X-Men Origins-Wolverine (2009)

"Hood and Jackman bring depth to a comic-book tale of anti-heroes with anger issues.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"...Jackman is well-matched with Schreiber, who can sneer with the best of them...  Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"Jackman has a wily, crowd-pleasing knack for playing Wolverine as if he were a more emotive and even more snarly Clint Eastwood.  Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
"High jackman segues effortlessly from a tuxedoed song-and-dance man at the Oscars to a feral gent with adamantium claws and "berserker rage."  Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Editor's Note When choosing which mutant hero they would use to launch the X-MEN feature-film prequel series ORIGINS, the creators of the hugely successful franchise had a no-brainer of a decision in going with Wolverine. Not only is he the most well-known and popular X-Men character, but Wolverine--as brought expertly to life in true leading-man fashion by Hugh Jackman--was essentially the star of the three previous X-MEN movies. As the title implies, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is the back story of the fiery and conflicted Wolverine (né James Logan), whose mutant powers include killer claws that shoot from his knuckles and a regenerative ability that allows him to live seemingly forever. Taking a few mild liberties but staying relatively faithful to the comic-book source material, ORIGINS follows Logan from his first recognition of his mutant powers as a young child up through his infamous adamantium rebirth and the total memory loss that would subsequently fuel his angry quest. Wolverine?s story has enough intriguing details to allow for a grown-up psychodrama in the mold of THE DARK KNIGHT, and the actors on hand--including Danny Huston as Stryker and Liev Schreiber as Logan?s half-brother, Victor (aka Sabretooth)--have the chops to deliver. Director Gavin Hood, however, opts in favor of cinematic razzle-dazzle heavy on John Woo-style action-ballet and CGI glitz. From Deadpool?s eye-popping swordplay (the action-adventure equivalent of Riverdance) to the tightrope-walk of a fight scene in the film?s finale, WOLVERINE is a blockbuster action film in the most fundamental sense of the word. While some might complain that the film lacks the storytelling substance of the first two X-MEN films, if it?s bang you?re after, then this certainly isn?t a waste of your bucks.

	Liev Schreiber
	Dominic Monaghan
	Ryan Reynolds
	Taylor Kitsch
	Will.I.Am
	Lynn Collins
	Kevin Durand
	Daniel Henney
	Hugh Jackman
	Danny Huston
	David Benioff - Screenwriter
	Skip Woods - Screenwriter
	Lauren Shuler Donner - Producer
	Ralph Winter - Producer
	Hugh Jackman - Producer
	John Palermo - Producer
	Donald McAlpine - Director of Photography
	Harry Gregson-Williams - Composer
	Gavin Hood - Director

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "Jackman invests his fierce character with a cheeky attitude, clear-eyed intelligence and inherent decency, compelling viewers to care about his metamorphosis." 05/01/2009

Los Angeles Times
"It's a solid, efficient comic book movie....Both Jackman and costar Liev Schreiber, who plays Wolverine's even angrier half-brother Sabretooth, are fine actors who throw themselves into whatever they take on..." 04/30/2009

New York Times
"Mr. Schreiber, sporting fangs as well as mutton chops, gives the movie a surly kick..." 05/01/2009

San Francisco Chronicle 5 of 10
There's an implicit threat in the title X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It's the suggestion that there are lots of X-Men, and each one has an origin, and that this is just the first of a potentially endless series of X-Men movies - each one doing what this one does: boring audiences with go-nowhere action sequences, while dazzling the mind with zingy repartee, such as, "Well, well, well! Look what the cat dragged in!"...Think: An actor didn't just say that. First, a screenwriter had to write it. He had to delve inside and search for something clever, tearing up reams of paper in the process, just the way writers do in movies. Then, finally, the sun burst through the clouds in the form of "Well, well, well! Look what the cat dragged in!" When a line like that makes it to the final cut - when a respectable director like Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition) and his screenwriters start coming through the door with soggy, chewed-up, half-dead cliches to drop at your feet - that tells you something...Jackman has a peculiar film career. He seems determined to be the handsomest man in some of the worst movies of his era, although in Wolverine those good looks are obscured under a demeanor of humorlessness and strain and a hairstyle that evokes mid-period Eddie Munster. Any beefy actor could have played Victor, but the sight of Schreiber with fangs depressed me - this is where our talent goes now...On a happier note, Huston is this decade's J.T. Walsh, the best white-collar villain in movies - and he survives. And Lynn Collins, in one of her first important roles in a major picture, leaves an impression of probity and loveliness as Wolverine's girlfriend, who is so nice and so clearheaded and so fundamentally decent that the minute she comes onscreen, every viewer turns into an amateur life insurance actuary. - Mick LaSalle

Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
X-Men Origins: Wolverine finally answers the burning question, left hanging after all three previous Wolverine movies, of the origins of Logan, whose knuckles conceal long and wicked blades. He is about 175 years old, he apparently stopped changing when he reached Hugh Jackman's age, and neither he, nor we, find out how he developed such an interesting mutation...His half-brother was Victor (Liev Schreiber). Their story starts in "1840 -- the Northwest Territories of Canada," a neat trick, since Canada was formed in 1867, and its Northwest Territories in 1870. But you didn't come here for a history lesson. Or maybe you did, if you need to know that Logan and Victor became Americans (still before they could be Canadians) and fought side by side in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam. Why they did this, I have no idea. Maybe they just enjoyed themselves...Such films are assemblies of events. There is little dialogue, except for the snarling of threats, vows and laments, and the recitation of essential plot points. Nothing here about human nature. No personalities beyond those hauled in via typecasting. No lessons to learn. No joy to be experienced. Just mayhem, noise and pretty pictures. I have been powerfully impressed by film versions of Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Iron Man and the Iron Giant. I wouldn't even walk across the street to meet Wolverine...But wait! -- you say. Doesn't X-Men Origins at least provide a learning experience for Logan about the origins of Wolverine? Hollow laugh. Because we know that the modern Wolverine has a form of amnesia, it cannot be a spoiler for me to reveal that at the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he forgets everything that has happened in the film. Lucky man. - Roger Ebert

ReelViews 6 of 10
2008 was the year in which the comic book superhero came of age. Films like Iron Man and especially The Dark Knight illustrated what was possible when a motion picture dared to take its characters out of the comfortable box in which too many superhero franchises reside. Wolverine, the fourth in the X-Men series, ignores the gains made by the genre during the past year. Although neither unwatchable nor inept, this movie is generic and uninspired. It's a B-list story masquerading as an A-list title. It's the kind of thing that, based on concept and screenplay alone, would have been more at home with an early spring or late autumn release rather than batting leadoff for 2009's roster of summer blockbusters...Wolverine had a troubled production history, which might explain its inconsistent tone and sloppy ending. As previously mentioned, Richard Donner was recruited by Fox to "advise" Hood on some of the more challenging action scenes. (Accounts about the degree of this "advice" vary based on who is discussing it - some claim that Donner took over the center chair.) Re-shoots were necessary. And there was the infamous Internet leak of a work print. Publicity-wise, Wolverine has been overshadowed by some of the summer's later releases. Nevertheless, superhero movies are big business, and this is 2009's lone established comic book franchise sequel. In terms of tone and content, Wolverine is a nearer match to Daredevil than Iron Man, but its box office gross will undoubtedly be closer to the latter. Marvel Comics movies have a history of "opening" the summer; this is one occasion when the splash may be bigger than the material warrants. - James Berardinelli