X-Men Origins: Wolverine review

Last night we caught a 10:15 showing of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After the film, I left the theater with a sense of satisfaction at the newest installment of the X-Men movie franchise.

Though I was not happy with all aspects of the film, the majority of it was great. Hugh Jackman, once again, does his best work as the ol' Canucklehead. You can tell that he really gets into the role and enjoys playing the character because he really brings depth to Wolverine.

Liev Schreiber also did a fantastic job as Wolverine's psychotic half-brother, Victor Creed. When I first heard that he was given the role of Sabretooth, my stomach churned a little. I was never fond of Liev as an actor, so I couldn't imagine him putting much into the character. As of last night, I have eaten my words. The boy sure has come a long way from his Cotton Weary days.

The story itself was solid. One of the issues I had was wondering how they would manage to bring out the animal in Logan. The past three X-Men films have shown that Wolverine is capable of caring for others, despite his savage outbursts. Knowing that Wolverine has a heart, how could they bring out the beast. Well, they managed to do it, and in a believable way.

However, I do have a few complaints about the movie. For starters, Gambit was useless. He was merely used as a plot device/Deus-Ex-Machina that could have easily been rewritten and become less annoying. Taylor Kitsch played the part of the poor man's Johnny Depp, without the acting skills. He couldn't even handle a Louisiana accent for the twenty minutes of screen time he received. Completely useless. (At least the made his eyes glow red.)

Another gripe I have is that there was entirely too many mutants. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy a big mutant party as much as the next guy. But having so many mutants means that their characterization gets half-assed. For instance, I would have liked to see more of Dominic Monaghan's character, but I can understand the need for cannon fodder. I can only see two reasons for the inclusion of the Blob; the first being a single plot device and the second reason being comedy relief. Other than that, he was needless.

On the other hand, Ryan Reynolds suffered from lack of screen time in his role as Wade Wilson. Reynolds was a perfect fit for "The Merc With A Mouth," yet he made about two jokes and had one good scene. What the hell, people?

I was also surprised that the scenes with Cyclops didn't annoy me as much as I expected. In fact, I enjoyed the way that subplot worked out. Though I would have liked to see more of Emma and her diamond-hardness. I hope Marvel decides to explore that character in the future.

All in all, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a fun film and a great way to kick off the summer movie season of 2009. The amount of artistic freedom the writers and director took was enough to make the movie work, without destroying the nuances of Wolverine's past. The good definitely overshadows the bad, and for this reason, I gave X-Men Origins: Wolverine three claws.