X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Dir: Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition)
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Lynn Collins, Danny Huston, Will.I.Am, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, Kevin Durand, Dominic Monaghan, Ryan Reynolds
USA/Australia/Canada, 2009

Seen: May 2, 2009 at the AMC

Reason to see: It's Wolverine!

Time to rejoice. We can now happily forget X-Men: The Last Stand which made the X-Men series burn out too quickly in its third instalment. We have returned to the heart of X-Men films with X-Men Origins: Wolverine with action, interesting characters and a solid story in the X-Men world. It is a beautiful thing.

Hugh Jackman again lights up the screen as the charismatic and often in turmoil Wolverine. He shares the screen with Liev Schrieber who plays Victor Creed and the result is a rare wonder in current cinematic endeavours. They compliment each others performances instead of competing for the viewers attention. It is remarkable and thrilling to see the talented actors delve into their characters who are both powerful, intriguing and have their own stories. But, what got us into the theatre is Wolverine and loving that character is easy, especially for us Canadians who get to cheer along with historic and patriotic references throughout. I would have loved to see more screen time for some of the secondary characters, namely Wade Wilson played by Ryan Reynolds for character development and context. I was impressed by Taylor Kitsch whose performance as Gambit was beautiful, this is quite the feat as the character is much loved but would have been easy to mis-step.

The film is in essence a prequel, so at times turning off the brain helps to pretend you don't know where it is going. That would have been tricky if not for the action and story which move at such a captivating pace that it is easy to be completely absorbed into the film.

A great revitalization of the series. Looking forward to seeing more

Shannon's Overall View:
I highly enjoyed it
I'll buy it
I recommend it as a great action film, and especially to fans of X-Men & X2

14 minutes of preshow including 2 commercials and 5 previews (three of which are sequels!): Ice Age 2, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Up, Funny People and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

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© Shannon Ridler, 2009