X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Directed by Gavin Hood
After seeking to live a normal life after 200 years, Logan sets out to avenge a death by undergoing the mutant Weapon X program and becoming Wolverine.
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What critics compared X-Men Origins: Wolverine to
What made “X2,” “Spider-Man 2,” and “The Dark Knight” such powerful films was their ability to combine real-world themes with fantastic elements while never losing sight of what makes their characters unique and compelling.
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is not nearly as visually or creatively inspired as the recent " With Sam Raimi's wondrous, grandly-scaled " Spider- Man films and Christopher Nolan's complex, haunting " The Dark Knight " raising the bar so high on what can be accomplished in comic book and superhero movies, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" falls more in line with infamous duds like the Halle Berry-starring " Catwoman " and unnecessary " Daredevil " spinoff " Elektra ."
You could go all the way to the top and look at the believable world and the grit of “The Dark Knight” to see why but you need only look at Singer’s “X-Men” films, both of which were far more unpredictable and interesting than “Origins”.
Christopher Nolan did something ingenious with the Joker in The Dark Knight.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is no The Dark Knight.
But Jonathan instructs him to resist the urge, and this advice is largely what leads the adult Clark (now played by Henry Cavill) to wander the backroads with no real purpose, a bearded laborer who takes any job he can find (these scenes, combined with Clark's shaggy whiskers, bring to mind Hugh Jackman's wanderings in X-Men and X-Men Origins: Wolverine).
For an origin film like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) and a prequel to "X-Men" (2000), "X-2" (2003), and "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006), "X-Men: First Class" is surprisingly brisk.
After a noisy, cluttered third sequel (2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand ) and a dreadful spin-off (2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine ), the X-Men superhero series was looking pretty worn, and a prequel featuring an entirely new cast seemed like the wrong way to set things right.
So it is to some degree of relief that not only has "X-Men: First Class" turned out to be a sexy, zippy, entertaining thrill ride that kicks new life into the franchise, negating the previous two "X"-stallments – Brett Ratner's ghastly "X3: The Last Stand" from 2006 and Gavin Hood's unfathomably even-worse spin-off "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" from 2009.
…or a repeat of Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009)…
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The amount that "The Wolverine" betrays itself in its power-packed final act—something seemingly borrowed from the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" playbook—is inexcusable and it's almost staggering to believe the same people made this finale (are we sure Gavin Hood and his writers didn’t take over at this point?).
Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line), a director better known for muscular dramatics than muscular mutants, is clearly aiming for a more down-to-earth superhero movie with The Wolverine, especially compared with the knuckleheaded X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).
The last two films featuring Marvel Comics' mutant heroes, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "X-Men: First Class," were both set in the past, pushing the chronology of all the X-films close to "Planet of the Apes"-level convolution.
Deadpool 2 just sprays itself all over the place, from the moment Wade Wilson appears on screen to burst his body into a flaming pile of appendages all the way to the end-credits sequence when Deadpool assassinates every last vestige of his previous life, from the bungled version of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the actor Ryan Reynolds, who so perfectly imbues Deadpool with the getta-loada-me smarm offensive that made Deadpool such a vivid, representative, and useful figure in the ’90s Marvel canon.
The connection between Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s brooding steel-clawed mutant started with a hostile face-off in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But since the emergence of a kinder, gentler Deadpool in the wiseass character’s first stand-alone movie, Wade has carried on a long-distance flirtation with Wolverine.
Both, in 2009, starred in Fox’s maligned and speedily excised from history X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It’s not worth dwelling on the memory.
We’d seen Deadpool and Wolverine team up once before in the 2009 prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Luckily for fans, the duo find their footing the second time around.
Then again, Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman previously oversaw production on the lowest common denominator nerd baubles of yesteryear like X-Men Origins: Wolverine while producer Avi Arad was producer on train wrecks of that era like Elektra and Ghost Rider, so perhaps it isn't so surprising Kraven the Hunter feels like a throwback to the days where “fan service” was something done through gritted teeth.
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It’s not the kind of star profile that immediately screams “blockbuster” (that’s a compliment), and admittedly, Reynolds’ peripheral first appearance as Deadpool, in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009), offered little hint of what he could really do with the role; happily, this wholesale reboot seems to inhabit a superior alternate reality where that dreadful earlier movie doesn’t exist.
It’s much more enjoyable than the studio’s 2009 prequel “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” where Reynolds first played the role of the serial-killing swordsman, less wisecracking there because his lips were sewn shut.
If not wholly infectious, it’s endearing, spiritually righting some of the actor’s past wrongs (“Green Lantern” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” where Reynolds’ take on Deadpool was so confused that it was long assumed the character would never get another crack at the big screen).
Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds) appeared in 2009’s awful “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” but you’d be forgiven for not remembering the character.
(We also get references to Reynolds’ ill-fated turn as “Green Lantern,” his heavily criticized appearance as Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and his 2010 “Sexiest Man Alive” People magazine cover.)
Ryan Reynolds previously played Deadpool in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that interpretation has been axed to clear the way for a new direction.
Ender’s Game, written and directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), is based on the popular 1985 young adult sci-fi novel (and subsequent series) by Orson Scott Card, the Mormon author who has come under fire for his outspoken statements about homosexuality.