X-Men Origins: Wolverine

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" starts off the summer with a bang. Lots of action and explosions for a film focusing on basically what the other "X-Men" films focused on, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

Let's start with the good parts and try not to give out any spoilers.
Jackman returns for the fourth time as Wolverine in the telling of how he gained the adamantium on his skeleton and lost his memory. The opening of the film is great. It sets up a montage showing James Logan (that's Wolvie's name!) and Victor Creed (Sabretooth) fighting wars through history.



The films has to go through a lot and the pacing is hard to manage, but it worked out well except giving little introduction to other characters.

So I guess besides the action entertainment I have nothing more good to say. Don't get me wrong, the film has high entertainment value, but for a comic fan like myself, it was kind of a letdown.



After being locked up, Logan and Creed join a mutant team going about doing...stuff. The boss, Stryker (a character who returns in "X2"), is collecting material from meteorites. There is no introduction to the rest of the team (Wade Wilson, Bolt, Blob, Wraith, Agent Zero) and without knowing who was in the film before hand and knowing their powers I would have been confused.

And I was confused. Not full knowing certain characters puzzled me because I didn't know every one's powers. I couldn't figure out what Agent Zero even was until I remembered in the comics he is better known as the mutant Maverick.

Somethings are glazed over to allow more time for Wolverine to cut a path of destruction. Other characters such as Emma Frost and Cyclops show up and really add nothing to the film. All the hype that was built up for Gambit was also disappointing.



Are these characters bad? Heck no! They were awesome, but they were all only in about three scenes. I do believe this was the intention of the writers. The movie is called "Wolverine" for a reason and that is to let us see him in action.

One last thing. Do we need two shouts at the sky? Just saying...it was a little overkill of the skycam and Wolverine shouting, "Nooooooooo!" I know this is a shout to the comics (they do that all the time in comics, usually right at the end) but I don't think it works as well as it does in film. And there are two characters in this film that are ripped straight from Ma and Pa Kent from "Superman."



Another problem is motive. Everyone's motives are very questionable. Why are characters doing what they are doing? At first the idea is passable, but on second thought it doesn't seem right. Everything that Sabretooth does is supposedly to get adamantium into him to be better than Wolverine, but he already was better and what he was doing ended up making Wolverine desperate enough to put the metal into his body. Stryker gives a good reason why he is doing lots of crazy stuff (more plot points from "X2" brought in for his past too).

This film is just a really grand set-up for other movies. A Gambit spin-off isn't necessary but since he won't be in "First Class," then it will be needed.

And yes, this film shouts "First Class." There is a cameo at the end that is like an advertisement for the next film (another motive question as to why that character was there at that perfect time). And there are two endings that take place after the credits. One leads to a possible "Wolverine 2" while the other leads to a possible "Deadpool" spin-off.



And yes! The controversial Deadpool. Been blogging about my problems with the character a lot and here it is. His character is not Deadpool but merely a monster of what he is supposed to be.

Latino Review said it best about Deadpool.
"Reynolds does a great job of capturing Wade Wilson's cocky banter and sure fired lethal skills, but when he's turned into Deadpool the character comes across as more of an abomination than shadow of his former self."

Where do we go next from here? So many "X-Men" ideas come from this film that it is possible to go from "First Class" to a reboot of the franchise by starting all over again. So many more spin-offs are in the work that it would be amazing if all the characters can be combined into one movie anymore.

The film is sure to make the big bucks and is a decent start to the summer. Was it worth the wait? Yeah, I enjoyed it. The movie could have been better but I'll take it as it is because it could have been even worse.

6.4/10