011 X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) -- No spoilers review

Before I start with the actual review of the movie I have to mention the smell situation, which once again prevented me from fully enjoying myself. In Paris, smells get in the way all the time. And I’m not talking about flowers, baby powder or freshly baked bread. No, I am talking about the stale smell of sweat, old urine in street corners, wet dog after the rain, crap smeared on the sidewalk, vomit in the metro and of course, the cheese. Needless to say, I have learned a lot about the subtle varieties of smells since I got here. It’s educational, definitely not pretty. In this case, every five minutes, when the air came on, we got served with a nice bouquet of urine and feces smells; The type that got left over after an unsuccessful flush and has had time to macerate in the bowl – Potent and distracting.

This movie is pretty much a mildly entertaining series of clichés and platitudes. At least for the first part. Until he [Wolverine] gets to the island, things are pretty much stale and predictable, the dialogs too simplistic. “I know, he’s a man of few words, but for Christ's sakes, when you say something, avoid the clichés.” If this movie is mainly about developing the character, it’s not going to happen with an endless succession of banalities. I'm just saying. However, there are a couple of nice scenes, a few fights and some chases that are pretty good. There is also some serious eye candy. For the girls I mean.

Once Wolverine gets on the island, things begin to improve -- unfortunately we’ve already been in the theater for over an hour (smells and all). There are a couple of twists in the plot I did not see coming. The line separating the good guys from the bad is completely blurred. Nice suspense there. And Mutant XI is surprisingly good. I never saw that one coming.
Also, there is an extra scene at the end of the movie, after the credits. It’s short and I suspect that most people don’t know about it and don't stay long enough to catch it. I think out of the 50 or so people in the theater, only five actually saw it.

Overall I was disappointed because I was expecting more out of that story line. But the end made up for the first hour.