X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Adrenaline, excitement, fascinating action, and Jackman. Although Gavin Hood doesn't go through complicated storylines or delve into deep psychological exploration, it's beyond me how the creator of the desperately average Rendition could create such an amazing tribute to Logan. I simply rejoiced in everything, from the warrior Wolverine, to the lone Wolverine, to the expectedly raging Wolverine. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that this five-star review is probably highly personal. (24/05/2009)

Wolverine alone has earned two films over a period of four years purely about him. I didn’t understand why they did it, and overall I don’t even understand the meaning of the whole X-Men movies, where they return from the present to the past only to gradually jump into the future. I don’t understand the narrative line of all the movies, and I’ll probably never understand it. But what I admit is that this movie, unlike the Wolverine film itself, is perhaps even better. This is mainly due to the atmosphere of the 1970s, which seems absurd to me whenever I’m reminded of it. However, so be it. Three stars for not being completely bad at filmmaking. But everything else in this series is meaningless, and I think I will never find any meaning in other films from this series. (26/10/2015)

A boring mix of romance and breathtaking mountain scenery (more interesting first part) with a disjointed action adventure (boring second part) and a typically grandiose climax. As a prequel to a famous franchise, it's decent, but as a standalone action piece, it's very mishandled. Hugh Jackman has charisma, but his character is not sufficiently well-written, the action is confusing, computer-generated, and dull. The antagonists are solid, but the final over-the-top action set-piece follows a beaten path that no longer entertains me. (30/08/2009)

The real superheroes here aren’t Wolverine and Sabretooth, but Jackman and Schreiber. Both of their performances, overcoming the clichéd action scenes and almost making you forget about the stupidity of the screen-writing, are nothing short of superhuman. Other than that it’s just a full feature Tide Pod infomercial (Logan’s whitest than white shirt would put John McClane to shame) mixed with 80s B movie classics resulting in an imbalanced cocktail, and even having seen the whole the movie I still can’t tell whether it was taking itself seriously or not. (02/05/2009)

Disappointment that is on a level higher than the final part of the trilogy. Even Jackman's unquestionable charisma cannot hold together a story which, after a fairly promising start, burst into disjointed fights, silly dialogues and terribly predictable twists. The unique magic of the X-Men series has somehow disappeared, and I'm really wondering what puts Wolverine above all other soulless comic book fight films. Instead of the neglected question of the mutants vs. people relationship, Hood's film was supposed to feature a troubled hero, but only those shiny claws and an angry expression really remain of Logan. Paradoxically, the biographical film contributes the least to the image of the Wolverine of all the films, and while it does benefit from the charisma of previous films, the new knowledge about the hero's past is very weak, contrived, exaggerated and sometimes almost embarrassingly calculated. The image concept has nothing with which to captivate, the music is ok, the actors ok, but the added value that the viewer is used to with Singer is simply missing here. Unfortunately, what I suspected with regard to X-Men: The Last Stand has been confirmed. Without Singer, this universe lacks any distinctive charm. [50%] (27/04/2009)