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X-Men Origins - Wolverine (2009)

Average rating

(75%)

Starring:	Hugh Jackman \| Ryan Reynolds \| Liev Schreiber \| Dominic Monaghan \| Lynn Collins \| Danny Huston \| Daniel Henney \| Taylor Kitsch \| Aaron Jeffery
Director:	Gavin Hood
Studio:	20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time:	103 mins
Collections:	100 Most Wanted
Genres:	Action/Adventure \| Audio Descriptive \| Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Languages:	English, English Audio Description
Released:	October 19, 2009
Also available on:

Wolverine lives a mutant life, seeks revenge against Victor Creed (who will later become Sabertooth) for the death of his girlfriend, and ultimately ends up going through the mutant Weapon X program.

Screenshots

New York Post

It's packed with nonstop action, has cutting-edge special effects and stunt work, terrific cinematography (by Donald McAlpine) and beautiful locations, and is tautly directed by Gavin Hood. A super-buff Jackman gets to explore the character in more depth than previously and Liev Schreiber, as his brother, makes a dandy bad guy.

Rating of 2 stars out of 5
Time Out

The first in a planned series of X-Men prequels, Wolverine arrives dogged by a lengthy production process...

Highest rated reviews

14 out of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3 stars
An improvement on The Last Stand

Ben4King from from London, 1st May, 2009

An improvement on The Last Stand

After Brett Ratner's dire The Last Stand fumbled the ball, Wolverine arrives with the future of the X-Men franchise resting on its shoulders. The result, something nowhere near Singers classy X2, yet just about good enough to be worth seeing.

Not being well versed in comic book lore, its tricky for me to judge its respect to the source material however Hugh Jackman is reliable (and hairy) as ever, even if he is hamstrung by a grumpy vengeance storyline, that forces him to be a moody git for most of the running time. Its much more fun to watch him making flippant quips and chomping cigars, but those moments are few and far between. Liev Schreiber's great as an unhinged (and even more hairy) Sabretooth, Dominic Monaghan's Bolt is interesting but sadly underused and I didn't think there would ever come a time that I would say this, but Ryan Reynolds is actually funny. I know, its shocking!

There are too many other cameos to list here and at times it just feels like watching a fan service conveyor-belt. Several potentially interesting people come and go without ever being explored and the wider context of a fragile, paranoid society on the brink of a culture war between mutants and humans, is not touched on at all. Its a straight action-revenge story that inspires no mulling of the bigger issues whatsoever.

It does at least all hang together. Its helps that it is bookended by a pulsating opening sequence that jumps between several historic battlefields and has a satisfyingly epic finale that neatly ties in with the first X-Men movie. I guess I was just hoping I might be able to engage my brain a little bit.

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11 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3 stars
Good, but missed something.

A Customer from Twickenham, 3rd May, 2009

Firstly, can I have a little rant? Thank you. DO NOT REVIEW A MOVIE/GAME YOU HAVE NOT SEEN OR PLAYED! 'Oh it looks good I give it 5*', its so annoying. and relax.... Anyho, Wolverine. I had high expectations of this movie, and in certain aspects I was happy in others not so much. Happy ones first: Hugh Jackman is Wolverine, he plays the role very well and looks the part. Victor Creed (Sabretooth) is excellent. Action scenes are good, fast and exciting (especially the final fight). Some good surprises as well (stay till the end of the credits!!!!). Bad points: Some characters are not in it enough, Ryan Reynolds (Wade) is SO brilliant....for the 5 minutes of screen time he gets. Gambit isnt bad...for 10 minutes. You get my point. Its not brutal enough, WOlverine is a violent person and its not explored enough in this, he gets a bit angry but about as angry and you would get when you drop your toast. Good but its missing teeth.

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Most recent reviews

Rated 3 stars
Run of the mill action flick. 5/10.

Graham from UK, 15th November, 2009

Who doesn’t love the X-men? Action, drama, fantasy and fun built nicely on an already well enjoyed idea. Sadly this movie does not meet the standard set by its predecessors so please do not expect X-men 4! The story is based around Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), one of the lead X-men, and how he came to have those lethal adamantine knives inside his hands. It starts with Wolverine and half brother Victor (Liev Schreiber) joining evil military boss Stryker’s crack force and follows his story as he leaves the unit and ends up taking the whole lot on in a quest for revenge. The story is really simple, this despite a few fairly predictable twists, the actual facts of how Wolverine became Wolverine are interesting and there is not shortage of action but there is very little drama and without the rest of the cast this ends up being nothing more than a run of the mill action flick. Enjoyable in places. 5/10. 3 Stars.

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