If Hugh Jackman’s career were to suddenly come to an end tomorrow, he could rest easy in the knowledge that he had left his mark on the film industry. There is little doubt that Marvel comics’ Wolverine will forever be synonymous with the Australian actor. It is the role that catapulted him from total obscurity to the Hollywood A-list and, largely responsible for the renewed confidence and enthusiasm in the superhero genre after a hugely successful trilogy of X-Men films, he has earned the character its own spin-off prequel.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine deals primarily, as the title might suggest, with the character’s evolution from wandering soldier Logan into Weapon X, his early encounters with other mutants and his increasingly strained relationship with his half-brother, Victor Creed (who would later become Sabretooth). Twenty years before the setting of Bryan Singer’s X-Men, Logan (Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) have already fought side by side through many wars and skirmishes before being approached by General William Stryker (Danny Huston). Stryker is spearheading a secret government initiative known as Team X and has recruited many other mutants (including numerous recognizable characters from the X-Men annals) to carry out covert missions around the globe. Logan initially agrees to join, but soon finds himself at loggerheads with Stryker, and Victor, over the morality of their actions, and turns his back on the team. Six years later, the team has disbanded, but somebody has been hunting down and killing former members of Team X and soon enough locates Logan.

Wolverine delivers and disappoints in roughly equal measure. There are plenty of fights, skirmishes and high concept set pieces to keep a large portion of the film’s target demographic entertained during its fairly nippy running time. Unfortunately, those hoping for something more – Chris Nolan-style character dissection or Iron Man’s sharply knowing sense of humour – might well leave the cinema feeling rather neglected and unfulfilled. In fact, for a film that labels itself an origin story, Wolverine frequently falls short on explanations. Little back-story is given to supporting players like Gambit, Deadpool and Agent X, the script relying on its audience to have prior knowledge of these characters and their legacies.

What Gavin Hood, a director for whom this is a first foray into big-budget action filmmaking, does achieve is a by-the-numbers product that feels purpose-built by “the machine” to serve as the opening blockbuster for summer 2009 and little else. It is a shame, after the invention and originality of the earlier X-Men films, that the series has transformed into something so formulaic. I hope this film is merely a foundation stone upon which Marvel intends to build a series of origin films, or even a Wolverine series. The character is one of their more genuinely interesting and iconic creations and Jackman has repeatedly proved that he has the acting chops to take the character into the dark places few but Wolverine have dared to tread. Sadly, however, this film shows no such ambition. James Marsh