In every major and lengthy film series ever produced, not every film in them can be a stone cold classic! Yes, you can have quite a few good films in a series, but when it all boils down, the more films it has, the more likely it will have a real stinker among them; and in the case of the X-Men film series, it’s so incredibly easy to choose which is the worst of them all: X-Men Origins: Wolverine! Don’t get me wrong, I love the X-Men film series; it’s one of my absolute favourite film series not just in recent memory, but of all time. However, I am in no way saying I love every film.
It does contain some of the best, if not the greatest…actually, wait, NO; It does contain some of the Greatest Superhero films ever made. In fact I did rank my favourites a few years ago on this blog, with my particular favourites including, but not limiting to:
- Logan,
- Days of Future Past,
- First Class,
- Deadpool,
- X-Men 2 (or X2 if you prefer).
The film series though feels largely forgotten now thanks to Disney buying out the competition, thus regaining the film rights to the X-Men film series, and then deciding to not make any more X-Men films since, which is incredibly disappointing, as other than the new Deadpool and Blade films in production, there is currently nothing in the MCU that I want to actually pay money to see! I mean they bought out 21st Century Fox over four years ago now, that’s more than enough time to make at least one X-Men film. Come on Disney; buck up your ideas!
Anyway, so whilst the series did sadly end, it did produce some of my favourite films of the last couple of decades. But, to get back on point; not all of them were great, or even good. One of the film’s in the series, is downright bad. In fact, I could easily consider it as one of the worst movies ever made. Which is also rather sad.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine contained quite a lot of promise, as it was the first solo movie in the series, and it featured the series biggest break out star in Hugh Jackman. Additionally though the film was going to tell the origin story of Wolverine, as well as meant to help lead into another movie (which it of course did) based on the limited comic book series Wolverine. There was soo much possibility and promise about this film leading into it. But it in reality it was an absolute train wreck!
There are soo many problems with this film, but if I started listing now, then I couldn’t do a proper list post either. So instead of me ranting on, I have listed five things which I personally don’t like about this film. However, if you can think of any other major problems with this film that you think I have missed out, please let me know in the comments. But in the meantime, here are Five Things I Do Not Like About X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Enjoy!
5. CGI – The CGI in this film is bad! Really shockingly dreadful! Now if this film had been released ten years earlier, or around the release of the first X-Men film (9 years earlier to be precise), then it could be forgiven, or as seen as good for that time. But this film was released in 2009, after three previous X-Men films, the last of which featured a scene where the Golden Gate Bridge gets lifted. To then go from that, to a scene where Wolverine tries out his obviously fake claws in a toilet; yeah, it’s just regrettable!
4. Eviscerating Classic Characters – One of the things that should be in the favour of this film, is that it introduces a whole new cast of classic characters from the comics. Many of these characters are regular features in the comics, where as some are not as well known, and could be considered as totally alien to the non comic book reading movie going audience. They include Blob, Kestrel, and Silver Fox. Due to the rather wayward direction for the filmmakers took in making this film however, many of these inclusions were either not worth the screen time, or more likely ruined for the sake of an audience unaware of the character’s background. Two characters in particular were pretty much ruined by this film. Firstly, whilst the character of David North has two alter ego’s, the one chosen just comes across as a rather bland hitman character. His other alter ego Maverick would have made a much more interesting character, even if he was still just a hitman. But worst of all is of course what they did to…Deadpool! Some of the Deadpool characteristics are there, but none of them feature in his final form, in what is a terribly designed endgame villain. Thankfully though we got two Deadpool film’s several years later, to give justice to the character (and more importantly assassinate the Origins version too)!
3. The Wolverine – You may have noticed I have not yet mentioned the second of the trilogy of Wolverine Movies; simply known as The Wolverine; well I was saving it for this. I actually consider The Wolverine as the third best film in the series, and a massive 180 degrees in quality in comparison to Origins. The issue with it though, is that if you are trying to encourage others to watch The Wolverine, they immediately think of this film…aka Origins. Many of them are perhaps unaware that there were three movies focused on Wolverine, and perhaps conclude that the first film then jumps straight to Logan. Which is not all that bad I suppose, as Logan is terrific too. But, it just sort of ruins the potential of having friends around to watch a Movie and suggest watching The Wolverine, and for them to immediately think of Origins, and then not watching either (which is possibly OK too, as not even I would like to re-watch Origins); but still, I’d still like to sit down and watch The Wolverine with them, and help them to move on from the rough experience that is Origins!
2. Trying To Link It All Together – Trying to make a prequel film in a well established series should be incredibly easy right? You just fill in the gaps leading up to where the start point was, right? So why does this feel like it doesn’t belong in this series? The evidence is there, from when Logan get’s his claws for instance, which was highlighted in the first X-Men film, with a scene where he remembers running naked down a cave tunnel, with blood on his hands, and metal claws sticking out of them. Where is that scene then in this film? Yes the film covers the whole memory loss thing at the end, but still, if he remembers that so clearly, then surely it should be in this film. Then there’s the ending where all the young mutants get rescued by Professor X. One of those mutants rescued is of course Cyclops, who was featured in the first film again, and is labelled as one of X’s first students. However, none of the other nearly 20-ish other mutants rescued in that scene, including Emma Frost, are not mentioned or brought up in any of the three previous films. This film is trying so hard to fit into a series, one that it created, and should easily slip into, but yet, it feels like the filmmakers are already trying to reboot the series, rather than make what should have been a pretty easy prequel to make!
1. The Good Bits – The thing you find more and more with particularly bad movies, is that they will feature something good, something that which may make the watching experience bearable. The film is still not Oscar or Bafta worthy, but it carries something good which makes the whole experience worth it. And much like many bad films, this film carries some good points; but unfortunately not a lot. The good points about this film concern four main cast members, who really help prop up this film to some extent. The four main cast members in question are Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Lynn Collins, and Taylor Kitsch. You can’t really say anything particularly bad about Jackman, who remains a solid lead through the whole film. Schreiber is sort of good in this film, but you do feel sorry that the filmmakers chose him over Tyler Mane, for the role of Sabretooth, but Schreiber does help to flesh out the characters backstory, plus his inclusion in the final fight is pretty cool too. Lynn Collins meanwhile comes in as a friend to Jackman, and whilst she does sort of double cross him, you don’t feel any hate towards her, as she did it for the right reasons, and in turn remains a hero, albeit one with a tragic ending. But, the real standout is Taylor Kitsch as Gambit. He provides an excellent portrayal for this classic character, which unlike Deadpool, is pretty faithful to the comics. The sad bit about it though, is that due to development problems over a series that lasted two whole decades, this was the only time, that the greatest character in the history of X-Men appeared in a single movie! So, yes, the film does have it’s good points, but the tragedy behind them, just makes the whole film that much harder to just watch!
Things I Like 
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