X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The 2009 Summer movie season is underway, and unfortunately it is kicked off with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The film tells the tale of how James Howlett became Wolverine, from his childhood where young Howlett mistakeably killed his own father to the ageless X-Men patriarch famed for his retractable adamantium claws, amazing healing powers, and primal fury.

Hugh Jackman reprises the role he has successfully portrayed and made him a superstar, Jackman is joined in the cast by Liev Schreiber (Victor Creed/Sabretooth), Ryan Reynolds (Wade Wilson/Deadpool), Will.i.am (John Wraith) and Danny Huston (William Stryker).

Also during the film, familiar film characters like Cyclops and Charles Xavier, and familiar but new to film characters that include Gambit are referenced in the film.

During Gambit's scene, I noticed a cameo that completely took me by surprise, poker star Daniel Negreanu.

In my view, the series needed a resurgence after the previous bomb, "The Last Stand," and it did make up for it.

Jackman was solid as Wolverine, but over all nothing much more about this film stood out to me, that includes the fight sequences between Jackman and Schreiber and the fight sequence at the end of the film between Deadpool, Sabretooth and Wolverine.

Sure, Star Wars can pull off the prequels, but X-Men, in my view was better off with the first three films, however I have learned there may be an origin film for Storm and Magneto. I hope these prequels don't get out of hand.

Sure this movie, is going to make huge bank at the box office (over $120 million dollars to date), but Jackman's performance and strong special effects couldn't save a film with weak acting from the supporting cast especially Schreiber and Huston, a familiar narrative and an outright waste of a great performance (Jackman).

Next time on reel revue will be my review of JJ Abrams revised look at Star Trek.

That's my review, now here's what fellow local critics Christopher Benham and Jordan Embrey thought of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.