I have seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine and I have made my final determination. Time to answer the age old question: Is it worth it?

What a difference a year makes. Last year’s Summer Movie season started with Iron Man, a true blockbuster that cemented the comeback of Robert Downey Jr. and signaling Marvel’s return to box office greatness. This year, Marvel is trying to repeat this success with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first in a proposed series of X-Men prequel films and a star vehicle for Hugh Jackman. Do they succeed? Not really. Is the film worth it? That depends on what your reasons for seeing it are. If you are going to the film hoping to see a high-octane blockbuster action movie, you will not leave disappointed. If you are going as a casual fan of the character, who has only seen him in the previous X-Men movies and, you are going because you are eager to see that character’s back story, you will probably be satisfied. However, if you are going as a fan, of the comics, who has read a fair amount of Wolverine comics, and are looking forward to seeing what’s on the page translated to the screen, you will likely leave this movie screaming inside. There are a LOT of liberties taken with the source material. More on that later. Right now, I’ll give you a summary of the story.

In 1845, North-Western Territory, British North America, young James Howlett  sees his father John Howlett killed by Victor Creed’s father, Thomas Logan . In an act of vengeance, James kills the elder Logan using his bone claws which protrude from his hands. With his dying breath, Logan tells James that he is also his son. James and Victor then run away. In the following years, adult brothers James and Victor are seen fighting together throughout the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and eventually the Vietnam War, their regenerative powers keep them from being killed in the battlefield. James is forced to act as a check on Victor’s ever-increasing rage and ferocity. In Vietnam, Victor kills a superior officer after being stopped from raping a girl, and James and Victor are sentenced to death by firing squad, though their unique regenerative abilities keep them alive.

William Stryker approaches the two mutants and offers them membership in Team X, his elite group of mutants. The team consists of mutants Fred Dukes, who’s super-strong and invulnerable, John Wraith, who can teleport, Chris Bradley, who can control electricity with his mind, expert marksman Agent Zero and mercenary Wade Wilson. The brothers join the group, and are sent to the team’s first mission: Invade a diamond traffic operation headquarters to retrieve a meteorite used by the leader of the dealers as a paperweight in Lagos, Nigeria. After retrieving the meteorite, Stryker and the team interogate nearby village people to see if there are any other meteorites. James is disgusted by the murders committed by his teammates and abandons the group.

Six years afterward, James – now going by his last name, Logan – is a lumberjack living with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Meanwhile, Victor hunts down and murders Bradley, mentioning that Wade is already dead. Stryker locates Logan, and claims that someone is out to kill members of the now-disbanded team. Stryker asks Logan for help, but is refused. Shortly after, Silverfox is murdered by Victor. Wolverine hunts down his half-brother, but is easily defeated. Stryker once again asks Logan for help, and he agrees. Stryker then has Logan’s skeletal system reinforced with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal retrieved from the meteorite found by Team X. Before the procedure, Logan asks for his new dog tags to say “Wolverine”, based on a story that Kayla had told him. After the procedure, Stryker orders Wolverine’s memory to be erased, but Wolverine overhears this and flees. Stryker orders Agent Zero to hunt him and take his head off.

An elderly couple Travis and Heather Hudson sees Wolverine in their barn and provide him a home until the next morning, only to be shot dead by Zero. Wolverine takes out several HMMWV, a helicopter and Zero himself, then goes to Las Vegas. Wolverine locates former associates John Wraith and Fred Dukes, seeking to learn the location of Stryker’s new laboratory. Wolverine learns the disbanded team had been capturing mutants for Stryker, and one of them, Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit, had escaped the island and knew the location. Dukes also tells him that Victor is actually working for Stryker, capturing and killing mutants for him. Meanwhile, Stryker captures a teenage Scott Summers with Victor’s aid.

Wolverine and Wraith locate Gambit in a New Orleans bar. Wolverine talks to Gambit while Wraith keeps watching outside, but Gambit suspects Wolverine was sent to recapture him and, using his ability to charge objects with kinetic energy, throws several playing cards at Wolverine that sends him flying through a wall. Outside, he sees Victor has killed Wraith and taken a sample of his blood. Wolverine fights Victor, only to be interrupted by Gambit. Victor escapes, and after a brief struggle, Gambit agrees to take Wolverine to the mutant prison on Three Mile Island. Once there, Wolverine confronts Stryker and learns Silverfox is still alive, having faked her death with hydrochlorothiazide. She was keeping track of the mutant to free her sister, Emma Frost, who is also in the prison. With no more quarrel with Stryker, Wolverine departs. Victor, angered at Stryker that he let Wolverine go, demands the adamantium procedure. Stryker, however, tells him that he won’t survive the procedure and in an act of rage, Victor tries to kill Silverfox. Wolverine hears Silverfox’s screams and attacks Victor. Finally having the chance to kill Victor, Wolverine chooses not to give in to his animal instincts and instead knocks him out. Silverfox shows Wolverine to the holding cells, and he frees the mutants there; among them are Emma Frost and Scott Summers.

Panicking, Stryker prematurely activates his newest creation, Weapon XI  (also known as Deadpool), a bald, pale skinned and deformed Wade Wilson, lacking a mouth and with patterns marking adamantium bone structure. The rescue party approached an exit when it is blocked by Weapon XI who is under Stryker’s control. Wolverine tells them to find a new exit as two blades extend from Weapon XI’s arms, similar to Wolverine’s claws, but more like Wilson’s preferred katanas. At this moment Wolverine realizes that this monstrosity is actually Wade Wilson. Weapon XI has the abilities of several of the killed and captured mutants such as Scott’s optic blasts, Wraith’s teleportation, and Wolverine’s healing ability. During the escape, Silverfox is mortally wounded. The other mutants escape through the facility’s tunnels, guided by Scott who is unable to tell them how he knows the exit. Emerging from the tunnel, the party encounter a helicopter; emerging from the helicopter is a familiar figure, Professor Charles Xavier, who has guided them to safety and offers them a shelter at his school.

Meanwhile, the fight between Wolverine and Weapon XI spills onto the top of one of the plant’s cooling towers. Weapon XI overpowers and prepares to decapitate Wolverine, but Victor returns to aid his brother. Wolverine and Victor, now working together, are able to decapitate Weapon XI; sending its head, still firing optic blasts, down into the cooling tower. Wolverine coldly informs Victor that despite his help, their relationship is over. Victor simply reminds him that as brothers, they can never be finished, and jumps off the side of the cooling tower. The resulting damage from the optic blasts causes the cooling tower to collapse, but Wolverine is saved by Gambit. Wolverine asks Gambit to ensure the prisoners are safe, while he returns to find Silverfox, who had stayed behind. As he carries her to safety, Stryker shoots him in the back with an adamantium bullet. Wolverine tries to kill him but is soon shot in the head, knocking him unconscious.

Silverfox uses her powers of persuasion to order Stryker to walk away until his feet bleed, then dies from her injuries. Gambit returns to assure Wolverine that the mutants are safe, but due to amnesia caused by the brain damage the adamantium bullets inflicted, Wolverine does not remember anything (this was Stryker’s intention, knowing that even the adamantium bullets could not kill Logan). Gambit tries to get Wolverine to come with him, but he declines. Gambit wishes Wolverine good luck before departing, and Wolverine flees the scene as the ambulances and police arrive.

So, as you can see from the summary, if you are going to this movie looking for a great action flick, you have found it. Also the casual fans of the X-Men movies looking to see more of Wolverine will be satisfied. However, my praise for this film’s storyline ends after that point. It is now my duty to speak for those die-hard Wolverine and X-Men comic book fans who were angered by this screenplay. And, as such, it is my sworn obligation to rip the depictions of the characters in the movie apart and separate comic fact from movie fiction.

Let’s start with the most obvious alteration. In the comics: WOLVERINE AND SABRETOOTH ARE NOT RELATED!!! They’re not half-brothers. They’re not step brothers. NO RELATION! However, the opening scene of the film is ripped almost exactly from the Wolverine: Origin graphic novel. However, the character who flees the manor with James in the comics is an archetype of Sabretooth called Dog. Wolverine and the real Sabretooth do not meet in the comics till many years later. Next up, let’s talk about Team X. William Stryker does NOT run Team X in the comics. In fact, in the comics, William Stryker is a PREACHER! He has NO MILITARY TIES. He is a religious bigot who believes mutants are a blight on God. Wolverine is part of Team X, so is Sabretooth. However, Bolt and Blob are NOT! Neither is Agent Zero, who is supposed to represent Maverick and, as such, is the WRONG NATIONALITY! Silver Fox was also a frequent member of the team as well.  This movie finally saw the introduction to the series, after years of begging and pleading fron fans, of Gambit. He is played by Taylor Kitsch, from Friday Nigbt Lights. Taylor does a wonderful job of bringing the Cajun to life, and his powers are recreated extremely faithfully, including the signature kinetically charged playing cards and the bo staff fighting moves. There are two problems with Gambit. One, his eyes are NOT red ALL OF THE TIME! This is a huge part of the Gambit character and in the comics, his red eyes help him to hypnotize people, which is a useful skill in his profession as thief. Which leads to the second problem with Gambit. Though he is found in New Orleans, there is NO MENTION OF THE THIEVES’ GUILD AT ALL. To say this is a major part of Gambit’s character would be making a massive understatement. Also, there is NO MENTION of Fred Dukes (The Blob) BEING A MUTANT! In the comics Silver Fox is associated with both Wolverine and Team X, but her only power is a healing factor similar to Wolverine’s. In fact, Silver Fox is quite a cold individual and she actually becomes an agent of HYDRA. Weapon X is largely unchanged from the way that it appears in the comic, with one exception. WOLVERINE DID NOT VOLUNTEER FOR THE PROCEDURE. In fact, he was kidnapped and forcibly subjected to the procedure. Unlike the movie, where Wolverine retains all his memories despite the intense trauma of the procedure, in the comics, the procedure actually CONTRIBUTES to his memory loss. Also, in the movie, for the sake of convenience, his memory loss is caused by ADAMANTIUM BULLETS! Do I need to tell you how dumb that sounds compared to what has been written in the comics? There has to have been a better way they could have gone about it.

Next, I want to talk about the cameos. There were more cameos in this movie than any other. Which is a blessing and a curse at the same time. While I loved seeing characters that I waited so long to see on screen, it infuriated me that the majority of them were used for 30 seconds or less. The were two main cameos in this movie. The first is Cyclops, who is depicted as a teenager. He is still shunned and misunderstood. However, unlike the movie, in the comics, Cyclops is not KIDNAPPED BY TEAM X! The second major cameo is Emma Frost. In the comics, in addition to the diamond form that is shown in the movie, Emma Forst, the White Queen, is a TELEPATH! There is NO EVIDENCE of this power in the movie. Also, in the comics, Emma is NOT related to Silver Fox. Also, did you know that Quicksilver, Banshee and Toad were in the movie? Neither did I. The only minor cameo that made sense was Professor X, who arrives to rescue Scott and the rest of the mutant prisoners. But, it is time to talk about the character who was most modified and whose modificationhas caused the most anger: Deadpoool.

Let’s start with what they got right about Deadpool. His real name is Wade Wilson and he is a wisecracking smarta**. That’s it. He is NOT a member of Team X. They did not have his mask or costume in the movie. Also, in the movie, HE DOES NOT USE GUNS! And, at the end, when they turn him into Weapon XI, THEY COMPLETELY LOSE ANY SENSE OF THE CHARACTER! X-Men fans are very angry at this , and THEY SHOULD BE!

For a more detailed explanation of teh comics-to-movie differences, visit IGN.

So, how does it score? Well, it scores differently on two differnt fronts. As an action movie, it is a 5 out of 5. There is enough action in the film for even the most devoted junkie. As a comic book faithful adaptation, it is a 2 out of 5 . They took so many liberties that several familiar characters are either seriously altered or completely unrecognizable

So, the final score for this movie is a 3 out of 5.