Frustrating

Rating: 1/10 (5 May 2009)

The long awaited solo Wolverine film which Marvel & Fox were apparently grooming their clawed hero for as far back as the first X-Men film, and there's no denying that there was always a favoritism towards him in the previous X-Men films. Ultimately it proves to be a very watered down, very uneven & unsatisfying account of how Wolverine came to be what he is.
The film's sins? Well, it doesn't go nearly as far as it promised it would in showing Wolverine's darker, more savage side, there are humorous moments that don't really belong in the film, characters such as a much younger Cyclops & Gambit (for some reason Gambit is made older than Cyclops, which also makes it impossible to ever do a proper Gambit/Rogue coupling if they follow this continuity) are thrown in just for the Hell of it even though they have nothing to do with Wolverine's origin, the film doesn't mesh very well with the continuity of the previous films, and overall there is an unpleasant sense of style over substance, which has become an unfortunate issue with Fox films ever since Tom Rothman started working there (remember the hack job he put on the Fantastic Four, Daredevil & Elektra films?). And don't get me started on those bullets.
The film's redeeming factors? Well, the over supplied eye candy is well executed. There is some competent acting from the lead Hugh Jackman (in his 4th outing as the clawed one), Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed (AKA: Sabertooth) and Danny Huston as a younger Col. Stryker, making it more bearable than say "Spider-Man 3" (or even the above mentioned films that suffered at Tom Rothman's misguided hands), but Jackman's steely charisma combined with the strong support of Schreiber & Huston can only do so much against poor dialogue and an uneven tone.
Overall, a disappointment.