Not as great as it could/should be.

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2003)

Ok. There's two ways to discuss this movie. One is in reference to the comic book, and the other is to deal with the movie as if it were totally original. I'll do both, and I'll try to be brief.
-With the Comic Book in Mind:
The movie is stretched out way too far, trying to keep up with the comic book as not to upset the millions of fans. This is good, I suppose, but when the movie suffers to fit this bill, I say it's a bad thing.
The movie is simply too long. There are many scenes that I saw that could've been totally cut out. It makes me afraid of what really WAS cut out. And then there's scenes where just when the action is getting good, it cuts away, and then too much happens off-camera to be justified.
The movie is simply too boring. Total, there's got to be less than 15 minutes of fighting period. Not good fighting, just fighting at all. This wouldn't be so bad in a 100 minute movie, but the movie is TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG. Not to mention that the comic book was indeed action packed, I just don't understand why they took the cheap route. At the point that the movie's progressed to in the Wolverine saga, Logan is a very rough, very angry, very spontaneous guy. In this movie, he's more like the leader of the group (which is supposed to be Cyclops, but oh well) making clear decisions, never really freaking out and killing anyone that he wouldn't have killed if he wasn't going nuts. So sad.
-The Movie as an Original Work:
It's alright. Not much action, viewers might be a little confused if they're not familiar with the Marvel Universe. I doubt I can retain the count of unexplored characters on a fist. Scenes seem to flow together nicely, aside from about five times. Other than that, the movie was just way too long. If they cut the crap out and just kept what we wanted to see in, perhaps taking this movie down to a little under two hours, and it'd be a great film. I'm not sure if the series is that great for the theater, though. Sure, it's great seeing these things on a big screen, but, there's way too much that they're trying to cram in.

OVERALL: 7
I'd give this movie a 7. It's not bad, not at all. Was it as good as it could have been? Of course not. Just don't think it's as great as everyone else seems to think. Don't worry; it won't make you look dumb.