Why Wasn't Wolverine First Class?

Director: Gavin Hood

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Will.i.am.
Plot: After seeking out a normal life, Logan (Jackman) sets out to avenge the death of his girlfriend by undergoing the mutant Weapon X program and becoming Wolverine.

After watching the brilliant 'X-Men First Class' there was one glaring and annoying issue that arose from it.... the fact that Wolverine's 30 second cameo was better than anything in his own damn movie. First Class got so much right by focusing on the relationship of its two leads that you have to wonder why Wolverine didn't do something similar with its title star and his half brother Victor (Liev Schreiber). There main focus should have been on their relationship with a few supporting characters like 'First Class' did, but instead we have a movie riddled with illogical plot points and characters that you can't connect with or simply hate i.e. Will.i.am's character Wraith.

One of the most dissapointing things about 'Wolverine' is that it starts somewhat promising. We are shown Wolverine and Victor as young boys and through a brilliant credits sequence we see their participation in every American War from The Civil Wars to Vietnam (their mutations slow down the aging process). Any doubters may have begun to think "God Damn!! This may be good!". It however completely falls apart from there.

The two brothers are recruited to a secret mutant team led by Willam Stryker (Huston) from X-Men 2 and the movie should have stuck with the exploits of this team. But no, instead Wolverine gets in a hissy fit and decides to live in the Canadian woods and chop trees for a living..........WHAT? When you go to a Wolverine movie you want to see WOLVERINE, not some guy that sits in a log cabin with his girlfriend and drinks tea. They somehow make Wolverine boring and even when he does become "Wolverine" he runs off to live with a couple of old people. In these scenes we see the origin of Wolverine's jacket, which everyone has been dying to know apparently. How could the writers think this is what people would want from a Wolverine movie?

As for performances they aren't particularly bad, the characters are just so poorly written especially Wolverine. The worst mutant (possibly in the history of the franchise) is undoubtedly Wraith who laughably uses his very useful power of speed to just appear behind people. And when he confronts Victor the end result is quite simply hilarious. Then there is the horrible and wasteful use of much beloved Marvel characters like Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Gambit(Taylor Kitsch) and Cyclops (Tim Pocock) who either appear for no real reason or are ruined in such a way that would bring fanboys to tears.

'X-Men Origins' is just a very bad film, that doesn't understand the character, where he came from and what the fans want from him. Scene after scene of dull poorly directed action ultimately lead up to a climax that makes no sense and has an unnnnnnnbelieveable copout that is almost insulting to the audience.The news that '3:10 To Yuma' director James Mangold is helming the sequel set in Japan is encouraging but chances are 20th Century Fox will have their hands in its production just as they did in 'X Men 3' and 'Origins'. The fact that they are apparently treating the sequel as though it didn't happen is testament to how completely terrible this film is.

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