Review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) by Jonathan B — 04 Feb 2014

This is a rather sorry addition to what had up until then been a rather fine franchise of fantasy action/super hero movies. I have to say, I find this rather flat and lacking originality. The absence of the characters of Professor X (save a very brief cameo) and Magneto mean that this really is just another one for the meat-heads as Hugh Jackman's Wolverine kicks the shit out of various combatants who get in his way.

Liev Schreiber is totally wasted as Wolverine's grumpy brother and Lynn Collins is similarly given too little to do to justify her character's supposed significance. Quite what they thought they were doing with this one is a bit of a mystery as there could have been a far darker and more complex story if they'd not rushed through about 100 years of historical conflicts in the first 5 minutes.

As it stands, I was left rather confused about when precisely the main action of the movie was supposed to have been set as the chronology doesn't appear to fit with the rest of the X-Men movies nor with historical facts.

Wolverine as a character is an interesting one and I do like Jackman's portrayal but this really felt like two hours of padding with utterly ludicrous situations that even in the realms of fantasy pushed credulity too far.