Jackman gets his claws out again

Does Hugh Jackman have ambitions to be a Chippendale? One only asks because of the phenomenal number of times he bares his chest in Gavin Hood's mish-mash of a superhero movie. Sporting muscles the size of baby wolverines, he variously kits himself out in vests, leaves his shirt wide open, and, on one occasion, does the full monty no less. While his pecs might be well defined, the rest of Hood's picture is decidedly flabby.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a prequel to the X-Men trilogy.

Think of it as a sort of Wolverine: The Cub Years. Comic book movies are champion recyclers, with a decent character good for an origins story and several sequels. Spider-Man, for instance, is due to make his fourth appearance in 2011. Each of these franchising exercises is built on the belief that audiences, once hooked, will keep coming back for more. But that depends on having something novel to say.

Hood's picture doesn't.

Wolverine has always been a favourite of X-Men fans. With his rebel nature and rapier-like claws, the Marvel Comics character was the perfect mutant blend of James Dean and a primo steak knife set. He had attitude, weaponry, chips on his shoulders and, most importantly, he had Jackman's charm and blow dry-friendly hair.

Being the strongest character among the X-Men, his back story was worth exploring. Hood, although best known for character-driven pictures - the Oscar-winning drama Tsotsi and the political thriller Rendition - was still an odd choice of director for such a wham-bam blockbuster.

As it turns out, he proves himself keen enough on the action front, packing in the computergenerated imagery as if the future of the franchise depended on it.

While some of the sequences are striking, it's hard to get worked up about the picture as a whole.

Therein lies the fatal weakness of origins stories: we know how they turn out. Why worry whether the young Wolverine will survive when you've already seen him in X-Men one, two and three?

The prequel, with a screenplay by David Benioff (The Kite Runner) and Skip Woods (Hitman), therefore had a tough job to do, and that was before someone leaked a crude copy of the film online (it has since been removed and the FBI is investigating).

While Hood's picture manages to make Wolverine's past eventful, it's a long way from being inventive.

We begin intriguingly enough in Canada, 1845, with the young Logan, the boy who would be Wolverine, fleeing the family home with his half brother Victor (later played by Liev Schreiber).

Cut to adulthood and the brothers have joined the army, several armies, in fact. Being mutant, indestructible types, the pair fight their way through the American Civil War, two world wars and Vietnam, with Hood moving the action impressively from trench warfare to beach landings to attack helicopters.

Though their enemies change, the tension between the brothers stays constant. From the outset it is clear that Victor, aka Sabretooth, is the wrong 'un in this partnership. We witness him being a scoundrel in war and in peace, while the better natured Logan tries to curb his brother's excesses. In short, Wolverine is revealed as having always been a basically decent guy, despite the dubious situations he finds himself in. Where's the surprise in that, you might wonder.

Where indeed. It's as if the writers, not wanting to taint too many hairs on Wolverine's head, gave most of the meanness to Sabretooth.

Despite being landed with an achingly two dimensional character, Schreiber rips the bones out of the part. Just as well his acting chops are in order, since he has little to show physically for his super-powered status but "the fingernails of a bag lady", as Ryan Reynolds's very cool Deadpool puts it, and a dinky pair of incisors. He can, though, pounce like a big cat, although he does this so often it becomes about as exciting as watching kitty wander round the back garden.

Jackman (also a producer on the movie) has his claws, which he gets out at regular intervals, together with his chest, as the story moves from his wilderness years living with a teacher in the Rockies, to his run-in with the military. It is during the latter period that he is injected with a metal substance which turns his talons, hitherto made out of bone, into steel.

After that thrilling transformation the story crumbles badly.

Reborn as Wolverine and armed with a mission, Jackman takes on the military men, his brother, and anyone else in his way. There's a plodding, by-the-numbers feel to this half of the picture. Hood has a mark to hit, the start of the X-Men trilogy, and he marches onwards till he gets there.

Without the engaging Jackman and Schreiber, Wolverine would be a thoroughly declawed affair.

With them, it's another passable hunk of superhero entertainment that slugs it out without ever finding the jugular.