Review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) by Oxana — 24 Aug 2014

I was trying my best to think of this as a good movie, like one worth of 4 stars, but I have to admit the truth: I was disappointed.

I am a fan of the X-Men, and while I have read little beyond the amount of magazines published in Finland between 1984-2009, I do know a few things about the comics. Also, I've really liked the three previous X-Men movies. Compared to those, this wasn't as well constructed.

First of all, there's nothing wrong with the acting. However, with some of their allotted screen time, I kept wondering if some of the characters were even necessary to the plot! The trailers were pretty misleading; Gambit and Cyclops, for one, didn't get more than fifteen minutes each, if even that. It was rather disappointing, considering I like both their characters, although they were not given a lot of life in this one.

As much as reboots sometimes bring to an already explored topic, I personally disliked the fact that some things about Logan's past was altered, as well as Cyclops', whose entire life was re-written. Not to mention Gambit... and who knows how many others I'm less familiar with. For me, that didn't appeal. Wolverine's past is rich enough on its own, without necessary bonds between unrelated characters, just to give them some screen time and time with the audience. I wonder if I would have enjoyed the movie more if I didn't know so much of the fandom beforehand. There have been "errors" in X-Men movies before, but none of them were as glaring and in plain sight as in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

The plot was hectic. There was no beginning, middle, or end climax. The pace kept wavering, the action came and went, and while they manage to keep their balance between various plots and sub-plots, there was still something missing.

Perhaps they tried to mix too many things into one movie? It surely seemed so. Too many interesting characters, too many options, too many things to show. In the end the result was an odd-looking Deadpool getting in the way of Victor Creed and Wolverine trying to hack each other into pieces - for no actual reason as it turns out.