Entertainment

HUGH GOTTA BELIEVE!

AFTER hosting the Oscars, jumping nude into a waterfall — as Hugh Jackman’s title character does in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” — must have seemed almost easy.

The first blockbuster of Hollywood’s summer accomplishes its mission with élan — if a tad less stylishly or humorously than last year’s heavy metal kickoff, “Iron Man.”

Which is not to say this prequel to the “X-Men” trilogy is rusty.

PHOTOS: ‘Wolverine’ Men Howl On-Screen

It’s packed with nonstop action, has cutting-edge special effects and stunt work, terrific cinematography (by Donald McAlpine) and beautiful locations, and is tautly directed by Gavin Hood.

A super-buff Jackman gets to explore the character in more depth than previously and Liev Schreiber, as his brother, makes a dandy bad guy.

But like most superhero origin stories, there’s a certain predictability inherent in sketching in the back story of a well-established character like Wolverine.

After an intriguing prologue set in 1845 that establishes our hero and Victor (later Sabretooth) as mutant brothers, the movie segues into the best title sequence since “Watchmen.”

We watch the brothers fight in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam (somehow they miss Korea).

By that point, they’re in a covert cadre of military mutants known as Team X. But Wolverine lacks the blood lust of the others, particularly Victor, and walks away during a mission in Namibia.

Six years later, settled with a wife (Lynn Collins) and working as a lumberjack in the Canadian Rockies, they pull him back in again after tragedy strikes.

Wolverine wants vengeance against his brother for an unspeakable act. But can he trust Colonel Stryker, the former commander of Team X, who offers to increase Wolverine’s powers with Marvel Comics’ signature super-strong alloy adamantium so he can triumph over Sabretooth?

“We’re going to make you indestructible,” he says. “But first we have to destroy you.”

Though Danny Huston is less menacing than Brian Cox — who played Stryker in “X-2” — it’s fairly obvious things are not going to work out as planned.

At attempt to erase Wolvie’s memory launches our newly enhanced hero on an odyssey that takes him from Las Vegas to New Orleans to Three Mile Island, where he encounters (and re-encounters) numerous — perhaps a bit too numerous for the film’s good — mutants.

They include the all-too-briefly glimpsed Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Gambit (the wonderfully named Taylor Kitsch), Bolt (Dominic Monaghan) and the young character later to be known as Cyclops, who has his own secret.

Fortunately, Jackman is well-matched with Schreiber, who can sneer with the best of them and wears fangs well. The two have three spectacular battles together before squaring off against a formidable enemy atop a nuclear reactor.

There’s no shortage of “wow” moments, but the strong liberal political subtext of the trilogy has largely disappeared.

That’s a surprise coming from South African director Hood, who helmed “Rendition,” perhaps the most pointed movie to come out of the second Gulf War.

But he keeps the film’s camp elements in check and the story moving.

“X-Men: Origins” is sharp enough to get the job done.

lou.lumenick@nypost.com

Running time: 108 minutes.

Rated PG-13 (sci-fi violence, disturbing images, brief nudity).

At the Empire, Union Square, others.