Rio Grande Herald Movie Critic:
Gerald S. Salinas

So let me be honest, I mildly enjoyed the X-Men trilogy (thanks Bryan Singer, Brett Ratner; you did better), and I was hoping that one day they would just focus on the man who we all love to see; "Wolverine". Lucky for us, they made that movie, but not so lucky for the hardcore fans.

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is one of the most mysterious, dark, troubled, and fun characters of all time. As shown in the beginning of the movie, as a child Wolverine, or known by his real name at first, Logan.

Wolverine, whose real name is Logan (I think) experienced his mutation from an unfortunate event, and has to run away from his home with his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber).

The opening sequence does a great job, showing Logan and Victor in the battles of the Civil war, WW1, WW2, and Vietnam. Of course one can't help but wonder why they both grew up and stop aging at that age.

Logan and Victor are eventually kicked-out of Vietnam and join a secret ops unit, formed by Gen. William Stryker (Danny Huston). But nothing changes for Logan with his new team, Logan has grown tired of killings and battles, he abandons his team in Niegeria to start over.

But with a past like Logan's, it's not that easy just to walk away. His new life as a lumber man and as a boyfriend is interrupted when Gen. Stryker informs him that Victor is on a rampage killing all of his former team. Logan accepts Gen. Stryker offer to participate in his super secret plan to make a mutant of mutants, thus making him the man we all know him by: Wolverine. Now Wolverine has the ability, and power, to stop Victor, but on his way to Victor comes all the explosions, fighting, and claw slashing...

Yes, there was never a boring moment in the movie, but that does not mean it was a good movie. The dialog was short, no acting was heavily involved, (guess we can blame the script writers for that). Gavin Hood the director of the movie is a well respected film maker, but falls very short in his first big budget blockbuster picture. Some scenes were fun, yet cheesy, almost laughable (like the boxing scenes), and some scenes didn't make any sense (like all the fighting scenes).

The movie focuses more on the action rather than the story, as mentioned,there is one fight scene right after another with no point, no build up, no need. We're left forgetting about the movie and just want to see action with no emotions.

The movie is called X-Men Origins: Wolverine, origins means the beginning, yes this movie tells the story of how Logan got his claws and the name Wolverine but that's it, and forgets that he is a mutant. Wolverine, in this movie felt hollow, and never really felt like an outcast, which is what the whole X-Men story line is all about. This movie also felt soft, yes I know this movie takes place before the X-Men trilogy, and this movie builds Wolverine, becoming the hard headed man we all know him to be, but that doesn't mean he should be as soft as he comes out to be in this movie.

This movie fails in so many ways, but there is some good to it as well. It's entertaining. Seeing Hugh Jackman play Wolverine, is like a dream come true. In my mind he was born to play Wolverine. This movie should have been darker, deeper, and should have focused more on Wolverine, instead of the action and showing Hugh Jackman without a shirt of just wearing a white tank top, but because of his intense training, (which did pay off, cause he is ripped) I guess I can't blame the director for having him flexing his guns every now and then. This will bring up big numbers in the box office, but it really ain't worth the price of admission. If you're into loud noise, and meaningless action than this is perfect for you, but not perfect for a good movie.