"Wolverine" -- Don't scratch that!

Hugh Jackman takes his shirt off so often in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," you're afraid the poor guy is going to catch a cold.

But that's the only thing you worry about. The character he plays is immortal and indestructible. So it's hard to get too concerned about him during all those fight scenes in which his character is theoretically in peril. That's the thing about immortality -- you can be pretty sure he isn't going to die.

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" answers the unasked question "How did Wolverine get to be the way he is, but not the part about having the 12-inch claws that stick out of his hands or even the part about being immortal, but just the part about having his skeleton being made out of super-strong metal?" As far as origins stories go, it is unambitious.

In scenes before and during the titles, we learn that Jackman's character Logan and his brother were born in what appears to be the early 19th century, and that they served together in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam. Apparently, they sat out Korea. In Vietnam, the brother begins to get a little mean, beginning a sibling rivalry that lasts for 30 years and the length of the movie, which sometimes feels like the same thing.

Liev Schreiber plays the brother, whose secret power is that he is like a sabretooth tiger. He is also immortal, making their many tension-free fights particularly tiresome. He has a tendency to turn up whenever and wherever it is most convenient for the script, and so too does fellow villain Col. Stryker, played by Danny Huston.

Taylor Kitsch, from "Friday Night Lights," joins the cast way too late in the story as a card sharp whose magic power is that he makes the numbers on cards sparkle, or something. Ryan Reynolds is in the film early as a sword-loving soldier whose magic power is that he bagged Scarlett Johansson.

All in all, Reynolds wins.

Director Gavin Hood once made the startlingly effective South African Oscar-winner "Tsotsi," but here he displays none of that film's humanity or tension. He lets the long third act of "Wolverine." get away from him, and it can take an effort to stay awake during this dry period. Nor does it help that the writers use a gambit straight from "Romeo and Juliet" for one of their very few plot twists.

Jackman is always watchable, even when he is doing something silly, and there are plenty of silly opportunities in this film. He has talent and charisma, and worse movies (though not much worse) have got by on less.

As we get plenty of opportunties to see, he also has impressive abs, pecs and biceps.