X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

Director: Gavin Hood

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, and Ryan Reynolds

Original Release Date: April 27^th 2009

Based on characters created by: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Fabian Nicieza

I can’t believe I had to return to this garbage. Every film franchise has that one movie, the one that everyone tries to forget, the one that almost destroyed any shred of credibility the series had in the first place, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is that film. The movie alone almost destroyed the X-Men franchise, it is considered by many to be the worst entry in the X-Men movies (I strongly agree) and is also considered to be one of the worst Marvel films ever.

After X-Men the Last Stand made a killing at the box office, 20^th Century Fox decided that they’d like to make more X-Men movies; the Last Stand alone proved that the series was incredibly bankable. Unfortunately they had ended the X-Men story, the Last Stand ended in such a way that it would be almost impossible to make another ensemble film with the Mutants, with major characters killed and story lines wrapped up the only thing they could do was go backwards. X-Men Origins was supposed to be a brand new franchise, spin-off films centring on a central character from the X-Men universe. Of course the major star from the X-Men series was Wolverine, so Fox decided to make a movie centring on him, with a Magneto movie and Xavier movie following after. The Magneto and Xavier film would later become First Class because of the mess this movie made.

The writers originally wanted to make a movie centring on Wolverines time in Japan, a very famous arc for the character and an all around good story line. Fox said no to that, they decided to make a movie focusing on Wolverines time in the Weapon X program. Why this decision was made is beyond me, Wolverines time in the program and his relationship with Stryker was already perfectly executed in X2. I guess Fox decided that the audience was too stupid to pick up on that story and that they needed the whole thing thrown on a platter.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine shows us how James Howlett (Jackman) discovers his mutant abilities, along with his Mutant brother Victor Creed (Schreiber), the two set out fighting in countless wars until they’re recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston). Stryker has put together a task force of Mutants and the two brothers help the military scientist complete multiple missions, when James gets sick of the countless innocents that are killed in one of their missions he leaves the squad and moves to Canada where he changes his name to Logan. Flash forward to the 80’s and Logan is once again called into the line of duty when his brother Victor begins killing the former members of their squad. When Logan’s girlfriend Kayla (Lynn Collins) is killed by Victor, Logan agrees to undergo a dangerous military experiment known as Weapon X to extract his revenge.

The movie sounds good, hell the trailers are even good, but this movie is HORRIBLE! This is the one X-Men movie that has stayed with me the longest because of how mind numbingly bad it is. The plot itself could have been kind of interesting; instead we are given one of the weakest written X-Men films ever. The plot is so outlandish (yep,even for X-Men) and convoluted that you can’t help but shake your head and wonder what the hell were they thinking! This movie can’t even be called an origin story because there is no origin at all. Logan is already the Logan we know from the past three films the moment the movie starts, he doesn't go on any journey that shows how this man becomes the wise cracking Wolverine from the original Trilogy.

The most interesting part, and the thing that got me interested in the movie, was Wolverines time fighting in every single major war. However this is all glossed over in the opening credits. The credits are pretty kick-ass and the music is pretty neat, but that was where all of Wolverine’s character development and growth started! He’s already the wise cracking hard-ass we know and love by the time the movie start. Movies rarely make me angry but this movie really sets me off, I don’t even think they tried when they made this movie. The beginning of the movie apparently takes place in the Northwest Territories Canada in 1845, CANADA WASN'T EVEN FORMED UNTIL 1870!! Also why do all the “Canadians” in this movie have southern accents? This movie doesn't even deserve a review written on it, thinking about it just makes me mad. It usually takes a lot for me to not like a movie, I can find something in almost any movie to like. Hell, I even liked Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, but this movie, there’s almost nothing to like.

Since there is hardly anything good to talk about in this excuse of a movie I'm really going to have to grasp at straws here. The first 20 minutes are really the only semi watchable parts of the film, Wolverines time with the other Mutants in Weapon-X is pretty neat, however it’s over as soon as it starts and the movie spirals out of control after that into some silly revenge movie centred around Wolverine.

Hugh Jackman is good as Wolverine and you can tell he is really trying to sell this movie, but there is nothing that he can do that can save this ship, it had sunk when the script was approved. However the best actors in the movie are Liev Schreiber and Ryan Reynolds. Schreiber is probably the best Sabertooth we've had. There is this great menacing quality to him that really shines as Wolverines opposite. Every scene he is in makes the film a little more bearable to watch. His fight scenes are really cool and as cheesy as he looks, I like it when he runs on all fours, the only question I have is

How does this

Become this??????

Did his IQ just drop incredibly after 20 years? Did he just decide to become a caveman for whatever reason? Also if he is Wolverines brother why weren't Wolverine’s memories jump started in X-Men when Sabertooth attacked Rogue? When he met Stryker again he regained some memories, you would think meeting his Brother, the person he’s spent the most time with in his entire life would bring back something. These questions are pointless to ask because this movie doesn't even try to make sense with the rest of the X-Men series.

Of course if you've seen this movie or read anything about it you know that Ryan Reynolds is Wade Wilson, the man who would eventually become Deadpool. Notice how I say he just plays Wade? Because I refuse to accept whatever it was they put in this movie, THAT IS NOT DEADPOOL! Do I sound like an angry fan boy? Yeah I know I do, but it is completely warranted to act like this due to how they completely butchered this character. Reynolds actually does a great job, I can see him playing Deadpool in the future, but he technically has five minutes of screen time before he becomes Weapon XI….what the hell is Weapon XI? Deadpool is a member of Weapon X, there is not Weapon XI, and also why does Stryker just call him Deadpool for no reason? Where does that even come from? It goes against the very reason why Wade names himself Deadpool in the first place.

Now these aren't the only characters that are in this movie, oh no. You would think Fox would learn from their mistakes in the Last Stand, but no, this movie has a ton of Mutants who are just in this movie to get peoples butts into seats. First let’s start off with Remy Lebeau/Gambit who is played by Taylor Kistch. Gambit was the one character fans wanted in the X-Men movies more than anything, his appearance in the movie does make sense because there is an easter egg in X2 where his name is on a list of Mutants Stryker experimented on. So people obviously got really excited when they heard that Gambit was finally going to get the big screen treatment, he isn't even my favourite Mutant but I feel so sorry for Gambit fans. Gambit’s inclusion into the film serves little purpose; all he is is a plot device. Yep, one of the most popular X-Men characters is degraded to a way for Wolverine to get to an island. There is no use talking about Gambit, because his minuscule screen time makes little purpose to even focus on.

The rest of the Mutants are just as worthless, maybe even more so. We have so many characters in this movie that are just there for Wolverine to interact with for a second before getting killed off screen. The only interaction that is slightly entertaining is when Wolverine meets the Blob (Kevin Durand) that scene actually has the light hearted fun we are familiar with, compared to the rest of this soulless cash grab of a film.

Look, this movie came out in 2009, so there is no excuse for special effects that look like they came out of 1991! I swear this has some of the worst special effects I've ever seen. You know you’re doing something wrong when Wolverines claws look better in a movie that came out nine years before this one! In fact, the downloaded unfinished version of the movie that was released months before the films official release date actually looks better than the finish product, wires and all.

Seeing this garbage once is enough for anyone, this movie is so bad that Fox almost entirely denies its existence. I don’t blame them, the plot makes no sense, Strykers end game is a convoluted pathetic scheme that was doomed from the start to make Wolverine a rogue agent. Also we can’t forget how Wolverine gets his amnesia, I don’t even want to talk about it because it’s probably one of the worst plot devices ever conceived on film. Someone out there actually read the script, shot the film and said “yep, ok, that’s great!” seriously why does this film exist in the first place. This film has so many problems that I can’t even list them all on here, just search it up on Google you’ll get everything you need.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a sorry excuse for a film; I can see why people have no faith in Fox developing X-Men movies, because this film is on the same level as Batman and Robin. This movie deserves all of the hate and criticism it gets, and I am frankly surprised the franchise survived this pile a crap.

X-Men Origins Wolverine is easily a

4/10

Watch it if you want to, I wouldn't recommend it. X2 gives everything you need to know about Wolverine’s past.