X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) ***1/2

During the next three weeks we are going to be hit with what are essentially origin stories telling tales about characters that are already cemented in our popular culture. When the hell did all this start? Oh yeah, Lucas.

The first entry in this category this month is X-Men Origins: Wolverine. At least this title lays it out for you. If you've seen any of the X-Men trilogy you may remember that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has no memory and is in search of what he is and where he came from. This film fills that gap, going back. Way back. 1840's back. Apparently Wolverine is immortal and along with his brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) they fight in every U.S. war between the Civil War and Vietnam. They are soon recruited by Stryker (Danny Huston) into an elite group of mutant mercenaries. But as the group becomes more and more violent Wolverine walks out on the group and disappears into Canada. But some of his peers want him back and a figure eight of revenge ends up giving Wolverine his metal skeleton and claws.

Now what I predicted last summer has occurred. Critics hate this film and I'll be perfectly honest it's not the greatest super hero out there. But we're living in a post-Dark Knight world and anything that is in the least bit hokey isn't going to fly to some people. This film is just the first casualty. It's your basic, over the top action flick that doesn't really make sense because it doesn't have to. The acting is adequate with the highlights being Schreiber's Sabretooth and Ryan Reynolds too short appearance as Dead Pool. The direction is OK: it's an action movie so it's: kill, explosion, jump, repeat.

The real weak point is the script. You could have called this film Revenge. The problem is that the person that is being revenged against changes every five minutes. Enemies become friends, then enemies again in a blink of the eye. It's a tale of ever shifting goals that tends to get predictable and cliched in places. I also have to complain about the use of two characters in the film. The first is Gambit (Taylor Kitsch). Apparently he's in the film just so that Gambit can appear in the film. His character is complete throwaway seeming to be a last minute addition to make the fan boys happy. The second character is Reynolds' Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool, a character that is treated so shabby that when you think about it the angrier you get. Here you have an interesting character that you refuse to build on, then use him as the catalyst of a turning point in the film. There's no time to bond with the character earlier in the film so that later on it's an "eh" moment. A waste.

Wolverine is meant to entertain and that it did for almost two hours. What's interesting is that this seems to be the first of a series about the X-Men characters and it's mainly a work-up to X-Men 2, which is the superior film of the trilogy. No, this film doesn't live up to that one but it accomplishes its job by being the first blockbuster out of the summer gate for 2009. It's not the greatest film in the world, but it keeps you interested.