X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood, 2009)

By all rights, this should have been a catastrophe on the scale of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Not only shackled by having to stretch out a back story that has already been adequately explained, but stuck with the necessity to bridge a continuity gap to an increasingly wobbly moneyspinner on the strength of Hugh Jackman's admittedly impressive pecs and glower alone. So it comes as quite a revelation that a decent director actually took this on. If you haven't seen Hood's township crime drama Tsotsi, do. He's managed to invest a bogstandard torrent of superhero hack-and-slash script with enough wit that it's not only not painful, but probably because of lowered expectations, quite entertaining. Plus Liev Schreiber is maybe one of the most charismatic heroes or villains that Hollywood has to give us, now that the likes of Jack Palance are gone.

5/10