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20th Century Fox basically buried the X-Men franchise with such a conclusive third instalment, The Last Stand, so here they opt for the strategy du jour: they go back to the beginning (next up to get the same treatment is Star Trek). Brett Ratner took a lot of flak for the failings of the last X-film, but in truth, he can't be completely blamed as he only took over the reigns at the last minute. This time round, Fox have made an intriguing choice of director, recalling their signing of the then-untested Bryan Singer for the franchise opener way back in 2000: Gavin Hood, the man behind excellent South African drama Tsotsi, and the less well-received War on Terror flick Rendition. But the film has been dogged with bad buzz for months, with rumours of the director's firing from the picture (untrue, apparently) as well as studio-demanded reshoots to beef up the action scenes. And to put the icing on the cake, a rough cut recently leaked onto the internet, to much media furore.
Well, the proof is always in the pudding with these things, and now the film has reached cinemas it can finally be judged on its own merits. For all the rumours of a disaster, it's actually pretty accomplished blockbuster fare; nothing hugely memorable, certainly, but enjoyable while it lasts, and that's usually the yardstick by which summer tentpoles are measured. The start is particularly promising, opening with a prologue in Wolvie's childhood back in the mid-19th century (he regenerates, y'see, so he ages slower than normal folk). Following this, there's a well-handled opening credits sequence that shows him participating in all the major conflicts since the American Civil War. Things get a bit clumsier after this, as a bunch of mutants are unsubtly introduced and then mostly disappear for the rest of the film. Nevertheless, it sustains interest, with a brisk pace and a nicely focused narrative. With the onus purely on Wolverine, the film is able to follow one arc and benefits from it.
Once the film settles down into a basic revenge plot, it does simply become a case of join-the-dots storytelling. Wolverine goes somewhere, fights someone, gets information, goes somewhere else, repeat. There are several cameos by characters from the Marvel universe, which will probably be appreciated by comic book fans, but few, if any, of them hang around for long and are used more as plot devices than real characters. It also doesn't seem surprising that the studio wanted more elaborate action scenes, because even as they stand now, few of them are any great shakes, with some occasionally poor CG compositing not helping the illusion. Yet that's not a particular blow in the big scheme of things, because, most of the time, overblown action scenes are simply unnecessary diversions from the narrative anyway. As it is, Wolverine keeps moving, which means its missteps go by speedily enough to be forgivable.
The summary
An entertaining popcorn flick, nothing more. To its credit, it does a decent job of filling in the gaps in the backstory, and even has a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
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