Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I have seen several movies which I have not reviewed, mostly because most of my writing is for my classwork. However, now and throughout the summer, I will try to blog all the movies I will watch in the theater, which is a lot.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the prequel to the X-Men movies, covering some of the flashbacks Wolverine has in that trilogy.

Gains: +5
You basically get what you expect from this movie - lots of action, fighting, metal claws, war, intrigue, super powers. The movie delivers lots of great action sequences. The main characters are layered, sometimes even breaking stereotype roles. The acting is solid, even brilliant at times. The interplay and relationship between Wolverine and Sabertooth is worth watching.

The storyline is intriguing. The plot, when measured as a tragedy, is fantastic.

I need to add a point for the opening sequence alone, after the "kid" scene. It shows Wolverine and Sabertooth's participation in several different wars in a montage sequence - a powerful piece of cinematography.

Losses: -1
Not to be too picky, but the claws often looked fake. Between that and the lack of friction when they cut things (never requiring him to use muscles or meet any friction resistance) definitly took something out of the movie. It interrupted suspension of disbelief a couple times.

I'm not going to take any points away for violence. You should know that it's violent, though fantasy, bloodless violence. Even with giant claws of all types piercing bodies, slashing, and just killing in general, no characters bled much. There was no gore. This ends as a wash in my book. It breaks even, and I don't really mind this kind of violence, but it's there.

Final Judgement: +4

I feel this score is a point too high. The answer for why lies in the case of expectations. If you expect a solid comic book action flick, it will meet your expectations. If you expect much else, you'll be disappointed. I was the former.

If I have high expectations, a movie has greater scoring opportunity. However, it will suffer a more severe penalty if it fails to meet the hype. This movie was exactly what I expected.