Review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) by Shadowsect — 20 Aug 2017

This movie is hated on. A lot. Whether it's a character they completely ruined in the end, or the constant jump cuts that are around every corner, it's not a pleasant movie. That all being said, does this movie deserve as harsh a rap as it gets? Mostly.

Let's start with the positives. This movie has enjoyment in it. Some of the fight scenes are awesome to watch, especially the one in the end. The movie has some witty dialogue and some arrow-in-the-heart emotion near the beginning. The casting was done well. Hugh Jackman is obviously going to own the role of Wolverine, and Liev Schreiber just owned Victor. Lynn Collins didn't really show that much emotion, though, but she's the exception of the cast.

Unfortunately, this movie made a lot of mistakes. For one, it's jump cuts the movie. There's so.... many.... jump cuts. The intro to the movie with the opening credits has more jump cuts than I could count. It's like the new Taken movies. It's distracting and hurt the fluidity of the fights. Secondly, the suspension of disbelief that you'll need to get through it. Some of these characters do a lot of stupid things, especially Stryker. Hint: If there's a mutant in your base of operations, maybe you should.... do something about it?!? And who knew making somebody invincible meant it was hard to take them down? People could go all day about how much they ruined Wade Wilson, but I don't really want to waste my time and say what has already been said many times.

The story itself is ridiculously simple. The trailer of the movie sums up the whole story, one minor plot twist notwithstanding. It does leave a lot of brevity, as it makes this movie a great popcorn flick to sit back, turn off your mind, and relax. It's kind of muddled as this movie really wants you to take it seriously, but that can easily be ignored as the action scenes.... don't take it seriously. At the opposite spectrum, there are details that will ruin this movie for those looking at it as it fits in the X-Men series. There's a bunch of continuity mishaps in this movie, retcons included.

As someone who likes action movies a lot if they can sell it well, this movie definitely checked some of my boxes. They do a good job of attaching you to Wolverine in the first half, even if they don't do as good a job with the other characters. But this is a movie about Wolverine, so Wolverine is the spotlight. Even if the end of the movie felt way more like an X-Men movie with its attempts at trying to work with the continuity and falling flat.

Overall, should you give this a shot? Probably not. It's a forgettable movie that doesn't have enough enjoyment to warrant a watch. At the very least you could pirate it to see how it goes. "Hey that's illegal man". Don't care, don't give them money for this movie. Enjoy it for free and laugh at the studio.