Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that over the weekend the newest installment to 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was released. Of course, many of us robots here at BSR! flocked to the theaters to see it; despite the leaked work-print and despite the negative to mixed (at best) reviews. So, if you are still trying to decide whether or not to check this flick out, maybe some reviews from some of us ‘bots can help you make up your mind! Start us off HumanJunk!

HumanJunk: I thought it bastardized the character and was a ploy to sell plastic toys, slurpees and make levels for a video game (Level 12 – Punch Blob to get information in the boxing ring!). Wolverine’s childhood is told in a span of 2 minutes, and the proceeding 150 years of his life (his fighting in each major war) is skimmed over in a span of 60 seconds. If you’re telling an origin story, don’t you think that the first 150 years of someone’s life is relevant as to why they are the way they are? It’s time to write off the X-Men film franchise.

I’m not one to call myself a purist; the first two X-Men films weren’t exactly the comics – but they managed to capture the heart and soul of the characters and the cultural relevance that the books had.

Dr. Cyborg Robot M.D. attorney at law – Five: I thought this was more enjoyable than X3, which is the main thing I can say about it. “It was slightly better than X3” This is not a compliment. I thought this movie was a montage for different ways to use a claw. I was literally knocked on my ass when he didn’t finger a broad with his claw. If you stop to think about this movie for even a second it should ruin it for you, but if you legitimately know how to turn off your brain and enjoy a bad movie you might make it through this one alive. It is so dumb. It might be a good reason to eat popcorn and drink beer. It is somehow entertaining, but not any good. It’s a little disappointing that you have Hugh Jackman playing a really cool character, that he is good at playing and then come out with a bad movie. I really don’t think it merits much more discussion than this, it was an action movie that had a bad script, some okay actors, and no intelligent design whatsoever. My favorite line in the movie is when Zero the crakerjack shot says into a radio, “I just murdered two civillians, over.”

Mookatron: I found myself walking out of the theater thinking to myself “Well, it didn’t suck out loud.” Then in the time since that I’ve picked and punched holes through it with some fellow robots and have come to the following conclusion: It’s a brainless, summer popcorn flick with just a handful of notable moments. That alone would make it a movie that I’d recommend to friends and fellow nerd-bots, but there’s a problem. The first two X-Flicks set the bar so high, that it’s a shame to see this come out and have it only be mediocre. It could have been so much better. It SHOULD have been so much better. Oh well. “Star Trek” is next week, right? Oh, and I thought the digital-botox for Stewart and McKellan was bad in X3. Wow. I wasn’t sure if they animated Stewart in this one from scratch, or actually used the actor. All kinds of bad on that one. And Will I. Am??? The less said the better.

Proletaria-Tron: I checked this out alone because I could not find anyone willing to go see it with me. I’m glad I didn’t drag anyone else to it. I would have felt like I owed them a refund. Like Dr. Cyborg and HumanJunk said they completely bastardized the story line and left out a lot of very interesting things in that 150 years they glossed over. The entire weapon x story was re-arranged and made boring. The previews and commercials for this movie made it seem like another movie entirely, and Emma Frosts sister? WTF? DeadPool with his mouth sewn shut? I wish Marvel had been behind this like with Hulk and Iron Man, maybe then we could have got the movie we all wanted.

Arse-Bot: I tend to be a lot more forgiving with these types of movies than most of my fellow bots here, and with this film it was no different. Was it great? Definately not. It was however, a good mindless-action-popcorn movie; unfortunately this is not what it should have been. I agree with the general complaint that they blew through the first 150 years of “Jimmy’s” life in the opening credits, I felt like there could have been more said about this, but the part they did focus on was mildly interesting to me, but still left a lot unexplored and didn’t really paint Wolverine as the supposed “animal” that he can be; and this remains true throughout the entire running time of the movie. They leave the points they should have explored unexplored and focus on the most mindless parts with little substance.

The cast, aside from will.i.am, was good but horribly under-used. You hate to see good actors put into poorly written action movies. I was horrified at some of the lack-luster special effects throughout the entire movie so much so that I cringed at a few parts (Logan playing with his new claws in the bathroom mirror). And let me just say that I watched X2 a few days after I saw this movie and if you thought you could poke holes all throughout the plot of X-Men Origins, go watch X2 again… you’ll double the amount of plot complaints you already had.

All in all, if I am being perfectly honest, I don’t know what else to say about this movie. As a comic nerd, I was apauled at many parts of this movie, and as someone looking to be entertained for a few hours, I thought some of it was pretty cool. I don’t think anyone should not go check this movie out, as there are enough “Oh, it’s cool to see Wolverine do that on screen” parts to at least keep you mildly entertained and let you form your own opinion. But see a matinee and save yourself $4…

Conclusion: Sounds like most of us robots here at BSR! agree on a lot of the negative aspects about this movie and feel like there should have been a lot more focus on character and story than just a  (to quote the good doctor) “…a montage for different ways to use a claw.” We give the movie a D+, maybe a C- if we are being generous? (yes, that’s a question) But of course, don’t let us have the final word!

Tell us what you thought about X-Men Origins: Wolverine in the comments section below! What did you like? What did you hate?

And be sure to check back later as Arse-Bot takes a few minutes out of his day to geek-out and bitch about the use of his beloved Wade Wilson/Deadpool in this movie!