I have watched all the X-Men movies, and I remember this one scene from the the very first movie. It is the opening scene for Wolverine, and he is in a caged fight and takes a few savage blows from the other guy, who is not a mutant by the way, and after some time, as if he is bored, with one punch smashes the other fighter down. The sound, the high contrast camera work, all add up to a fantastic image projection to the character that is Wolverine. However, after that other characters are introduced (it is, after all a X-Men movie) and the focus is evenly distributed on all the characters for the rest of the movie.

When this movie was announced, I was, like yahoooooooo. Finally, I can get a 2 ½ hour version of the 2 minute scene which I have described above. Well, I never got it!!!

The movie sucks. Wolverine has some cool powers. He can heal, from almost any injury (even death) and he has retractable claws (made of bone in the beginning of the movie and made of adamantium by the end of movie). However, in spite of being a Wolverine movie, we hardly see these powers being shown. He is supposed to be bad-ass, and he was bad-ass in the previous movies. In this movie though, he prefers to punch even if the other guy is ready to kill him. What’s up with that? This is especially evident in the fights he gets into (and there a lot of them). I was hoping that there would be at least one scene, where wolverine is cut apart like hell, and I will get to watch him heal and put himself back together. A scratch on the forehead and that is all you get to see.

Also, since this a origin movie, they do show the transformation scene. God, they screwed this up big time as well. The dude has just been changed from made of bones to made of adamantium, and he finds out he has been tricked into it. He is angry, and what does he do? He runs. Why should he run? I mean, he can’t be killed. He has just got some indestructible metal in his body, so he is that much more dangerous. So, show the anger buddy. Rip the whole place apart, instead of running around butt naked!!! Use the claws and split apart of some of the mooks around you. No, did not happen. The flash back scenes of him being transformed in the original X-Men movies are any day better than this.

Another thing about wolverine is his rivalry with sabre tooth. Some really nice situations are set up so that, they can battle it outl. They are both unkillable. So, I am thinking, oh yeah it is gonna some bloodfest (but no deaths as they can heal quickly) with all kind of physical damage. Nope, not happening. All I get are some fistfights. Heh, if I want fist fights I will watch some kannada movies (which I do anyway).

And, the sheer number of characters. There is this fat guy whose skin cannot be damaged, the guy who can teleport, a girl who turns diamond, guy with laser eyes, the guy who shoots guns like hell, the guy who can charge things up… there roles are so small and insignificant that you can edit all their scenes out, without affecting the movie in anyway. Some times, it almost feels like another X-men movie (without all the coolness) than a Wolverine movie.

For all I know, these guys have no story to tell, which is okay because I am a huge comic book fan and I watch a comic book movie not for its awesome plot, but I do expect awesome visuals and memorable action scenes. There isn’t a single such scene in the entire movie. They build up situations, but fail to live it up. However, not everything is uncool about the movie. Wolverine, as portrayed by Hugh Jackman is simply good, but the real prize winner is Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson. He is a mercenary who does not shut his mouth up. Wade is probably the only the thing the movie does not manage to screw up, but they gave him so little screen time. Bummer.

I will just go and rent the previous movies, and hope that I will forget this movie was ever made. Actually, the trailer for the movie was more cooler than the movie itself.

2 out of 4.