I have seen all the super hero movies.  I enjoy them.  Of all of them, my favorite has been X-Men.  It was interesting.  Acting was above par.  The storyline was very good.  Special effects were excellent.  The movie actually seemed to make some sense.  Much better than the countless Superman flicks, the overly done and re-done Batman story, the Spiderman movies and by far better than the putrid Hulk films. 

I was afraid I'd dislike this new X-Men addition from the start.  The fact it focuses on Wolverine, one lone character, makes it boring.  It was, in fact, much worse than I expected.

This film is supposed to be a prequel of sorts, like the new crappy James Bond films which are supposed to 'explain' the origin of James Bond in the old movies we've all seen many times.  It does not work.  It didn't work for Bond.  It didn't work for Batman.  It didn't work for Star Wars.  And it didn't work here.

A summary of this storyline:  Wolverine has healing powers.  But bone, not metal is ejected from his hands when he's enraged.  He fights alongside others, including a brother who is very strong, agile and has cat-like abilities.  They seem to fight as a for-hire elite group.  Wolverine has enough and quits.

Wolverine is then with a woman who has powers over the minds of others if she touches them.  They seem happy.  Then the brother reappears and kills the woman.  Wolverine is enraged with revenge.  He meets Stryker, the guy who transforms Wolverine into the metal skelatal animal whom we all know. 

Wolverine goes after his brother.  Later, it turns out Wolverine, his brother, the woman (still alive) and others have all been duped by Stryker.  Then they fight a guy who is experiment 'eleven', a culmination of many of the 'best powers' found among mutants.

My opinion:   First of all, the movie is too damn long.  Along with being boring and stupid, it seemed endless.  When will the producers learn, if the movie is long, it must also be interesting.  Boring and long do not mix.

The movie makes little sense and does not tie in well with the originals. 

Wolverine is just too strong.  In the original, he was not so strong, not the most powerful mutant by anyone's standards.  He could be killed.  It almost happened in the original film. 

However, in this film, he is almost immortal.  He jumps up a building many many stories tall and hits the ground and just gets back up. 

Wolverine's memory loss is hastily and ridiculously explained in the end.  Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with bullets made from the same metal as is his skeletal system.  The ridiculous part is Stryker says he knows that shooting Wolverine in the head will not kill him, but will erase his memory.  Why?  How many normal everyday people suffer huge head injuries and are without any memory loss at all.  This is a really stupid attempt in ending the film sooner by including a hastily and ill written explanation of Wolverine's memory issues. 

Scott, the person called Cyclops who has the energy ray which shoots from his eyes, is in the end of this film.  He is young and another victim of Stryker's experimentation. 

Where did this come from?  Scott met Wolverine?  How stupid is that.  Wolverine and Scott never gave any inclination the two ever met in the original X-Men flick. 

Xavier was in the end too, rescuing some of the mutants whom Wolverine helped to escape Stryker's compound.  Yet Xavier, with all his mental powers, knows nothing of Wolverine?  

In the original X-Men, Xavier gave the impression he met many of the X-Men when they were younger and helped them hone their powers in his academy.  But not by saving them from Stryker, but more like saving them from society in general because the mutants did not fit in.  In my opinion, Xavier and Cyclops shouldn't have been in this flick at all.  But the producers wanted the 'ray' from Cyclops eyes, so they poorly wrote his character into the script.

The special effects are not good.  Not even remotely as realistic as in the original.  Too much computer graphics.  It looks cheap, not well done.

I like the Wolverine character, but this film distorts it too much.  They should never have went in this direction. 

The original X-Men was very good.  The sequeal was OK.  The third sequel sucked.  Wolverine, X-Men Origins stinks up the joint.  It was poorly written, boring and does not mesh that well with the movies it is supposed to preceed.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older