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"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has finally officially been released.  I have to admit that I've been a little nervous about this movie.  I still feel the sting after X3.  The other concern was the obvious fact that things would be drastically altered in adapting Wolverine's story.  My goal is to try to review this not only from a comic book reader's view but also from a simple movie-goer's perspective.

Let's start off by saying this wasn't a great movie.  At the same time, it wasn't horrible either.  There were several things that I liked but they were usually coinciding with things that bothered me.  Starting off with James Howlett as a sick young boy was good.  Most comic readers know that part of his history but I've seen comments on other sites where they were not aware of this or that he actually had bone claws.  Now we all know.

What about Logan's "half-brother"?  That I didn't like.  I understand that we can't have the whole Dog Logan character and his story involved.  I don't like that they changed the story of this "half-brother" for the movie but fine, I can live with it.

Wolverine fighting in the wars was a nice touch.  It helped to show that he has been around a while.  He is good at killing.  This adds street-cred to his "I'm the best there is at what I do..." motto.  I do wonder why he would involve himself so much in American wars since he's proud to be Canadian.

"Team X" was good.  I'm sure we will all agree that Ryan Reynolds was a blast as Wade Wilson.  If only his scenes could have lasted longer.  What's the bad part of this?  What ends up happening just seems crazy.  Ever since the spoiler on his fate came out, I've been trying to figure out why they decided to go this route.  It does seem unnecessary.  It could've been another character that was experimented on.  The good news is, there is some hope for Deadpool.  Ryan Reynolds has been talking about wanting to do a Deadpool movie as long as it's done right.  Let's hope that happens.

What about Gambit?  I didn't really like him when he first came on camera.  Yes Gambit is a cocky character.  I just didn't really feel Taylor Kitsch right away.  Maybe because he's supposed to be a younger version of Gambit.  Perhaps if we get a Gambit spin-off movie, we can see why he'd be so cocky at this young age.  His short time with Wolverine on screen did get better.  We've been waiting a long time to get to see his movie debut and it wasn't bad.

What about the others?  Liev Schreiber was good as Sabretooth.  I didn't care for Danny Huston as William Stryker.  That has to do more with the character rather than the actor.  Agent Zero was shown to be a bad-ass in the beginning but quickly became annoying. Will i Am was good as John Wraith and Kevin Durand did a decent Blob.

What about Silver Fox, or should I say "Kayla Silverfox"?  I may be wrong but I just don't recall her name actually being Kayla.  Lynn Collins' performance was fine.  I liked parts of what they did with the character.  Her fate and what happened afterwards was similar to the comics so that was a nice touch.  What bothered me was the fact that they made her have a sister.  Why they created her having this sister is beyond me.  Yes this falls into the "changes in adapting the characters" part but I just don't see the purpose.  It was meant to push a certain part of the plot along but it just wasn't necessary.  They could have had anyone be her sister and I don't see why they did what they did.

I know with all of that, maybe I'm just nit-picking.  How was the movie overall?  Box office predictions put it at $75 million for the opening weekend.  I mentioned that it wasn't a bad movie.  But you have to accept that things are going to be different than what they should be for the sake of moving the movie along.  They were able to capture key moments well but others fell a little flat.  When Logan underwent the Adamantium process, it wasn't a picnic.  In the movie, he got a little angry but was fine afterwards.  His memories were left intact and he didn't really go into berserker barrage-mode.  Yes he does lose his memories later to fit things together with the other X-Men movies but I won't go into the weak solution that was used.

Should you see this movie?  I'd say yes, as long as you can accept that changes were made.  It was entertaining for the most part.  I did find myself getting a little bored towards the end.  There were lots of good parts (along with some bad).  It's hard to look at this movie with an unbiased opinion after movies like "Iron Man," "The Dark Knight" and "Watchmen."  The bar has been raised but Wolverine didn't quite reach it.  I think some people will like this movie.  There will be angry comic-fans as well.  Bottom line, it's a comic book movie.  You almost owe it to yourself to check it out.  You just need to decide if you're looking for a movie to entertain you or a movie to capture the "essence" of the character.

For me, even though I tried to accept the changes, the movie gets a 3.5 out of 5.  It was good.  It was fun (at times).  There was just parts that bothered me.  Perhaps Hugh Jackman will get his wish and the next movie will focus on his time in Japan.  That could make for a better story.  Don't forget the different endings.  At first I thought I got one of the weaker ones I'd heard mentioned.  Do stay until the end of the credits, just in case.  I did get a "good" ending.  All I'll say about it is "Shhhhh..."