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Director: Gavin Hood
Screenwriters: David Benioff, Skip Woods
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch
Synopsis
After leaving his half-brother Victor Creed (Schreiber), the mutant Logan (Jackman) tries to lead a quiet life, only to be ruined when he seeks revenge for the death of his girlfriend (Collins). Thus, he ultimately ends up going through the Weapon X program, where he goes by the name of Wolverine.
Review
Ever since the release of Batman Begins, a group of darker genre films began as they retold back-stories, as well as rebooting previous franchises. With this summer that will be dominated by reboots such as Star Trek and Terminator Salvation, to start we have the beginning of one of Marvel Comics’ most iconic characters.
Set roughly twenty years after the first X-Men, the story focuses on how Logan and his brother Victor (who will later become Sabretooth) had their first encounter with William Stryker, who puts them in “a special team with special privileges”. But as the loner, Logan cannot cope with the team’s use of brutality, particularly his brother’s. So, as you can see, there are some nods to Batman Begins, but does it have depth to live up to the dark knight? Unfortunately, not!
The first ten minutes pretty much sums up Wolverine’s violent past and his time on the mutant unit. Due to its quick pace and quite an ensemble cast, we never ever have any dynamic drama with each individual. Despite showing such a good line-up of new characters for this movie franchise, the story is too strictly centred on the characters we got to know in the predecessors. For anyone who has seen the brilliant X2, you won’t see anything original with this colossal plot-holed actioner.
But speaking of action, Wolverine has plenty of time to claw at any bad-ass. Thanks to a great use of practical effects, the action sequences have no need for being over-CG. Though Bryan Singer was able to place a mutant ensemble into moments of drama and action, Tsotsi director Gavin Hood cannot do this due to the film’s length of 107 minutes.
For playing the same role in the last nine years, does Hugh Jackman still work with his claws? Because of his wildness and charisma, Jachman’s performance manages to make the film watchable. While X-Men had Tyler Mane whose portrayal of Sabretooth stands out more as a silent henchman, Liev Schreiber’s take is an improvement as he has the same qualities as Jackman’s to become an anti-Wolverine.
Though Danny Huston is a fine predecessor to X2’s Brian Cox, he does lack Cox’s aggressiveness and doesn’t show the idea that he is a tortured soul. For comic book readers, they might have a good kick out of the many appearances of characters from the X-Men universe. While many will be pleased with Gambit’s first live-action appearance, his involvement in the story doesn’t bring depth and could’ve improved if Taylor Kitsch had more screen-time. As for Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, despite showing some comic relief and an awesome sword-handling sequence, his conclusion creates an unoriginal climax.
Verdict
It may lack the intelligence of Singer’s X2, but it has enough energy and fine performances to have a decent comeback after Brett Ratner’s The Last Stand.
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Printable Version
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - 
). The action sequences are decently done and Jackman inhabits the role nicely (dude's veins are in serious danger of popping in this one), with Schreiber and Reynolds standing out from the support cast. 
RE: Empire, HARSH. Action was plentiful - 
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