The one with the mini movie review – X-Men Origins: Wolverine - REDUX

I guess X-Men Origins: Wolverine kicks off the Summer blockbuster season, but does it kick it off with a bang or just a damp fart?   The title of the movie give’s it all away. We get to see where Logan / Wolverine and his brother (Victor) comes from. We witness they’re childhood, the various war’s they’ve fought in throughout time and their subsequent “death” by firing squad. From there, enter William Stryker who signs the brother’s up for his little band of mercenaries, which are a bizarre bunch of mutants, complete with varying powers and skills. Mix in a little disagreement and Logan leaves the gang and goes to live in the mountains. From there the movie concentrates on the evolvement of Wolverine as a mutant.

He gets a little upset over a “death” and goes thundering off wowing revenge. On this journey we’re introduced to Gambit, how Wolverine got his metal claws and plenty of action set pieces which include jumping from a bike to a chopper and plenty of claw on nail battles. And of course a big finale with plenty of kicks, punches and claws going through flesh!

The cast are quite good as comic book movie’s go, with Liev Schrieber’s character, Victor, getting plenty of good one liners.He’s not only blessed with these, he looks superb as well, from his nails to his creepy black coat, and the overall look of who will later become Sabertooth is superb.

Jackman IS Wolverine. Tried as hard as I could, I couldn't imagine anyone else bringing the Marvel hero to life the way Hugh Jackman does. He brings a good intensity to a character who has plenty of deep things going through his mind and generally looks like he love’s playing the part of Wolverine. That said, the character of Wolverine has plenty of dimensions from hating his powers and so on and that is really not portrayed in the movie very well.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a very promising start to a new line of movies from the Marvel universe, where I believe Gambit is next up for the big screen treatment. While it would have been great to see a little bit more of the back-story, in particular the war’s the brothers fought in back to back, Wolverine thunders along quite nicely. I guess the fear is always there that there could be too much back story ala Superman Returns and not enough full on Wolverine action!

The grand finale is left down by a few dodgy special effect sequences and comes across a little rushed. There’s a few post credits parts, but to be honest there not worth hanging around for. Its hard not to feel charged up after watching this and want your own set of claws. I wonder how much the operation would be for a set of real Wolverine claws. I enjoyed X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I think it could have been the biggest movie of the blockbuster season if it notched up the violence and intensity to the true level of Wolverine the character. The videogame adaptation got it right, the movie not so much. It does kick off the summer blockbuster season with a bang. Not a bang that will blow out windows or anything, but it will give them a little rattle !

6.5/10

Thanks to the Gate Cinemas