X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

A look at Wolverine's early life, in particular his time with the government squad Team X 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, Ryan Reynolds

3 wins & 17 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hugh Jackman	...	Logan / Wolverine
Liev Schreiber	...	Victor Creed
Danny Huston	...	Stryker
Will.i.am	...	John Wraith
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	...	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:

commando | wolverine the character | civil war | claw fight | army | 

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Taglines:

Witness the Origin.

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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 [France] 20th Century Fox [Japan]

Country:

USA UK

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 119 min (extended cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Scott Adkins doubles up for Deadpool at the film's climax because Ryan Reynolds was busy working on another film at the time. The close-ups of Reynolds were filmed months later when he was in between projects.

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Goofs

When young Logan is running down the hallway, you can see some after-effects surrounding his upper body.

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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 (2016). An alternate post-credits scene seen (only on the DVD) is of Wolverine in a Japanese bar, leading into The Wolverine (2013). During the original theatrical run, which scene you saw was random depending on your theater; the home video version features the Deadpool scene after the credits and the Japanese bar scene is available on the two-disc DVD as a deleted scene.

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Connections

Referenced in Someone Has to Review It!: X-Men Days of Future Past (2014)

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Soundtracks

New Orleans Boogie
Written by Daniel May & Marc Ferrari
Performed by Daniel May
Courtesy of Marc Ferrari/MasterSource

User Reviews

Underdeveloped and Overproduced

This film was slated to be a blockbuster film, and it really is. This is the type of movie that is made to eat popcorn to and watch the flashy graphics. With that in mind, the movie delivers, perhaps not as well as the ultra flashy Iron Man, but well enough. Outside of the popcorn munching action and special effects, the film drops off of the cliff faster than Wile E. Coyote.

Many viewers, myself included, will complain about how most of the characters were severely altered, but that only makes the film a poor adaptation, not a poor film. This film is unsatisfactory for other reasons. The makers focused more on making it appealing to the eye than they did to the mind. The characters that have been long awaited and promoted are reduced to 4-scene cameos. The main characters of Wolverine, Victor Creed (never called Sabertooth in the film) and Colonel Stryker are well developed. I was pleasantly surprised by Liev Schriber's performance. The rest of the characters are tossed to the wayside to make way for the all important eye-candy. Wolverine's character is fully developed after 30-minutes, as is Sabertooth, though Victor does pull off some surprises late in the film.

The "final boss" of the film is a twisted and perverse adaptation of the original character and barely gets any development to show just why he is the way he is. The filmmakers obviously felt that all they really needed to do was create a bad ass character who could do anything they wanted and slapped on the name of a popular character.

Very disappointing...