Rent X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

After the trilogy closer of The Last Stand, the X-Men franchise had the chance to pursue different kinds of stories. The initial proposal was to make a whole series of X-Men origin films, starting with Wolverine and that would continue into Magneto. While the origin plans would eventually plan out, they were off to a very rocky start with the lackluster X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

What hurts such a film is that Wolverine doesn’t exactly have the most unique of pasts to explore, at least in terms of his more modern appeal. The character of Logan is established as a mutant who will remain immortal and with claws that span from his fists. Hugh Jackman can naturally step into this role considering the character will never age, a premise that means a long life for the actor who goes onto play Wolverine for another five films. Logan’s life, however, is only addressed in small bursts of showcasing how many wars and periods he has lived through. He has also parted ways with Sabertooth, a similarly powerful mutant who wants to live more for violence than preserving life.

It becomes pretty obvious what type of film this becomes early on: This is Universal Soldier. I hate to resolve the story to such a simplistic placement but this Wolverine film leaves little else to examine. His main mission of working for the government is a development that holds little impact considering how quickly the slate is wiped clean by having the character get his memory wiped with amnesia bullets (yes, really). The mission itself is another bland, save-the-world plot where the hero finds himself betrayed by the American government and the heroes he works alongside.

There are some new mutants and a few cameos but they are underwhelming to say the least. Ryan Reynolds makes his Marvel debut as Deadpool but far from the fourth-wall-breaking anti-hero, he’s been known as in the comics. This Deadpool not only doesn’t have his iconic costume but has his mouth stitched shut in the third act, completely removing any notion that he’d be the wisecracker he was in the pages. Other characters are pretty par for the course, with such renditions of The Blob and Gambit requiring you to squint at the screen to see the resemblance as little of their personalities reflect the source material.

Even if you can divorce yourself from such lacking adaptations, it’s hard not to be put off by a digitized Patrick Stewart trying to play a younger version of Professor Xavier. The computer graphics for such appearances were not quite there and the effect is so creepy that Xavier doesn’t even look like a person, let alone a younger Stewart. The same goes for the rest of the special effects, where the claws look too shiny and the special effects compositing is far too shaky.

This disaster of a film would not spell the end for X-Men films. Far better X-Men films would follow with the likes of First Class continuing the origins into other areas and The Wolverine (2013) hooking up Jackman with a better script for a solo venture. But what a bump in the road this misfire of a movie turned out to be.