Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: The title of this movie implies there will be other "Origins" movies but to tell you the truth, I am not really interested in any of the other mutants origins. We learn that most develop their mutant powers as adolescents. But in the first X-Men movie we meet Logan/Wolverine and he is intriguing because he does not know his own past and he is a man with mutant powers that has also been tampered with. We don't know by whom. There is some information given in the second X-Men movie but not enough to satisfy Logan or the audience.
Wolverine is supposed to answer those questions - who is Wolverine and how and why did he get experimented on?
The movie opens with us meeting young Logan and his older brother and after an unfortunate claw incident go on the run together. We see them going on the run together through time and through every major conflict up through Vietnam. This is when it is discovered that the brothers both have healing abilities and appear to be immortal. Oh, Logan's claws are not metal, they are long spiny bones - actually kind of gross looking. Logan's brother, Victor, has vampire like teeth and his already long fingernails grow into claws. After working in black ops for the government with other mutants, Logan has had enough and wants a "normal" life. Little does he know that the same nefarious government agency that used him for black ops also has other designs on mutants. Logan agrees to an experiment that will give him limitless killing powers. He wants to this to kill Victor because Victor has been doing some bad things (can't give it all away!). After Logan has his skeleton fused with metal he decides he doesn't want to be in the service of the government and just wants to hunt Victor. He finds some unpleasant things out along the way and has his eyes opened to what is happening to other mutants. I don't want to give it all away because I want you to see this movie. By the way, Victor is Sabertooth (for those of you in the know).
There are some unnecessary killing of some civilians and some unfortunate killing of some mutants we get to know and that are played by decent actors. That is what I would say are any faults to this movie.
I don't know anything about who all the mutants were in the movie and anything about the origins of X-Men characters from the comic books. I just know about the X-Men trilogy and what is introduced by those characters. Keep that in mind when I say that I really enjoyed this movie. And no, it wasn't just because Hugh Jackman has some naked butt scenes (it doesn't hurt).
What I was looking for in this movie was a worthy prequel to a perfectly established franchise. Remember the disappointment we all had with The Phantom Menace? I really didn't want to see that again with this movie. AND I didn't!
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth definitely make this movie. Talented or at least name actors were not always in sci-fi or fantasy movies but with the dawn of 1987's Batman, the Spiderman trilogy, Men in Black, X-Men trilogy, The Hulk and Iron Man, these ARE the kinds of movies that, what I call, real actors are going for. Jackman and Schrieber are excellent actors and they certainly chew up the scenery with their acting in what is seemingly an effects driven movie.
Great fun and worth the price of admission!
MMMM (out of 5 M's)