X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

A look at Wolverine's early life, in particular his time with the government squad Weapon and the impact it will have on his later years.

Director:

Gavin Hood

Writers:

David Benioff (screenplay), Skip Woods (screenplay)

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston

3 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hugh Jackman	...	Logan / Wolverine
Liev Schreiber	...	Victor Creed
Danny Huston	...	Stryker
Will i Am	...	John Wraith (as Will.i.am)
Lynn Collins	...	Kayla Silverfox
Kevin Durand	...	Fred Dukes
Dominic Monaghan	...	Chris Bradley / Bolt
Taylor Kitsch	...	Remy LeBeau
Daniel Henney	...	Agent Zero
Ryan Reynolds	...	Wade Wilson
Tim Pocock	...	Scott Summers
Julia Blake	...	Heather Hudson
Max Cullen	...	Travis Hudson
Troye Sivan	...	Young James
Michael-James Olsen	...	Young Victor

Storyline

Two mutant brothers, Logan and Victor, born 200 years ago, suffer childhood trauma and have only each other to depend on. Basically, they're fighters and killers, living from war to war through U.S. history. In modern times, a U.S. colonel, Stryker, recruits them and other mutants as commandos. Logan quits and becomes a logger, falling in love with a local teacher. When Logan refuses to rejoin Stryker's crew, the colonel sends the murderous Victor. Logan now wants revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

mutant | colonel | teacher | logger | wolverine | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and some partial nudity

Details

Official Sites:

20th Century Fox [fr] 20th Century Fox [jp]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 May 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wolverine

Filming Locations:

Auburn, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£6,658,979 (UK) (1 May 2009)

Gross:

$179,883,016 (USA) (25 September 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Enterprises, Dune Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gavin Hood wanted to make Wolverine suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from his army years, but Fox Studios vetoed the idea as too heavy a theme for a comic-book film.

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Goofs

It is established that Logan was born with healing ability and his bone claws. Later the admantium he was injected with got bonded to them and the rest of his bones, and became his metal claws. So Weapon XI should have only gotten his healing ability and his bone claws, not admantium ones. However, Deadpool would have been given the same procedure as Logan, as indicated by the fact that Logan was just a test to see if Deadpool would survive said procedure.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Young Victor Creed: You're always sick.
Young James Logan: You were sick when you were my age.

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Crazy Credits

SPOILER: There are two scenes set after the closing credits. The film's main post-credits scene is of the Deadpool, still alive after being decapitated, reaching for his head, leading into Deadpool. An alternate post-credits scene seen (only on the DVD) is of Wolverine in a Japanese bar, leading into The Wolverine.

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Connections

Featured in The Hour: Episode #7.81 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Hávamál"
Traditional

User Reviews

Wolverine isn't Bad, but it's not as good as it could've been

I'll state my credentials up front: I'm a chick. I have read X-Men comics in my past, but it's been years. I don't remember every detail of every relationship and back story, so I'm not a huge X-men expert. I LOVED the original X-Men movie and X2.

I was so excited when I heard they were making a Wolverine movie. He and Gambit were my two favorite characters from the comics, and Wolverine was by far the best written and one of the best acted characters in the X-Men franchise. I thought, "This should be good!" I counted down the days until it came out. And I went to the theatre, and came out not disappointed, but not excited either. It was a middle-of-the-road movie, which seemed to not know what it wanted to be. But I would say go see it if you're an X-Men or Hugh Jackman fan.

The main crime committed in Wolverine is in the writing. I always say writers don't get enough credit on a good movie. But no amount of good acting (pretty much everyone in Wolverine does well with what they're given) and okay directing can cover up crappy writing like this. The script was all over the place. It didn't have any of the jaunty yet edgy feel of the first two X-Men movies. Wolverine's wisecracks and smart wit were all but forgotten. That would've maybe been okay if they had chosen to make Wolverine the dark, nearly evil character that he was supposed to have been before he lost his memory. But they didn't. He was neither good nor evil. This was ambivalent Wolverine. Kind of Emo Wolverine. Not above doing bad, but not really into it because it made him Feel Bad. No really interesting lines or plot points either way. The writers didn't seem to even know how to develop the relationship between Wolverine and Sabertooth. And was the love story put in by the studio just to satisfy us chicks who wouldn't go a see a comic-book movie without it? If so, the studio did us a great disservice, because if you wanted to make a story about Wolverine the lover (which, hey, I would go see), this movie wasn't that either.

And when I saw in the trailer that Gambit was in the movie, too, I was thrilled! Gambit in a movie, at last! But here he is, the underdeveloped and kind of confusing Gambit. Couldn't he at least have had his New Orleans accent? The cards were cool, but he was mostly underutilized and didn't feel like Gambit that much.

The movie does have some good moments in it where you actually say, "Yes!" I'm not putting spoilers, so I won't tell you what they are, but for me, they made the movie worth seeing. While I wouldn't put it anywhere on my worst-movie list, I wouldn't rank it with X-Men and X2 on my favorites list, either.