X-Men Origins: Wolverine

What it's about:

Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar – as the fierce fighting machine who possesses amazing healing powers, retractable claws and a primal fury. Leading up to the events of X-Men and elaborating on the events of X2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story of Wolverine's epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with his brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), and the ominous Weapon X programme. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe whose appearances in the film series have long been anticipated.


What we thought of it:

We should be very grateful when comic book movies get their basics right. These can be summarised as:

* Don’t ruin the source material
* Give us lots of fights, and
* Uhm, how about some sexy bits?

And yet every second jelly-head in Hollywood thinks it's their divine right to turn the world’s most beloved franchises on their heads to make a quick buck.

This hasn’t happened with Gavin Hood’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The fanboys out there will be breathing a collective sigh of relief. Instead, the genesis of Logan, or the clawed mutant we know as Wolverine, is told so methodically it’s almost… boring.

Not for a lack of action, mind. True to his "stab first, think later" approach, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) battles almost every imaginable opponent in Origins, including cult Marvel figures like Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). That’s a lot of ass to kick.

For the millions of Hugh Jackman fans aching to see him get his kit off, there’s more than enough to go around: Wolverine spends almost half the movie shirtless, and a good few minutes outside of his gnarly-smelling jeans. Expect whistling in the audience, and more Johnson’s Baby Oil than you care to see on screen.

The irking thing about Origins is that it doesn’t take any risks. Nothing is as bold, or visceral or memorable as fans of the excellent trilogy may be used to. Something extra, something dangerous and unexpected would have been welcome. In that sense, perhaps Hood should have taken some liberties with the Marvel canon. As a South African in Hollywood, he has all the goodwill in the world from us in Mzansi, but, to be honest, his superhero debut doesn’t make us nearly as proud as Tsotsi.