[4.9/10] Hello friends! Do you enjoy well-done but mostly pointless action? Do you like seeing people with superpowers fight each other for poorly-defined, mostly perfunctory reasons? Are you tired of things like characterization and plot getting in the way of explosions and hand-to-hand combat? If so, do I have the film for you!

*X-Men Origins: Wolverine*, the cumbersomely-titled first foray of the X-men films into solo spinoffs, earns its less-than-sterling reputation. That’s not to say it’s unwatchable. There is plenty of well-staged superhero action and enough things to laugh at even when the film isn’t genuinely good to keep it entertaining. But it is a giant mishmash of clichés, convoluted twists, and barely-sketched characters.

The best analogue for *XMO:W* (which, I maintain, should be pronounced “ex-moe”) is an eighties action film in the vein of a Rambo sequel. Take away the super powers (which most films in that genre seemed to pretend their protagonist had regardless), and this is pretty much a generic old school action hero story. The former soldier gets tired of the killing, tries to get away, and then goes on a revenge rampage against his former allies after they won’t let him out of the game.

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, giving a performance with none of the charisma, charm, or gravitas he’d shown in other work in and outside the superhero genre) is a standard macho movie protagonist. He has his girl, he has muscles, and he just wants to be left alone. Of course, that can’t happen, and after a cheap fridging (and later, a ridiculous un-fridging) he’s back to his old ways.

The dialogue of the film matches the hackiness of its plot. Jackman spits out action flick one-liners like there was discount at the gently-used script shop down at the studio. No line is too hackneyed, no quip too generic, for *XMO:W* to include it in its cavalcade of tropes. The characters deliver exposition at awkward times that feel like the movie should have just put up a title card explaining what happened a la silent films. And if the loud, obvious dialogue doesn’t get you there on its own, the film will be sure to repeat any cheesy or silly lines to make sure you know that Wolverine is remembering them too.

Rest assured, *XMO:W* will not let its talented lead convey any internal emotions on its own. Instead, it’s quite content to use voiceover, clips from events that happened ten minutes ago, and supporting players restating obvious facts to make sure you know precisely what every major character is thinking or feeling in a given moment. Never has a film been so certain to telegraph each minor sentiment with so heavy a hand.

It doesn’t help that peppered in amid the four major characters (Wolverine, his brother Victor, his tormentor Stryker, and his girlfriend Kayla), are what seem to be and endless supply of shoehorned-in X-men who have more power than personality and are quickly run through as soon as they have enough screen time to justify an action figure.

Ryan Reynolds makes his debut as Deadpool, though the character bears little, if any resemblance to the fourth wall-breaking trickster who rocked the box office in his own solo spinoff. Instead, he gets a few solid quips before disappearing for the bulk of the movie and returning as an unrecognizable, uninteresting obstacle for Wolverine to overcome. Taylor Kitsch brings all the marble-mouthed woodenness of Tim Riggins to his portrayal of Gambit, a character who is supposed to be smooth and suave, and only succeeds in offering the worst Cajun accent you’ve heard this side of a community theatre version of *A Streetcar Named Desire*. The rest of the film’s disposable players range from the ridiculous (The Blob), to the flavorless (Zero), to the clearly overwhelmed in the acting department (Will.i.am).

So what does *XMO:W* do well? When it’s not trying to tell a story or create compelling characters, it can deliver some surprisingly effective action. While it’s pure cartoony ridiculous, the sequence where Wolverine fights his military-grade pursuers on a motorcycle is high-octane fun. Various fights between Logan and Victor have a certain heavyweight bout quality. And an early scene in the film where Wolvy, as part of an elite mutant strike force team, invade a building and take out its various guards in turn, provides well-choreographed, exaggerated but entertaining superhero fireworks.

The film’s opening is really where it soars. An opening scene from Logan’s childhood sets the stage for the nominal arc of the film where Wolverine tries to decide whether he’s an animal or a good person, and there’s urgency and punch in it. An introductory sequence of Wolverine and his brother in wars throughout the ages has a certain panache and verve otherwise missing in the rest of the film. And the few interactions between Wolverine and the rest of that strike team and in the early going create character dynamics and humor that are dropped in favor of paint-by-numbers one liners later in the film.

The theme of the film is a simple one – with Wolverine borrowing a page from the Hulk and trying to control his anger and make peace with his demons so that he doesn’t use his powers for ill. To that end, Kayla is the angel on his shoulder, helping him restrain himself, and his brother Victor is the devil, relishing the killing they do as soldiers and encouraging his brother to give in. All of this supposed thematic exploration is shallow at best, and is lost in a sea of contrived episodes to explain everything from Wolverine’s adamantium claws to his motorcycle jacket, with lots of other pointless X-men cameos thrown in for good measure.

It’s not hard to see why the powers that be did a soft reboot of the X-men universe after this one. Jackman is a star, and occasionally his talents shine through the dreck, but in a franchise that needed a course correction after the misfire of *X3*, *XMO:W* instead gives the audience a bucket-full of poorly crafted cornball action, with a convoluted climax on top. It’s a good thing Wolverine has a healing factor, otherwise I don’t know how the character would have been able to recover from being in such middling crud.

The finished movie is still somehow worse than the leaked, CGI-less workprint, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

All I could think, towards the end, was "poor fucking Taylor Kitsch." I know he hasn't been hurting for roles in the last 15 years, but **damn** he just could not catch a break with roles he took in movies that could've/should've been huge. Gambit in one of _the_ worst X-Men movies ever made, the titular John Carter from a sci-fi classic that would get dumped in theaters without any of Disney's massive advertising budget, giving one of his greatest career performances not attached to Friday Night Lights in the first season of True Detective that _wasn't_ **the** first season of True Detective. Dude is such a great actor, but his post-Friday Night Lights career has seen his talents wasted on projects that wouldn't help his career.

And my first thought right as he caught up to [spoiler]all the kids being rescued by Xavier[/spoiler] was: "Sorry, you're too late, Gambit. Back to the "incredibly popular/powerful mutant overshadowed by Wolverine" pile, just like Cyclops."

Also, _how_ do you cast Ryan Reynolds -- one of the most well-known mouthy and sarcastic actors of the time -- as one of _the_ mouthiest and sarcastic mutants in the X-Men canon only to sew his fucking mouth shut?

Casting Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson was about the _only_ thing right about this movie. Because it at least it made him want to give Deadpool the adaptation the character deserved. Thank fuck that Reynolds didn't care _that_ much about Hal Jordan.

I have always struggled to engage with the "X-Men" franchise, but had higher hopes that this - featuring the most charismatic of them - might change that. Sadly not! "Logan" (Hugh Jackman) has a healthy rivalry with his brother "Creed" (Liev Schreiber) honed after their birth in the middle of the 19th century. Many years later, though, and somewhat battle weary, they are offered the opportunity by "Stryker" (Danny Huston) to join his elite team of mutant commandos. Disillusioned with this, "Logan" drops out and tries to live a normal life with his new found love. "Stryker" is having none of this and so after the inevitable tragedy, battle lines are drawn as the angry "Wolverine" sets out for revenge. Some of the other "X-Men" characters feature as this meanders along, and there are a few very well-made up appearances from Ryan Reynolds ("Wade Wilson") but for the most part this a weakly constructed and dreary action drama with an over-reliance on CGI as the combat scenes recycle themselves all too often. Jackman tries hard, and he does impose himself on the story - but there is little sense of jeopardy and the nature of his "quirk" ensures that the acton scenes, though frequently at close quarters, are all rather repetitively predictable. The production standards are high, but the rest of this is immediately forgettable. Sorry.

I watched this film and felt like they shot it without an actual script, filming whatever came to mind. And what do you know, I found out later that they really didn't have a script to follow.

Makes sense now why many scenes feel rushed or incomplete, most of the effects look half rendered, and "Deadpool" looked like an absolute disaster.

And yet, oddly enough, it's not the worse film in the X-Men franchise. It just sets the bar exceedingly low.

I need to start with..........this film is not as bad as people say it is as Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) is always great in this role and trust me he still kills it in this film. As an origin film, it is pretty solid but I do agree that the opening credits are the best part of the film and that definitely would have made a much better movie seeing all the wars.

Let's start with the good though, I actually think the casting in this film is pretty good as Liev Schreiber (Sabretooth) is solid casting, Will.i.am (Kestrel) is not bad, Ryan Reynolds (Wade Wilson) is fantastic until they ruin him and Taylor Kitsch (Gambit) is great casting but wasted big time. Also, the film does have some solid moments that will definitely satisfy comic book fans and if it wasn't for the janky CGI I definitely think it would get a little more love.

Now for the bad, the writing in this film is meh at best and if it wasn't for this cast I think it would've fallen completely flat on its face but it could've been worse as some of the characters are done well and some of the scenes are handled fine but it needed better writing/direction. Also, this film feels so damn rushed and I imagine that has a lot to do with the studio trying to do quantity over quality and I really feel like they should have focused on Wolverine and Sabretooth during the war as that would lead into the next film so smoothly.

To conclude though I still think it's a solid enough movie to grab some popcorn and just don't overthink it.