwise and gradually known as Sabretooth. Schreiber has had decent roles in the past but he really nails this role and fits into the character flawlessly. Best of all Schreiber and Jackman have great chemistry so the story of their friendship and rivalry plays out perfectly. If they continue this worthwhile franchise Schreiber should be the only choice to return as Sabretooth. Character actor Danny Huston is a great villain of sorts as Logan's former mentor who plays such a huge role in Wolverine's existence as we quickly learn. I didn't think they used Huston or his character as much as they could have. The supporting cast were all so terrific that they have so much more to build on that they could milk this for YEARS!! Dominic Monaghan, Daniel Henney, Ryan Reynolds (very underused as Deadeye...so much more to be done with him) and a quick cameo by a young Scott Summers (Cyclops) played by Tim Pocock. I leave the performance by Taylor Kitsch to last as he brought my favorite X-Men to life finally...Gambit. He was terrific and nailed the role and yet was sadly underused!! He could support his own film and I think Kitsch could do it!
The fact that many of the characters were "underused" in my opinions is NOT the fault of the film makers. In fact quite the opposite. This film was about exactly what it was meant to be Wolverine and his origins, the fact that his path crossed with all these amazing characters was not bogged down by their own individual stories and perhaps it leaves the perfect entries to future installments of X-Men, or Wolverine, or any other character films without being repetitive or boring. Character actor himself, but fairly new director Gavin Hood obviously has a lot of talent in telling a story and he must be a comic lover because he nails these characters down. The action is intense, the story is amazing and it was one of the best action films of the summer and got it started to a phenomenal start. 9/10