X-Men Origins: Wolverine

** Stars

It's not shocking that after months of excessive marketing and hellish online coverage that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is just another standard comic action flick that rarely rises above the level of memorable. Hugh Jackman pours his heart and soul into the title character, but his wonderful talents are sadly wasted in what could have been a potentially great addition to the comic-book genre, is no more than a avant-garde piece of B-movie action junk.

While I must say that Wolverine disappoints, it is no where near as bad as people are saying it is. It is only disappointing because its expectations were so high. Strangely enough, I am glad X-Men Origins: Wolverine made $85 million on its opening weekend because at least this whole fiasco of the film getting leaked online has subsided into everyone's distant memory. Have we gotten so involved in the hype around a film that we forget to analyze the actual film itself? Maybe Snakes on a Plane made a bigger impact in the industry than we thought it did.

The plot: After accidentally killing his father (he thought he was someone else) a younger Wolverine (real name Logan) and his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber) head off to live their lives through the history of American wars (and the opening credit sequence, which is rather impressive) and soon must deal with the outcomes of their actions. Victor and Logan join a special team recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston) of gifted assassins--or mutants--to take out specific targets and enemies. When Logan refuses to comply with the destruction of a village, he quits the team and heads for a life of solitude and isolation with his girlfriend.

Six years after the fact, in order to get the plot moving again, Logan is pulled out of isolation after his girlfriend is murdered by his brother Victor. Logan gets pissed, which soon turns him into...Wolverine.

Now with an origin story, it would be nice if the film didn't rely on several instances of expository dialogue. For example, how Wolverine got his name is rather lame. I don't want to give it away, but I will say that it has something to do with one of Logan's girlfriend's favorite stories and he uses it as a love memento. Although it's a touching remembrance, we're not here to see Wolverine become a cheesy version of The Punisher. For god sake, give the character some originality.

The cast is very solid. Jackman still and always will rock, Schreiber is excellent (when isn't he?) and Ryan Reynolds is sadly limited to very small screen time as Deadpool (I wanted more of Reynolds as Deadpool!) Thankfully his own spinoff has now been confirmed after the box-office success of this film.

For all you jerks who watched the film before its release date, if you continue to do that, you will not only be affecting people's careers, but the potential for more superior films. What if Batman Begins was leaked online and it bombed at the box-office? The Dark Knight never would have been made.