X-Men Origins Wolverine

Iron Man was such a great kickoff to the summer last year. I had hopes that Wolverine would do something similar and turn out to be the movie of which all other summer movies this year are measured against. Sadly...not so much.

I can't even really put my disappointment with this movie into...good...words. It was just underwhelming I thought. Everything is there to make this a great movie, but it all falls short in one way or another.

Hugh Jackman is still great in the role. He isn't as impressive as he was back when we first saw him do it (man that entrance in the first X-Men movie was great) but he is clearly comfortable in the role and fits it perfectly. It is a little too bad that a lot of the one-liners he gets are pretty lame in this movie. Also I thought it was no longer cool to walk away from an explosion in slow motion? Maybe it isn't because this movie certainly didn't pull it off.

The storyline is pretty meh. We know a lot of it already, it's simply a matter of watching it play out. It's all pretty generic stuff when you break it down. Revenge, a couple of "who is the real bad guy" twists that you can see coming way beforehand, a love story that you never quite buy into, it's all here. It serves its purpose but it's never that engaging.

The action is decent, with a couple of stand-out sequences. The motorcycle chase is pretty awesome and some of the fights are good. Nothing is really like "holy shit awesome!" though. Iron Man's action sequences were infinitely better. Also a lot of the effects look pretty terrible. The first time Wolverine is looking at his new claws in the mirror looks like a bad video game. It's really jarring, and this isn't the only effect that's like that either.

It's cool to see some of the other characters from the comic book universe, the problem is that none of them really serve any purpose. Gambit is in and out, as is Deadpool, Blob, etc. It's cool to see them , but it really feels like nothing more than fan service.

Overall X-Men Origins Wolverine is a decent movie, but it could have been so much more. I think this will be the movie that you slowly start to forget about as the summer goes on.

6.5/10