There's a lot of pressure for the first film of the summer blockbuster season. It tends to be the pacesetter. This is the time "Iron Man" came out last year and when the first "Spider-man" busted out of the gate to shatter the box-office records of the day in 2002.

With this to live up to and having an unfinished version of the film leaked to hundreds of thousands online, the pressure is on for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the fourth film in the popular "X-Men" franchise. But as a popcorn flick based around a popular comic character with blockbuster aspirations, its B-movie tendencies and mess of a plot causes it to fall way short of the hype it's been given.

The film traces Wolverine's origins back, way back, to Canada in 1845 where a young Logan (played as a man by Hugh Jackman) discovers his mutant power, accidentally kills his own father in a case of rage and mistaken identity and runs off with his brother Victor Creed (who later becomes Sabretooth, played by Liev Schreiber).

The two brothers grow up together fighting side by side in all of America's great wars in an impressive title sequence, each possessing animalistic ferocity, razor-sharp claws and the ability to withstand almost any force. After Victor and Logan go ballistic on their own troops in Vietnam and an attempted death sentence by firing squad that merely "tickled," Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston) approaches them to join a military team with assorted mutant powers on special missions.

After Logan abandons the team and his brother, he takes up as a Canadian lumberjack in the mountains with girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). Victor later tracks down and murders Logan's lover, prompting him to undergo Stryker's Weapon X program, bonding indestructible adamantium to his bones and claws to become Wolverine to seek revenge on his savage brother.

There are a few "twists" that follow involving the hunting and collecting of mutants and harnessing the powers of previous team members, including the teleporter Wraith (a surprisingly impressive Will.i.am), the sword-wielding assassin Wade Wilson (a poorly underused Ryan Reynolds) and a young Cyclops (Tim Pocock), but it's almost not worth sticking through, since the movie trips up so many times along the way.

As a film that's supposed to revitalize the steep decline in quality and effectiveness of "X-Men: The Last Stand," "X-Men: Wolverine" is only slightly better. The action is this film's saving grace, with an explosion-filled helicopter/motorcycle chase scene in the Canadian countryside, a pretty cool fight scene in a Bourbon Street alley and a climactic final battle on Three Mile Island against Deadpool (Reynolds again, this time with his best weapon, his mouth, sewn shut).

Other than that, this film fails on so many levels. Most of the performances are either over the top or phoned in. Only Jackman and Schreiber seem to take it seriously, with Jackman reviving his character's cool ruggedness and Schreiber making the most of his character's maniacal playfulness despite some laughable dialogue. The special effects are good at times and sketchy at others. The plot manages to crowbar in characters like the Blob (Kevin Durand) and Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) to quench fanboy thirsts without really justifying their presence. Some aspects seem straight out of a B-movie (like a mutant boxing scene and the harming of our hero with special bullets straight out of "Wolfman") and director Gavin Hood ("Rendition") seems intent on maxing them out.

After the first two "X-Men" films struck a balance between the comic's origins, realism and sophistication, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" seems intent on discarding them for cheap thrills and a quick buck. The title character may be nearly indestructible, but this franchise could be officially broken.