Movie Review: X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE Starring Hugh Jackman

I almost watched this the other week but I had so many other things lined up it wasn't possible, plus the channel it was on I knew it would be on again in the next week or two.  If you read this blog often or even if you caught Friday's post about Sherlock Holmes then you will know that I'm not a fan of comic books I have never read one in my life, the same would go for comic book adapted movies.  I really don't know why that is though because every time I watch one I tend to enjoy it, ok this Wolverine instalment was not the best superhero movie ever but I did find it very enjoyable and a lot better than any of the Spiderman or X-Men movies.

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds and Danny Huston

The Plot

The movie takes us right back to the beginning before Logan/Wolverine (Jackman) joined the X-Men.  Both Logan and his brother Victor (Schreiber) are over 200 years old and have lived through history fighting in wars and battles on behalf of the US, into the modern day society Mutants including Logan and his brother are recruited as commandos by war monger Colonel Stryker (Huston).  Deciding he no longer wants to fight, Logan leaves the forces and takes up logging and falls in love with a local teacher.  Logan's decision is not a popular one though and his murderous brother Victor is sent to retrieve him causing the now renamed Wolverine to go on a revenge mission.

The Verdict

I thought this movie was great I have to say that straight off, you know me by now I'm not the biggest fan of comic book movies and that non fan base of mine would roll into the X-Men franchise, I have seen a lot of stuff on this movie which does not give it much credibility but I really enjoyed it, probably more so than the actual X-Men movies themselves, let's face it most people only watch X-Men because Hugh Jackman is so kick ass anyways.

I really liked the fact that there is a little humour involved here, I don't remember that in the X-Men films, mind you I have only seen the first and third so I may be wrong but I did get a laugh when Logan was hiding out at that couples farm and he is trying out the motorbike, It follows the scene where he has just had all of the metal pumped into him. When he sits on the bike in the barn the guys says your a little heavy, he's like yeah I put on a little weight recently.

The best part of the movie for me were the explosive action sequences, again I don't remember them being that good in the X-Men movies, from the off when Wolverine escaped and they were chasing him down with the helicopter.  Logan just extends his claws and uses them to light a fire which blows up the helicopter, ok there is a lot of special effects and CGI involved but watching in HD you don't really notice and like I always say does it matter if you enjoy it anyway?

I found the fight scene a little surprising when Logan was fighting the guy who thought called him a blob, Logan had been shot in the face and blown up by then how come he cant take a punch from a fat guy?  I know the fat guy is a mutant but still Logan is made of steel he should be able to take it, right?  Mind you blob did suffer a bit when he stuck the nut on Wolverine, he was delirious for hours.

Capping off the action in this impressive movie was the final fight scene which saw Logan and brother Victor come together once again realising that Colonel Stryker had been lying to them all along.  Stryker had stole all of the Mutant powers to make one super Mutant played by martial arts expert Scott Adkins, his ability to disappear and move so quick came across really well.  Adkins is in just about every Hollywood actioner these days as a stunt man or actor and you can see why.

One thing I learnt about Wolverine during this movie is that his power is not really all that spectacular compared to other mutants, he has only one advantage, he's a hard ass mother f**ker.

Would I watch it again?

Totally, I would definitely watch this again it's a no brainer enjoyable action movie with a little romance thrown in.

Rating: MMM