Beginning with the fists of fury

If X-Men Origins: Wolverine suggests anything, it's that living, breathing people in big-budget mainstream movies are rapidly becoming obsolete.

Hugh Jackman may be the contractual star of this Marvel Comics-inspired production, which explores, rather creates, the history of one of Marvel's most popular and conflicted heroes, but technology is what makes the movie what it is, a film with the personality of a $150-million (Dh551-million) video game.

The story starts in 1845, in darkest Canada, where young brothers James and Victor see the man they think is their father gunned down.

Before the intruder can spit out what he has come to tell them, he gets skewered on the irate James's nascent bone claws.

Throughout history, James (Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) tackle enemies together. Victor, or Sabretooth, is always the more sadistic of the two, a twisted, unkillable dude.

And James, aka Logan aka Wolverine, constantly has to rein him in.

Eternal conflict

You can see where this is leading: conflict. It's always the same. Guys have superpowers, you think they would be happy — but no, it's conflict all the time.

Wolverine is full of angst and yet virtually has all the humanity wrung out of him in an effort to create a live-action cartoon.

But cartoons are rarely so unwieldy or force a director (in this case, Gavin Hood) to juggle such an impossible plotline.

Victor and James are recruited by the mysterious William Stryker (Danny Huston) to join a Dirty Dozen-style team of — what are they, super-mercenaries? Don't know.

Nor do we know why, once the group breaks up, Victor starts killing its old members. Or why he ends up killing Wolverine's girlfriend too.

It all comes out eventually. But a character's motivation is a lot less effective dramatically when it's delivered at the tail end of the movie.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, rated PG13 and 107 minutes long, has violence and intense action.