X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Movies based on comic books have to be a tough sell.  There's a ready-made audience of fans, who are sure to buy tickets, but they're tough critics, jumping all over the film makers for any deviation from the source material.  On the other hand, you have the general audience, most of whom do not read the comic books, but enjoy a good action movie.  As one of the latter group, I would say Wolverine satisfies the sci-fi/action movie fan, but I can't pass judgement on how the X-Men comics fan would react.

Wolverine faces off with his brother.

As the full title suggests, Wolverine provides the back story for Wolverine, the X-Men comics character.  We learn why he has no memory of becoming Wolverine, why he's named Wolverine, and why he has those metal spikes that pop out of his hands.  Comic fans already know all this, I guess, and the general viewer couldn't care less, but nevertheless, it's a pretty good tale of sibling rivalry, love found and lost, and revenge.

As you would expect from a Marvel/X-Men movie, the special effects are superb and the action is over the top.  Good fun.  Oh, and now we know the real cause of the Three Mile Island disaster!

Bottom line, 3 stars.