Fridae

It's been a while since we've seen the X-Men in any form at the movies, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as the name suggests, focuses on the history of Wolverine, surely one of the most popular X-Men in both the Marvel comic universe and in the previous movie trilogy. Still played by Hugh Jackman, who has become even more buff than before, Wolverine traces the long history of John Logan/Wolverine and his relationship with Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schrieber), as well as introduce Colonel Stryker (Danny Huston) and his Weapon X initiative, an important part of the Wolverine canon, explaining how Wolverine's adamantium exoskeleton came about.

Opening with an excellent montage sequence that takes the audience through four major wars and subtly introduces the differences between Wolverine and Sabretooth, the film's quality begins a slow but steady descent from this point on. While both Jackman and Schrieber have great screen presence, and all scenes where the two interact are the most significant ones in the film, these happen too few and far between.

What's most frustrating (especially for the fanboys) is the incredibly short shrift the majority of the characters are given - fan faves Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) and Deadpool (the sexy-as-hell Ryan Reynolds - yes I am biased) are given very little screen time and even less to do when they are onscreen. Gambit, for example, appears in one sequence, throws a few cards, dances around a little with his staff, then fades out of the picture only to resurface as Wolverine's wingman. It's an appearance that barely clocks ten minutes in total, and will register zero impact with the audience. The same can be said of Deadpool, Emma Frost, Kestrel� the list goes on. Everyone exists merely as plot devices to further the movie along, and the film suffers greatly because of this.

Of course, if seen as a pure action movie Wolverine does not disappoint - there are some very impressive action set-pieces, although some of the CG composite work doesn't quite look very polished. The conclusion to the film also feels very arbitrary, but that would probably be addressed in this film's sequel (no news yet, but it's really only a matter of time before it is announced). It's a case of "if only", because much as Wolverine is a decent effort, it could have been much better if only certain tweaks to the film were made.