Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar - as the fierce fighting machine who possesses amazing healing powers, retractable claws and a primal fury. Leading up to the events of X-Men, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" tells the story of Wolverine's epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe whose appearances in the film series have long been anticipated.This is a tough movie to review. Let me just state for the record that I was able to simply watch and enjoy the movie. I kept my expectations rock bottom and was 110% sure that there was no way this movie would be anywhere near the level of quality shown with some of the recent comic book movies. I figured it would be more on par with X-Men: The Last Stand and the two Fantastic Four movies and thats what I got. Its not a great movie in terms of quality, but I felt it was a good movie in terms of summer popcorn movie watchability. Now that I have gotten that out of the way . . . . . Most of the other mutants in the movie were just there for filler which is pretty mind blowing considering that the movie was only barely over an hour and half WITH THE FILLER. The special effects were really lame considering the high profile standing of the movie. The weird thing was that they were the lamest when you didn't really need the special effects. There is a part towards the end with kids running towards a helicopter that is honestly the worst green screen effect I've ever seen. I don't know if the lameness of the effects was because of the fact that the movie leaked online through the special effects company and 20th Century Fox had to scramble to finish the movie or not, but they were cheesy regardless. The biggest problem that I have with the movie is actually an extension of the only problem I had with the original X-Men movie. The character of Sabretooth was always Wolverine's arch nemesis in the comics. I felt that they screwed the pooch with Sabretooth in the original by making him this big, dumb, overly hairy guy that doesn't even speak. This movie did an awesome job explaining Sabretooth and his rivalry with Wolverine. This movie also did a great job in terms of "continuity" considering its a prequel . . . . . except with Sabretooth. You can watch this movie and then go watch the X-Men trilogy and the story jells except we'll never know how Sabretooth went from being a pretty bad ass villain/arch-nemesis played by Liev Schreiber to the aforementioned big, hairy dumb speechless lackey for Magneto.
Now that my ranting has been put down there. I would still recommend this movie. Its simple fun at the movies and is what going to the movies in summer is all about. Just be sure to keep your expectations super low because this is not remotely a comic book movie on the level of The Dark Knight, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, or the first two X-Men movies.
