Wolverine, what happened? You used to be cool...
So, Wolverine.
The Good:
Fight scenes. They pushed the boundaries of believability, even in the scope of "but they have mutant powers!" but they were pretty to look at and they were never boring.
And it's pretty clear that the main actors did the best they could given the material they had to work with.
The actor who took over Sabertooth did a much better job of it than the guy in X1. (Although how the character goes from being so awesome in this to being the Brotherhood's muscle in the intervening 15 years is a story I would like to see).
Gambit was a welcome addition, as was the shout-out to Blob. And I loved Wade up until the Weapon XI reveal.
The Bad:
We're now 4 films into the X-Men franchise and for the first time Wolverine's claws looked noticeably fake, especially in the bathroom scene.
Swiss cheese has less holes that the plot. Canada didn't exist as a county in 1848, and the Northwest Territories weren't called that. Wolverine can smell Sabertooth half-way down the mountain but can't tell that SilverFox is still alive. Gambit breaks up the fight between Wolverine and Sabertooth for no apparent reason, considering he HATES Sabertooth. And I wasn't at all clear on why Gambit had to physically FLY Wolverine to "The Island" when all he had to say was "Three Mile Island." (and here I was, rooting for it to be Genosha). And Striker ordered Bolt killed because... why, exactly?
The "Huh?":
The "Love" "Story"... well, it was more believable than Anakin/Amadala.
Striker's method of controlling Deadpool/Weapon XI was laughable. What, does he have a wireless router in his brain? In 1984?
Speaking of Weapon XI - okay, I'll grant that the Katana thing was a cool visual effect, but how does one "sheath" a 3 foot sword in a 2.5 foot arm, and wouldn't the lack of rotation at the wrist (considering he couldn't change the way he held the "sword") severely and artificially limit his fighting ability?
The way in which Wolverine forgets everything stops just short of breaking continuity. You'd think that Jean would have noticed 2 adamantium bullets in his skull when she did his complete medical workup in X1.
Okay, so Scott's there (um... why?), but shouldn't Havoc be there too? Or, for that matter, given that Striker's plan was to create the ultimate mutant by fusing their powers... WHERE THE HECK IS SINISTER? (No, I WILL NOT let it drop.) He could have been added without really going into detail: have Striker call the lead tech at the Weapon X facility "Dr. Essex" and then have the Nameless General confront him about what he's doing being "sinister," thus dead general, and then have the doctor descend into hysterics babbling about the "coming apocalypse" when the MPs come for him.
Furthermore, why make a Wolverine backstory movie? I get he's a popular character, but we've already spent 2 movies revealing his backstory, and what we learned from this one didn't really add anything to his character or the overarching plot. What lessons Wolverine might have learned from his experiences, he forgets at the end. The money would have been better spent making Origin movies for the characters we (the moviegoing public) really don't know much about - which given the amount of time they spent devoted to Wolverine's backstory before this film would be just about ANY OTHER MEMBER OF THE TEAM.
So, overall, I give it a C. About on par with my opinion of X3 and Spiderman 3.