X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The first real blockbuster of 2009 and deservingly so. It's exciting and an all-around entertaining comic book adaptation and I doubt anything will be better this year. Everyone involved in the production should be proud to know that their movie can stand toe-to-toe with the likes of anything else that summer 2009 has and can throw at them. Star power, sex appeal, a powerful and emotional script, and a great plot make this one memorable flick.

Real fans (not those whinny online imposters who can't let go of their own warped preconceptions) can breath a sigh of relief because X-Men Origins: Wolverine takes the X-Men franchise films to the next level. There are plenty of action scenes that you have to see to believe! This movie was just shear fun. I love it. What are you waiting for?

Wolverine is a decent movie. It is worth the price of admission and the 2 hours of screen time. The movie works well as a prequel of the events of the X-Men movies. However, to enjoy the movie, one must suspend knowledge of the comic book material. The movie was made for the average movie-goer and a little for the ultra hardcore X-Men comic book reader. The story has everything anyone could want: family, a little romance, love, comedy, revenge and plenty of action.

I was pleased with most of the acting. I will admit that some dialogue seems forced from the minor cast, but the main characters - Wolverine, Sabretooth, etc. - all work well together. The story did seem a little rushed and choppy at times, however. The 1:45 time goes by quickly enough to feel like maybe the movie could have - and should have - been closer to 2:00.

The movie is as good as the first X-Men movie, and better than X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. I am actually looking forward to seeing how they handle the Magneto origins movie that's being made. And I am really hoping that all of this work brings it together for a possible X-Men 4. I know you agree with me because after all, I know everyone is dying to see Apocalypse as the bad guy.

My only real complaint of the movie is that Gambit (my favorite X-Men character) did not have as much screen time as I'd hoped. He better either get his own movie, or make an appearance in a later Marvel movie.

Ignore the syndicated critics and the negativity surrounding this movie. I'm glad I did. Go see it. Don't let people scare you away from spending your money on this movie. Form your own opinions. Oh, and if you go, stay after the credits.

It has a very good storyline, the non-stop forward-moving pace works well and gives it a tone that works better then other, longer movies. It's very well directed and the acting (small, medium, and large roles) is PERFECT. I would have loved to have seen more of Gambit and Wilson even though that might have screwed with the pace that I just mentioned. The very best movie of 2009 regardless of genera. This is so gritty, real, and heartfelt that it even craps on the last film (Last Stand) and I actually enjoyed that film. Overall this movie was the best that I've seen this year.

There is not one wasted line, visual, camera angle or development in this entire movie. Everything serves to advance the plot. It was tight and lean and superbly done. I truly think that this is the best prequel movie of all-time. How could you not like it? From the new mutants to all of the special effects to the crisp pace… I loved it. I loved the ending. You can obviously see the attempt to tie this film to events from the trilogy but it all works neatly and tightly. Wolverine is the first movie this year that I want to see again. It's one heck of an entertaining movie.

10/10 superb!!! I can't wait for the DVD... I hope there's also a director's cut but I can't imagine what they could've possibly left out of this fabulous film.

I have no idea as to why people bash Wolverine. I think its an extremely well made, highly entertaining movie with great acting and a fitting storyline. Its also pretty dark and uncompromising in many scenes.

The fight scenes are brutal and intense which makes them really awesome.

I was actually surprised by some of the plot twists. Great.

The opening title sequence should win some kind of award. Gave me goose bumps. The editing is perfect.

Only complaint is the few plot holes towards the X-men trilogy.

The first X-Men film was fun and well-made though with a beginning-of-the-franchise-not-yet-properly-finding-its-feet feel; X-Men 2 was very, very good indeed and an example of a bigger and darker sequel better than the original(even if it wasn't quite perfect either) and X-Men 3 The Last Stand while nowhere near as bad as its reputation was disappointing(after being so impressed by the previous two) and a step-back in the franchise. X-Men Origins: Wolverine had much going for it but while it is nowhere near a bad film it could have delivered more, considering that this was an origins prequel story. X-Men Origins: Wolverine does have good things, it's well shot and edited(if a little rapid in a couple of the fighting sequences), the special effects are nicely executed and not used too much and the dark, gritty style of the previous three films is wisely maintained, nothing overblown or static here. The opening sequence is robust and exciting and gives you the sense of "looks like we're in for a treat here", most of the action sequences have tension and thrills especially at the end(which also makes a real effort to tie up loose ends), Sabretooth/Victor and Stryker are well-realised and there are a few good performances. Wolverine may be too ambivalent character-development-wise but Hugh Jackman's charisma and grizzled demeanour is pitched perfectly, Liev Schreiber brings real meat, toughness and menace to Victor/Sabretooth and Danny Huston as the villain Stryker is both classy and ruthless and does them very effectively, Stryker avoids being too one-dimensional. Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Kitsch do what they can and are quite good.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine does suffer however from a lot of the same things that X-Men The Last Stand had. The script is very contrived and in a worse way than X-Men The Last Stand, emotional moments are forced, exposition and any explanations are underdeveloped and any bits of humour are on the broad side(X-Men 2 especially avoided this and had a much more even balance). The story has some good atmosphere and good scenes and has some tension, but it does try to cram in too much and things feel rushed and not as developed as they ought. Gavin Hood does reasonably admirably in the action but very like Brett Ratner he is surprisingly not as comfortable in the non-action scenes, in a way that the writing and story, that should give the film depth, are sacrificed by the action(again mostly very good, apart from ones that did lag and you couldn't always tell who was who). Apart from Sabretooth and Stryker (Wolverine was written much better in the first two films but Jackman's presence did make up for things), the characters are disappointingly written, especially Deadpool who had a lot of potential but disappears just like that and appears even more abruptly much later at a stage where you think they've forgotten all about him. Gambit was also treated fairly insignificantly, and other characters like Blob and Kayla(Lynn Collins' acting is wooden in this part) are pretty useless. It doesn't have the too many characters problem like The Last Stand did but it like that film doesn't develop or write the characters well but not as insultingly. On a side note one positive review said that they couldn't understand why The Last Stand and this got criticised for the characters and the first two get a free pass; actually the first two films have been criticised for under-utilising characters and bad acting in them, namely Cyclops and Storm, but at least they tried to respect the characters and not distort them or deprive them of personality like this and Last Stand did(and this is NOT coming from a comic-book purist, far from it, you don't even need to have read an X-Men comic to have this criticism). Harry Gregson-Williams' score has some excitement and induces some suspense but at other points it's too over-bearing and strident, of the X-Men films this film had the least effective score in my opinion. Will.i.Am being cast in an X-Men film would cause alarm bells and his performance is not any better, it felt out of place.

To conclude, could have been better but it's not that bad. 5/10 Bethany Cox