‘X-Men Origins’ an Unnecessary but Exciting Sequel, Hugh Jackman Gives His All

Ahh, summer movie season is here! Highly-anticipated releases are dropping in the next 4 months. What a better way to kick it off than with a superhero flick: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now throughout the other X-Men movies, Hugh Jackman always tends to be the best part about them. But other stars were great throughout the original trilogy, too. Patrick Wilson, most recently in the bomb Watchmen, was Professor Xavier, Halle Berry was Storm, Ian McKellen was Magneto (the other best part about the Marvel hits) and James Marsden was Cyclops. Sadly, none of them return in this flashback tale of Logan's origin, mostly because it centers on only Jackman's character.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine takes us through the mutant's history. In it, we meet Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber from Defiance, Logan's brother, fantastic) William Stryker (Danny Huston), John Wraith (will.i.am), Frederick J. Dukes (Kevin Durand), Wade Wilson (a miscast Ryan Reynolds) and Chris Bradley (Lost's Dominic Monaghan, great, but bad role) as Logan's original badass posse. On a trip to Nigeria, Logan discovers what his crew was really all about and leaves.

"This isn't what I signed up for."

He marries Kayla Silverfox (a gorgeous and perfect Lynn Collins from True Blood) soon after. Together, they live a regular life, what Logan craved. But all of that changes after she's murdered by Victor. Now comes the true reason as to why Logan did what he did. Origins is basically a giant chase scene between Logan and Victor (now Sabretooth) and along the way, there's some confusing plot secrets revealed. Just a little advice: it may disappoint some hardcore comic book fans.

20^th Century Fox finished off the X-Men series 3 years ago with The Last Stand. Now they're just milking it. But if you go to the movies thinking this, no duh you're going to hate it! So walk into one of the X-Men theaters (people are predicting a near $100 million haul) with a smile on your face, tell your buddies to get ready to get their asses kicked and enjoy the ride. Because Origins is pretty effing fun.

Screiber and Jackman have some pretty epic and exciting battles together that'll take you into the Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition) directed world and knock you out. There are some shocks, but nothing jaw-dropping. A classic "you killed my wife, now I'm gonna kill you!" story, with added thrills and explosions.

Don't watch it online, you won't get the same experience I did seeing it on the big screen in surround sound. Plus you don't want to mess with Hugh Jackman. Trust me.

3/5 stars.