Cut!

Rating: 3/10 (7 June 2009)

Poor Wolverine! You would think a mutant with razor sharp, unbreakable Adamantium claws would have a better edited, more tightly scripted screenplay for his movie, but I'm afraid not. X-Men Origins: Wolverine starts all the way back when Wolverine and Sabretooth are wee lads and follows them through the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam (what, no Korean War?), and some post-Nam black ops in Africa before Wolvie finally bonds with his Adamantium and breaks free. This is the critical point in the plot and should have been the opening scene; everything else could have been told in flashback or—better yet—excised.
X-MO: W is also loaded down with second-string mutants—Gambit, Blob, Wraith, Deadpool, Agent Zero, Bolt, Silverfox—that seem to have been thrown in strictly for their action figure merchandizing possibilities. Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber do their best to try and hold this mess together, but mostly they are reduced to spouting Cain and Abel platitudes and growling at each other. In the end we see a group of young mutants, including Cyclops and Emma Frost, being herded away by Professor X—an obvious tie-in to the Young Mutants TV show Fox is said to be preparing. There is a final after-the-credits scene of Wolverine drinking sake in a bar in Japan, an apparent setup for a sequel, but given the poor box office for this incoherency, that seems unlikely. I had hoped after the disappointing X-M 3: Last Stand, Fox would try to redeem this franchise, but no dice.