Movie Info
Movie Name: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Studio: Marvel Entertainment
Genre(s): Comic Book/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): May 1, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Wait…a movie where Ryan Reynolds is actually a high point?!? Uh-oh…
James Howlett (Troy Sivan) discovers his life is a lie after he accidentally kills his real father (Aaron Jeffery) and goes on the run with his older brother Victor Creed (Michael James Olsen). As the years past Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Sabretooth (Live Schreiber) join Major William Stryker (Danny Huston) in a covert military group known as Team X. When Logan goes against his brother and Team X, he is forced into hiding. Agents of Team X begin to be killed, and Logan finds his love Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins) has fallen victim to Sabretooth. Logan subjects himself to Stryker’s experiments in a chance to hunt down Sabretooth…but when Sabretooth’s motives are revealed, Wolverine finds himself in the ultimate battle.
I have to ask…where do you get your nails done?
Directed by Gavin Hood, X-Men Origins: Wolverine spun-off the popular X-Men franchise. The film was released to largely negative reviews but positive box office returns. The film also featured a tie-in game for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and other systems.
I enjoyed the X-Men films (well ok, maybe not X-Men: The Last Stand that much), and looked forward to a solo Wolverine film. This movie was proposed as part of a series of one-off films where certain members of the X-Men would be the focus…Magneto was also supposed to receive solo treatment, but it never happened.
I’m Gambit, and I’m Sparkly!!!
Wolverine is very frustrating because I can go with it for the first thirty to forty-five minutes until it completely derails. The movie’s basic origin part is ok. I liked the Sabretooth/Wolverine relationship and the Team X part…I even liked up until the Heather and Mac Hudson (aka Vindicator and Guardian) substitutes get killed by Agent Zero…then the film starts to collapse.
The movie tried to put way too much plot in. The quest for revenge against Stryker, John Wraith, the Blob, Gambit, and Three Mile Island just don’t work. I never liked Deadpool, but the Weapon XI Deadpool is possibly one of the lamest characters in the Marvel films…fortunately, the Deadpool film didn’t spin off this (despite the very ending).
Um…what the hell is that lame thing?
The movie does have a lot of X-Men characters to geek out about. In the film, you get Team X which has Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds in a role that he was actually good in…shock & awe), Agent Zero…aka Maverick (Daniel Henny), Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), the Blob (Kevin Durand), and John Wraith (will.i.am) with Danny Huston taking over for Brian Cox as William Striker. You also get Wolverine’s love Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins), and ties to the original films with with a cameo by a young Scott Summers (Tim Pocock), a de-aged Professor X (Patrick Stewart), and a deleted scene with a young Storm. Cameos in the prison include Toad, Quicksilver, and Banshee. The movie also features Gambit (Taylor Kitch) who was cut from previous movies, and unfortunately for Kitch represents another horribly reviewed movie.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a pretty bad X-Men film. It is worse than X-Men: The Last Stand, but not much worse. The movie has its moments and should have stuck with more of a true origin story rather than make up a high paced adventure. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was followed by a cameo by Wolverine in X-Men: First Class in 2011 and a true sequel in The Wolverine in 2013 and Deadpool was featured in his own solo film in 2016.
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