X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics' fictional character Wolverine. It was released on May 1, 2009 in the United States. The film is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Hugh Jackman as the title character. It is a prequel to the X-Men film trilogy and is primarily set roughly ten to fifteen years before the film X-Men. The film focuses on the violent past of mutant Wolverine and his time with Team X, before Wolverine's skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium. The plot also details his early encounters with Colonel William Stryker (Danny Huston),[2] the Weapon X program, Wolverine's interactions with other mutants[3] and his complex relationship with his half-brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber).[4] The film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand.

In 1845, North-Western Territory, British North America, young James Howlett (Troye Sivan) sees his father John Howlett (Peter O'Brien) killed by Victor Creed's father, Thomas Logan (Aaron Jeffery). In an act of vengeance, James kills the elder Logan using his bone claws which protrude from his hands. With his dying breath, Logan tells James that he is also his son. James and Victor (Michael-James Olsen) then run away. In the following years, adult brothers James (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) are seen fighting together throughout the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and eventually the Vietnam War, their regenerative powers keep them from being killed in the battlefield. James is forced to act as a check on Victor's ever-increasing rage and ferocity. In Vietnam, Victor kills a superior officer after being stopped from raping a girl, and James and Victor are sentenced to death by firing squad, though their unique regenerative abilities keep them alive.

William Stryker (Danny Huston) approaches the two mutants and offers them membership in Team X, his elite group of mutants. The team consists of mutants Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), who's super-strong and invulnerable, John Wraith (will.i.am), who can teleport, Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), who can control electricity with his mind, expert marksman Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) and mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). The brothers join the group, and are sent to the team's first mission: Invade a diamond traffic operation headquarters to retrieve a meteorite used by the leader of the dealers as a paperweight in Lagos, Nigeria. After retrieving the meteorite, Stryker and the team interogate nearby village people to see if there are any other meteorites. James is disgusted by the murders committed by his teammates and abandons the group.

Six years afterward, James - now going by his last name, Logan - is a lumberjack living with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). Meanwhile, Victor hunts down and murders Bradley, mentioning that Wade is already dead. Stryker locates Logan, and claims that someone is out to kill members of the now-disbanded team. Stryker asks Logan for help, but is refused. Shortly after, Silverfox is murdered by Victor. Wolverine hunts down his half-brother, but is easily defeated. Stryker once again asks Logan for help, and he agrees. Stryker then has Logan's skeletal system reinforced with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal retrieved from the meteorite found by Team X. Before the procedure, Logan asks for his new dog tags to say "Wolverine", based on a story that Kayla had told him. After the procedure, Stryker orders Wolverine's memory to be erased, but Wolverine overhears this and flees. Stryker orders Agent Zero to hunt him and take his head off.

An elderly couple Travis (Max Cullen) and Heather Hudson (Julia Blake) sees Wolverine in their barn and provide him a home until the next morning, only to be shot dead by Zero. Wolverine takes out several HMMWV, a helicopter and Zero himself, then goes to Las Vegas. Wolverine locates former associates John Wraith and Fred Dukes (who is now massively obese from a guilt-driven eating disorder), seeking to learn the location of Stryker's new laboratory. Wolverine learns the disbanded team had been capturing mutants for Stryker. One of them, Remy LeBeau (Taylor Kitsch), also known as Gambit, had escaped the island and knew the location. Dukes also tells him that Victor is actually working for Stryker, capturing and killing mutants for him. Meanwhile, Stryker captures a teenage Scott Summers with Victor's aid.

Wolverine and Wraith locate Gambit in a New Orleans bar. Wolverine talks to Gambit while Wraith keeps watching outside, but Gambit suspects Wolverine was sent to recapture him and, using his ability to charge objects with kinetic energy, throws several playing cards at Wolverine that sends him flying through a wall. Outside, he sees Victor has killed Wraith and taken a sample of his blood. Wolverine fights Victor, only to be interrupted by Gambit. Victor escapes, and after a brief struggle, Gambit agrees to take Wolverine to the mutant prison on Three Mile Island. Once there, Wolverine confronts Stryker and learns Silverfox is still alive, having faked her death with hydrochlorothiazide. She was keeping track of the mutant to free her sister, Emma Frost (Tahyna Tozzi), who is also in the prison. With no more quarrel with Stryker, Wolverine departs. Victor, angered at Stryker that he let Wolverine go, demands the adamantium procedure. Stryker, however, tells him that he won't survive the procedure and in an act of rage, Victor tries to kill Silverfox. Wolverine hears Silverfox's screams and attacks Victor. Finally having the chance to kill Victor, Wolverine chooses not to give in to his animal instincts and instead knocks him out. Silverfox shows Wolverine to the holding cells, and he frees the mutants there; among them are Emma Frost and Scott Summers.

Panicking, Stryker prematurely activates his newest creation, Weapon XI (Scott Adkins) (also known as Deadpool), a bald, pale skinned and deformed Wade Wilson, lacking a mouth and with patterns marking adamantium bone structure. The rescue party approached an exit when it is blocked by Weapon XI who is under Stryker's control. Wolverine tells them to find a new exit as two blades extend from Weapon XI's arms, similar to Wolverine's claws, but more like Wilson's preferred katanas. At this moment Wolverine realizes that this monstrosity is actually Wade Wilson. Weapon XI has the abilities of several of the killed and captured mutants such as Scott's optic blasts, Wraith's teleportation, and Wolverine's healing ability. During the escape, Silverfox is mortally wounded. The other mutants escape through the facility's tunnels, guided by Scott who is unable to tell them how he knows the exit. Emerging from the tunnel, the party encounter a helicopter. Emerging from the helicopter is a familiar figure, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who has guided them to safety and offers them a shelter at his school.

Meanwhile, the fight between Wolverine and Weapon XI spills onto the top of one of the plant's cooling towers. Weapon XI overpowers and prepares to decapitate Wolverine, but Victor returns to aid his brother. Wolverine and Victor, now working together, are able to decapitate Weapon XI; sending its head, still firing optic blasts, down into the cooling tower. Wolverine coldly informs Victor that despite his help, their relationship is over. Victor simply reminds him that as brothers, they can never be finished, and jumps off the side of the cooling tower. The resulting damage from the optic blasts causes the cooling tower to collapse, but Wolverine is saved by Gambit. Wolverine asks Gambit to ensure the prisoners are safe, while he returns to find Silverfox, who had stayed behind. As he carries her to safety, Stryker shoots him in the back with an adamantium bullet. Wolverine tries to kill him but is soon shot in the head, knocking him unconscious.

Silverfox uses her powers of persuasion to order Stryker to walk away until his feet bleed, then dies from her injuries. Gambit returns to assure Wolverine that the mutants are safe, but due to amnesia caused by the brain damage the adamantium bullets inflicted, Wolverine does not remember anything (this was Stryker's intention, knowing that even the adamantium bullets could not kill Logan). Gambit tries to get Wolverine to come with him, but he declines. Gambit wishes Wolverine good luck before departing, and Wolverine flees the scene as the ambulances and police arrive.

Post credits scenes

The film has several additional scenes during and after the credits.[5] The first of these scenes plays a few seconds into the credits, and depicts William Stryker walking down a road. The toes of his shoes are torn and bloody from walking for so long, having been commanded by Silverfox to walk indefinitely. A military vehicle drives up behind him and he is apprehended by military police for questioning about the death of a general that he murdered earlier in the film in order to protect his personal vendetta against mutants.

Depending on which theater the movie was shown in, one of two possible endings then appear following the credits. The first depicts Weapon XI's hand reaching out from the rubble of the nuclear complex to touch his severed head, whereupon the head comes to life before the scene fades to black. The second alternate scene shows Wolverine drinking at a bar in Japan. The female bartender asks if he is drinking to forget; Wolverine replies that he's drinking to remember.

Cast

• Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine: The mutant and future X-Men member. Jackman, who played Wolverine in the previous films, has also become producer of the film via his company Seed Productions, and earned $20 million for the film.[6] Jackman underwent a high intensity weight training regimen to bulk up for his role. He changed the program to shock the body into change and also performed cardiovascular workouts. Jackman noted no digital touches were applied to his physique in a shot of him rising from the tank within which Wolverine has his bones coated in adamantium.[7]
  • Troye Sivan as James: Casting directors cast Sivan as the young Wolverine after seeing him sing at the Channel Seven Perth Telethon, and he was accepted after sending in an audition tape.[8] Kodi Smit-McPhee was originally cast in the role, when filming was originally beginning in December 2007,[9] but he opted out to film The Road.[10]
  • Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed: Logan's brother and fellow soldier. Jackman and Hood compared Wolverine and Sabretooth's relationship to the Borg-McEnroe rivalry in the world of tennis: Sabretooth hates him because he loved and needed his brother, but is too proud to admit he needs him back.[4] Tyler Mane, who played him in X-Men, had hoped to reprise the role.[11] Jackman worked with Schreiber before, in the 2001 romantic comedy Kate & Leopold with Meg Ryan and described him as having a competitive streak necessary to portray Sabretooth. They "egged" each other on set to perform more and more stunts. Schreiber put on 40 lb (18 kg) of muscle for the part,[4] and described Sabretooth as the most monstrous role he ever played. As a child, he loved the Wolverine comics because of their unique "urban sensibility". Schreiber had studied to be a fight choreographer and wanted to be a dancer like Jackman, so he enjoyed working out their fight scenes.[12]
    • Michael-James Olsen as Dog (Young Victor Creed): James's half-brother.
    • Danny Huston as William Stryker: Schreiber was originally in negotiations for the part,[3] while Brian Cox, who played the character in X2, wanted to reprise the role. He believed computer-generated imagery, similar to the program applied to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the opening flashback of X-Men: The Last Stand, would allow him to appear as the younger Stryker.[13] Huston liked the complex Stryker, who "both loves and hates mutants because his son was a mutant and drove his wife to suicide. So he understands what they're going through, but despises their destructive force." He compared the character to a racehorse breeder, who rears his mutant experiments like children but abandons them when something goes wrong.[4]
    • Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox: Wolverine's love interest and later captive of Stryker. She has the powers of tactile telepathy/hypnosis.[4] Michelle Monaghan turned down the role because of scheduling conflicts, despite her enthusiasm to work with Jackman.[14]
    • Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau / Gambit: A Cajun thief who has the ability to charge any object he touches with kinetic energy, forcing it to explode. The size of the object determines the magnitude of the resulting explosion.[4] He is also skilled in the use of a bo staff.
    • will.i.am as John Wraith: A teleporting mutant. It is Will.i.am's major film debut. Although he initially did not get on with the casting director, he got the role because he wanted to play a mutant with the same power as Nightcrawler. He enrolled in boot camp to get into shape for the part.[15] When filming a fight, he scarred his knuckles after accidentally punching and breaking the camera.[16]
    • Kevin Durand as Frederick J. Dukes / Blob: A mutant with an indestructible layer of skin and the ability to create his own gravitational field. In the film's early sequences, he is a formidable fighting man but years later, due to his mutation, he has gained an enormous amount of weight.[4]
    • Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool: A wisecracking mercenary who was not actually a mutant until he underwent experimentations which gave him the same healing factor as Wolverine. Reynolds had been interested in playing the character in his own film since 2003.[17] Originally, Reynolds was only going to cameo as Wilson but the role grew after he was cast.[18].
    • Daniel Henney as Agent Zero: A member of the Weapon X program and an expert tracker with lethal marksman skills.[4]
    • Dominic Monaghan as Bradley: A mutant who can manipulate electricity and a technopath.[19]
    • Tahyna Tozzi as Emma Frost: A mutant with the power to turn her skin into diamond.[20] X2 writer Dan Harris said that Sigourney Weaver would have played Emma Frost in X-Men: The Last Stand if Bryan Singer had stayed on to direct.[21] The film depiction of Emma does not exhibit the character's traditional telepathic abilities. Film credits list the character as "Kayla's sister/Emma" as opposed to "Emma Frost"; however, trailers and television ads identify her by full name as "Emma Frost".
    • Scott Adkins as Weapon XI: Weapon XI has powers "pooled" into Wade Wilson's body. His mouth is sewn shut, due to Stryker's annoyance with Wilson's wise-cracking. His powers come from many other mutants killed or kidnapped in the film, including Wolverine's healing factor, Cyclops' optic blasts and Wraith's teleportation ability. He retains his martial arts ability from when he was Wilson and has retractable blades in his arms. He's the final antagonist of the film, having been genetically altered to be the ultimate mutant killer. In the comics, Weapon XI and Deadpool are two entirely different characters, but they decided to incorporate this new take into the film. Weapon XI looks similar to Daken.
    • Peter O'Brien as John Howlett: James' adoptive father, shot by Thomas Logan in the film's opening.
    • Alice Parkinson as Elizabeth Howlett: James' mother.
    • Aaron Jeffery as Thomas Logan: Victor and James' real father.
    • Max Cullen as Travis Hudson: An old man who takes care of Wolverine after his adamantium bonding.
    • Julia Blake as Heather Hudson: An old woman who takes care of Wolverine after his adamantium bonding. In the comics, Heather is portrayed as much younger. Like in the movie, Heather and her husband were the first to locate Logan after the bonding and they would later be teammates of Wolverine during his days with Alpha Flight. She went by the codename of Vindicator.

    The film includes numerous cameo appearances of younger versions of characters from the previous films, including Cyclops (Tim Pocock), a Weapon X captive,[22], young Dust and Jason Stryker (William's lobotomized telepathic son whom he keeps on ice). There was a cameo for a young Storm, which can be seen in the trailer, but it was cut out.[23] A digitally "de-aged" Patrick Stewart also makes an uncredited cameo as a younger Charles Xavier.[24]

    Asher Keddie is in the film, and played Dr. Carol Frost.[25][26] Poker player Daniel Negreanu has a cameo. Phil Hellmuth wanted to join him but was unable because he committed to an event in Toronto.[27] X-Men co-creator Stan Lee said he would cameo,[28] but he was not in Australia during filming, so this will have to be a pick-up conducted during January 2009, though he was erroneously credited as "Lawnmower man" in the leaked work print (notable since the work print inexplicably has part of X-Men: The Last Stand's credits tacked on to it).[29]

    Production

    Development

    David Benioff, a comic book fan, pursued the project for almost three years before he was hired to write the script in October 2004.[30][31] In preparing to write the script, he reread Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" story, as well as Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's 1982 limited series on the character (his favorite storyline).[30][32] Jackman collaborated on the script, which he wanted to be more of a character piece compared with the previous X-Men films.[33] Benioff aimed for a "darker and a bit more brutal" story, writing it with an R rating in mind, although he acknowledged the film's final tone would rest with the producers and director.[30] Jackman did not see the need to make the film R.[34]

    Deadpool had been developed for his own film by Reynolds and David S. Goyer at New Line Cinema in 2003, but the project fell apart as they focused on Blade: Trinity and an aborted spin-off.[17] Benioff wrote the character into the script in a manner Jackman described as fun, but would also deviate from some of his traits. Similarly, Gambit was a character who the filmmakers had tried to put in the previous X-Men films. Jackman liked Gambit because he is a "loose cannon" like Wolverine, stating their relationship echoes that of Wolverine and Pyro in the original trilogy.[7] David Ayer contributed to the script.[35] Benioff finished his draft in October 2006, and Jackman stated there would be a year before shooting,[36] as he was scheduled to start filming Australia (2008) during 2007.[37] Before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began, James Vanderbilt and Scott Silver were hired for a last-minute rewrite.[38]

    Gavin Hood was announced as director of the project in July 2007 for a 2008 release.[39] Previously, X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer and X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner were interested in returning to the franchise,[40][41] while Alexandre Aja and Len Wiseman also wanted the job.[42][43] Zack Snyder, who was approached for The Last Stand, turned down this film because he was directing Watchmen.[44] Jackman saw parallels between Logan and the main character in Tsotsi.[4] Hood explained that while he was not a comic book fan, he "realized that the character of Wolverine, I think his great appeal lies in the fact that he's someone who in some ways, is filled with a great deal of self-loathing by his own nature and he's constantly at war with his own nature".[45] The director described the film's themes as focusing on Wolverine's inner struggle between his animalistic savagery and noble human qualities. Hood enjoyed the previous films, but set out to give the spin-off a different feel.[46] In October, Fox announced a May 1, 2009 release date and the X-Men Origins prefix.[3]

    Filming

    Preliminary shooting took place at Fox Studios Australia (in Sydney) during late 2007.[47] Principal photography began on January 18, 2008[48] in New Zealand. Locations included Dunedin.[49] Controversy arose as the Queenstown Lakes District Council disputed the Department of Labour's decision to allow Fox to store explosives in the local ice skating rink. Fox moved some of the explosives to another area.[50] The explosives were used for a shot of the exploding Hudson Farm, a scene which required four cameras.[51] Jackman and Palermo's Woz Productions reached an agreement with the council to allow recycling specialists on set to advise the production on being environmentally friendly.[52]

    Filming continued at Fox (where most of the shooting was done) and New Orleans, Louisiana.[3] Cockatoo Island was used for Stryker's facility; the enormous buildings there saved money on digitally expanding a set.[4] Production of the film was predicted to generate $60 million in Sydney's economy.[53] Principal photography ended by May 23. The second unit continued filming in New Zealand until March 23, and were scheduled to continue filming for two weeks following the first unit's wrap.[54] This included a flashback to Logan during the Normandy Landings, which was shot at Blacksmiths, New South Wales.[55]

    Hood and Fox disputed on the film's direction. The studio had two replacements lined up before Richard Donner, husband of producer Lauren Shuler Donner, flew to Australia to ease on-set tensions.[56] Hood remarked, "Out of healthy and sometimes very rigorous debate, things get better. [...] I hope the film's better because of the debates. If nobody were talking about us, we'd be in trouble!"[4] Hood added he and Thomas Rothman were both "forceful" personalities in creative meetings but they had never had a "stand-up" argument.[57] Two weeks of pick-ups began on January 12, 2009, in Vancouver.[58] These included finishing scenes with Ryan Reynolds, who had been working on two other films during principal photography.[59] Shots were filmed at the University of British Columbia[60], Lord Byng Secondary School, and Kitsilano Secondary School.

    Gavin Hood has announced that multiple "secret endings" exist for the film and that these endings will differ from print to print of the film.[61]

    Music

    Composed by Harry Gregson-Williams with additional music by Halli Cauthery and Christopher Willis, the soundtrack for X-Men Origins: Wolverine was mixed by Malcolm Luker, engineered by Costa Kotselas and features Martin Tillman on the electric cello.[63]

    In a 2008 interview with Christopher Coleman of Tracksounds.com,[64] Gregson-Williams said that Gavin Hood attracted him to the project, saying "I happened to meet him at the Golden Globes dinner about three years ago. That night we were both nominees, but both losers. He had been nominated for Tsotsi and during the dinner I had spoken to him and he seemed like a really smart and creative guy...and into music. So I was really delighted when I got a call to meet him and discuss the possibilities for Wolverine."[65] At the time of the interview, Gregson-Williams was already working on Tony Scott's remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,[65] but the earlier release date of X-Men Origins: Wolverine eventually led him to sidetrack that project and the one for Pixar's G-Force.

    In late March of 2009, Jon Burlingame of Variety was at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century-Fox to listen and report on the recording of the score.[66] Gregson-Williams conducted "a 78-piece orchestra and a 40-voice choir (20 male, 20 female)" to achieve the sound.[66] At the time of his visit, Burlingame noted that the choir was singing "stanzas from an ancient Norse poem in Old Icelandic" to underscore what would be first track, "Logan Through Time."[66] Director Gavin Hood commented on Gregson-Williams' style, saying: "Harry's challenge is to give us operatic scale, but also keep it intimate and human. Harry's music has a kind of muscular confidence and strength that is very useful for the action, but he also has tremendous soul."[66] Hood also called the recording performance "frigging brilliant!"[66]

    Release

    Leaked workprint

    On March 31, 2009, a full length DVD-quality workprint of the film without a timecode or watermark, with some unfinished effects shots and a temporary soundtrack, was leaked online.[67][68] The studio said it would be able to determine the source of the leak using forensic marks in the workprint. The FBI and MPAA began investigating the illegal posting.[68]

    The print contained a reference to Rising Sun Pictures, an Australian visual effects company working on the film.[67] The company denied that they ever had a full copy of the film.[69] Executive producer Thomas Rothman noted the leaked version lacked the ten minutes added during pick-ups in January 2009.[69] However, the theatrical version of the film has no extra scenes that were not included in the leaked workprint.[70] The only differences between the two are the completed special effects and musical score.

    Theatrical run

    X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released on April 29, 2009 in the UK, Denmark, South Africa and Australia, Aprl 30, 2009 in the Philippines and May 1, 2009 in the United States and Canada. A contest was held on the official website to determine the location of the world premiere on April 27. Fans could vote for their town. In the end, the Harkins at the Tempe Marketplace in Tempe, Arizona won the premiere.[71] The release in Mexico has been delayed for an unspecified period of time due to H1N1 flu.[72] Cinemagoers to Vue cinemas in the UK were able to see the film the day before release, by attending an 'X-Men Quadrilogy' screening event, with the film shown at approx 22:00 on the 28th April.

    On April 22, nine days before the release of the film, it was reported that X-Men Origins: Wolverine was outselling Iron Man "3-to-1 at the same point in the sales cycle (nine days prior to the film’s release)."[73]

    During its first day of wide release, Wolverine took in an estimated $35 million,[74] with almost $5 million of that from midnight showings.[75] That places the film as the 16th highest-grossing opening day ever (22nd with ticket-price inflation).[74] It went on to be #1 at the box office with a total of $85,000,000[76][77]. Among summer kick-offs, it ranked fifth behind Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man, Iron Man and X2, and it was in the top ten of comic book adaptations[78]. The opening was lower than the last movie in the franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand, as well as X2: X-Men United, but higher than the first X-Men.[79].

    Reception

    The film has received a mixed reception from critics. As of May 3, 2009 it has grossed an estimated $87,000,000 domestically in 4,099 theaters, and $160,000,000 worldwide.[1] Rotten Tomatoes currently reports a "36% rotten" rating--or 15% when filtered for their "Top Critics"--with 187 reviews (70 "fresh", 117 "rotten").[80] Metacritic reports a "metascore of 44 out of 100 from 34 critic reviews."[81] Comparatively, Yahoo! Movies currently reports a grade of "C+" averaged from 13 critic reviews.[82]

    Richard Corliss of Time commented on the film's standing among other Marvel films, saying that it is "an O.K., not great, Marvel movie that tells the early story of the prime X-Man, and attempts to make it climax in a perfect coupling with the start of the known trilogy." He also said that "superhero mythologies can be so complicated, only a lonely comic-book-reading kid could make sense of it all."[83] James Mullinger of GQ also commented on the structure of the story in saying that the "film clumsily tries to explain the origins of James Howlett, AKA Wolverine, which had wisely only ever been briefly referred to in the original X-Men saga. In doing so, it creates a fairly bland plot which is full of holes."[84]

    Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and expressed his views on the title character: "Why should I care about this guy? He feels no pain and nothing can kill him, so therefore he's essentially a story device for action sequences."[85] Comparatively, Bill Gibron of AMC's filmcritic website gave the film a positive "4.0 out of 5 stars," saying that although Hugh Jackman is "capable of carrying even the most mediocre effort, he singlehandedly makes X-Men Origins: Wolverine an excellent start to the summer 2009 season." He did however predict that "there will be purists who balk at how Hood and his screenwriters mangle and manipulate the mythology;" and further said that "any ending which leaves several characters unexplained and unaccounted for can't really seal the full entertainment deal."[86]

    Regarding Wolverine within the context of the X-Men film series, Tom Charity of CNN commented: "Serviceable but inescapably redundant, this Wolverine movie does just enough to keep the X-Men franchise on life support, but the filmmakers will have to come up with some evolutionary changes soon if it's going to escape X-tinction."[87] Similarly, A. O. Scott of The New York Times expressed that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine will most likely manage to cash in on the popularity of the earlier episodes, but it is the latest evidence that the superhero movie is suffering from serious imaginative fatigue."[88] On a more negative note, Philip French of The Observer said that the film's "dull, bone-crushing, special-effects stuff" are "of interest only to hardcore fans who've probably read it all in Marvel comics."[89]

    Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph stated that "Wolverine is an artificial stimulus package of the most unsatisfying kind. Aggressively advertised and hyped to the hills, it will no doubt attract full houses at first; after that though, when word-of-mouth buzz-kill goes into overdrive, there’s bound to be widespread deflation and a palpable feeling of being conned."[90] Similarly, Orlando Parfitt of IGN (UK) praised the performances of the actors and the action scenes, but stated that the film felt underdeveloped: "There's an enjoyable time to be had with Wolverine, but it's also somewhat unsatisfying."[91] Furthermore, Scott Mendelson of The Huffington Post gave the film a grade of "D," noting that "Wolverine was the lead character of [the X-Men] films, and we've already learned everything we need to know from the films in said franchise," adding that "the extra information given here actually serves to make the character of Logan/Wolverine less interesting."[92] Trevan McGee of Ink also commented on the supporting cast, saying "the movie bends over backward trying to inject as many cameos and secondary characters into the movie as possible. The mutants invented for the movie are uninspired and boring..."[93]

    Video game

    Raven Software developed a video game based on the film with the same name, which Activision Blizzard published.[94] Marc Guggenheim wrote the script.[95]

    Sequel

    Hood speculated that there will be a sequel, which may be set in Japan.[45] As stated above, at the end credits scene, Logan is seen drinking at a Japanese bar. Such a location was the subject of Claremont and Miller's series, which was not in the first film as Jackman felt “what we need to do is establish who [Logan] is and find out how he became Wolverine".[36] Jackman stated the Claremont-Miller series is his favorite Wolverine story.[97] Of the Japanese arc, Jackman also stated that, "there are so many areas of that Japanese story, I love the idea of this kind of anarchic character, the outsider, being in this world - I can see it aesthetically, too - full of honor and tradition and customs and someone who’s really anti-all of that, and trying to negotiate his way. The idea of the samurai, too - and the tradition there. It’s really great. In the comic book he gets his ass kicked by a couple of samurai - not even mutants. He’s shocked by that at first.”[96] He added another Wolverine film would be a follow-up rather than continuing on from X-Men: The Last Stand.[98] The inclusion of Deadpool and Gambit also leads to the possibilities of their own spin-offs.[99] Before Wolverine's release, Lauren Shuler Donner approached Simon Beaufoy to write the script, but he did not feel confident enough to commit.[100] On May 5, just two days after its initial weekend run, the sequel was officially confirmed.[101]

     Hide 
    

Leave a Reply