Release Date: May 1, 2009

(out of 4)

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is a technically Marvel-ous action picture. Setting off in the Canada Northwest Territories in 1845, Logan and Victor learn of their mutant powers and discover they are blood brothers following a family calamity. Then it spearheads into a wham-pow credit sequence with Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber, now as grown-up brothers, fight their way through several major wars that include the American Civil War, World War I, World War II (strong echoes of the Normandy beach invasion of “Saving Private Ryan”), and Vietnam. One brother fights valorously while the other, uh, loses perspective. American Intelligence eventually learns of these twos’ powers and decidedly turns them into special operatives known as Team X whom are dispatched for highly classified secret missions. After getting into more gratuitous bloodshed than he can stomach, Logan retreats into the Canadian Rockies where he shacks up with Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins).

Lest not we forget that Hugh Jackman is the top headliner in this picture – it’s all about Wolverine and his genesis into an angry and rebellious but morally principled hero. He would rather be a lumberjack than a mercenary for a shadowy U.S. agency, but he’ll activate his razor-blade claws if it means protecting his honor. In this franchise entry intended to expose the complicated facets of Wolverine’s personality, Jackman delivers his dialogue in a cross between wooden and deadpan but nevertheless goes into ballistic rage if stripped of his human rights. The furious roar of Wolverine is what we are paying to see, right? The story is required to give Wolverine the right provocation. William Stryker (Danny Huston) is the Team X leader who will do anything to re-assign Wolverine to agency duty, and that means he will step over the line to get his way.

It’s not hard to see why Logan-Wolverine is in love with Kayla – she hands him a beer, fastens onto his lap and tells him fables of conquest at nighttime. It must be said that Jackman and Collins share a ravenous chemistry on-screen. Kayla, of course, is Logan’s weakness and doing harm to her is the fastest way Victor-Sabretooth and Stryker can get his attention. Are Sabretooth and Stryker on the same side? The script by David Benioff and Skip Woods makes it obvious so it doesn’t have to keep you guessing.

Sabretooth does wrong to Kayla and now Stryker can promise Logan revenge if he participates in a high-tech procedure to make him into what is called Weapon X. “To kill [Sabretooth], you’ll have to embrace the other side. Become the animal.” But whatever you do, don’t erase Wolverine’s memory. That will make him mad. Wolverine finds himself pitting against more enemies than just his brother. He goes head-to-head with Agent Zero, The Blob, Gambit and Deadpool – some of these characters more adherent to reason than others. But his final encounter with Stryker must be last and must be lethal. Nobody, but nobody, attempts to erase Wolverine’s memory and thinks he can get away with it! You might be able to predict the trigger-effect of this rivalry if you saw “X2” which came out earlier but saw future events.

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is a worthy edition of Marvel Comics movie adaptations and it stays faithful to many but far from all of its core elements. Wolverine as a Nazi engineered super-construction is excised – forgive, forgive – and it also bends away from other comic book lore details. But for all its liberties the movie does ignite the requisite high-flying action we expect – airborne motorcycle versus an artillery-equipped helicopter, and a blade-wielding brawl on top of Three Mile Island are perhaps the two standout sequences.

For all its virtuosity however the movie isn’t always so steadfast in behavioral or practical logic. The script never challenges the idea that Wolverine might be torn in his desire of slaying his own brother and the movie has a problem with portraying the year it is supposed to be set in since it is supposed to take place in the short years following Vietnam (Marvel cooked up Wolverine in 1974) yet features modern cars and buildings. The movie nevertheless prevails as pop entertainment with its lavishly photographed action and its twist-on-twist outcome which gives us origins orientation to other key characters in the “X-Men” franchise that tie essential to Wolverine’s story.