Thursday 30 April 2009

Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I was among the lucky ones to have X-Men Origins: Wolverine open in theatres last night. So here's the review.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is hitting cinemas around the globe, but will it live up to the standard set by Bryan Singer, or end up in the dumps with Brett Ratner’s X3?

Being a fan of the franchise I was really looking forward to another film, but after X-Men 3: The Last Stand I’ve learned to keep my expectations as low as possible, and I actually managed to enter the cinema without any big expectations.

I am surprised by the amount of negativity for this film, but I think the level of expectations has a lot to do with that; personally I just went to see a movie. And I had fun. There were a few small things that bothered me, some interactions, and maybe not enough time with one or two characters, and one scene featuring a sink that seems to have been put in for cheap laughs; they really could have left that scene out of the film.

There were worries about the inclusion of so many characters in the film, but I never felt that took anything away from the story, there’s really only one or two characters I felt got pushed aside. It was actually nice to see some new faces and learn something new about the familiar characters. This is helped a lot by the strong cast, the inclusion of so many characters could have easily have been overwhelming or just plain bad if the actors didn’t put their all into the few scenes they had. I found everyone’s effort to be top notch, and many new characters endeared themselves to me despite their short screen-time

Any continuity worries I had with regards to the X-Men films were snuffed out, save maybe one or two, but that’s nothing another movie or your imagination won’t take care off.

If nothing else you’re getting a good action kick, but I can’t help but hope that there would be an unrated, slightly bloodier, version when it comes out on DVD and BluRay, as some of the more violent scenes reminded you this is a PG-13 movie.
It’s hard to compare it to the previous films in the franchise, but one thing I can say for sure, it’s much better than X3. Considering all the aspects I will say that X2 still holds the top spot, but where Wolverine lands in comparison to the first X-Men movie is hard to say, go see it and make up your own mind.

4/5

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