Here's what I think: X-Men Origins, Wolverine (Spoiler Alert)

Wolverine, the bad ass of the X-men. When I first heard that there was going to be a film dedicated to the origins of Wolverine I was elated. I have always been an X-men fan, in fact I'm sort of a nerd about it. I watched the cartoon when I was younger and collected the X-men cards, they even had protective covers and I'm not ashamed to say that I still have them. However, I never got in to the actual comic books so I was excited to learn about the back story of Wolverine.

A lot of excellent summer blockbusters are scheduled to come out this season and Wolverine was at the top of my list. Having seen all the previous X-men movies, I had certain expectations going in to the movie which could have been a bad idea considering the disappointment that I felt leaving the film.

Aside from the flimsy plot line there are a few specific points that I felt particularly disappointed with.

First, the fact the Wolverine and his brother, Sabretooth, are immortal. If this is legitimately part of Wolverine's history, I'm fine with that. However, I'm completely confused as to how it works. In the beginning of the film James (Wolverine) and Victor (Sabretooth) are children who develop mutations. Progressively they age but only to a point. At some point they stop aging and are seemingly indestructible. At what point did they stop aging and why? This was never clearly explained.

The second issue I have is with Wolverine's name. As a child his name is James and throughout the film Victor (Sabretooth) refers to him as Jimmy. Wolverine has always been refered to as Logan in the X-men films. I'm told that perhaps his name was James Logan and that he went by his last name in his adulthood. Again, this was not clearly explained and it is confusing to refer to your main character by three different names in a film.

Finally, the character of Sabretooth. Sabretooth is in the first X-men film. He is the long haired one with the long teeth like a sabretooth tiger. In the beginning of X-men he attacks Wolverine and Rouge. Throughout that film, he is one of Magneto's primary followers. Suddenly, in this film that same character is played by someone else with an entirely different appearance and is now related to Wolverine, and is VERY connected to him. Perplexing.

Despite these three main issues that I took with this movie, there were some redeeming qualities. If you are are only interested in looking at Hugh Jackman for a couple hours, this is the movie to see. He looks amazing in this film and deserves credit for the work he put in to making himself look the part so well.

Also, the appearance of other X-men characters helps retain interest. For example, Cyclops as a high school student, Professor Xavior pre-wheelchair, and my favorite addition- Gambit. Although his character isn't well developed, there is no denying that Gambit is cool. I missed him in the other X-men films and always wondered why he wasn't a part of them, his appearance in this film made up for it.

Perhaps, my high expectations of this movie marred my overall experience. It is certainly entertaining but if you are hoping to see another X-men sequil this isn't it.