X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a film based on the Marvel comics superhero Wolverine. The film centers on the story of Wolverine. It was made and released after the X-Men trilogy (X-Men, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand) but is a prequel to the first film and the fourth film to be released in the X-Men series. The budget of the film was $150 million and the film has grossed over $438 million worldwide with DVD sales.

Plot
James Howlett was born in 1832. When he was 13, he was sick in his bed with his brother Victor watching over him. Victor's father then came in, drunk. James then heard gunfire during a dispute at his father's estate, and went to investigate. He found his father dead. In his anger he killed the other man present with his newly discovered bone claws. Before dying, the second man revealed that he was James' true father.

James ran away, but was overtaken by Victor Creed, who vowed that since they were brothers, that they would look out for each other no matter what.

Over the next 120 years, James and Victor stayed together and fought for the United states in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam war, Victor tried to rape a Vietnamese girl but when their senior officer tries to stop him, Victor kills him. James, now going by the name Logan, then came to his aid, revealing their gifts to the other men in their unit. They are sentenced to death by firing squad after decapitating a senior officer, but do not die when shot. This brings them to the attention of Maj. William Stryker, who asks them to join a special team of mutants that he is assembling.

Under Stryker's direction they are sent to search for Adamantium, a "mysterious rock". They discover some at a compound that fell from the sky as a meteor. When the mutants begin attacking a nearby village, James stops them, and then walks off into the night.

Six years later, Victor has started to kill off other members of the team starting with Wade Wilson and Chris Bradley. James, using the name "Logan" is living as a lumberjack with a girlfriend named Kayla. She tells him a story about the moon and "her" partner, Kuekuatsu, whose name meant "Wolverine".

Stryker and Agent Zero find Logan and asks him to "defend his country" again, but Logan claims he is Canadian and drives away. Soon after, Victor attacks Kayla while Logan is at work and kills her.

A furious and grieving Logan finds Victor in a bar and the two lunge for each other. After a brutal fight, Victor snaps off Logan's bone claws on his left hand. He goes to Stryker's hospital and is healed. When he wakes up he finds Stryker, who tells him he can help him get revenge on Victor with an experiment that will hurt more than any man's been hurt.

Logan asks for new dog tags with the name "Wolverine" on them. Stryker binds Logan's bones with Adamantium, and he flat lines after the procedure. Logan then hears that Stryker plans to erase his memory. After a few moments, he awakes again. He attacks the facility and escapes.

Logan runs until he finds a barn, and hides in it. The family who lives at the farm take him in and give him clothes. In the morning the elderly man, Travis, comes speaks to Logan. He gives Logan a jacket and tells him that he can take his motorcycle for a spin, but he and his wife, Heather, are killed by Agent Zero moments later. The barn is bombed as Logan escapes with the bike. After a long and daring chase, Logan attacks Zero's helicopter and takes it down. Logan then goes to the chopper and talks with Stryker over the radio, telling him that after he's done with victor, he'll come after Stryker.

As Zero makes a comment about all the innocent people who have died around Logan, he slashes the fuel tanks, which spill on the ground, eventually causing the helicopter to explode. Zero is heard screaming just before his death.

Logan searches for the remaining members of his team, and finds John Wraith and Fred Dukes. He engages in a boxing match with Dukes. When Logan wins, he interrogates Dukes until he is told that Stryker and Victor are working together. Dukes tells him about the experiments on Three Mile Island where mutants are taken and experimented on. Dukes then informs Logan that only one person has escaped, a Cajun street hustler called "Gambit".

Logan and Wraith find Gambit and asks him about Stryker's Island where they keep Mutants for Stryker's new project, the Deadpool. Gambit attacks Logan thinking he is trying to take him back to the facility, then Victor arrives and kills Wraith before fighting Logan. Gambit interrupts the fight, giving Victor enough time to escape. Logan fights with Gambit again and triumphs, ordering him to take him to the island.

Logan and Gambit arrive at the island by plane, where Logan has to leap out into the water and clash with the waves, skipping across them until he reaches the island.

There, he finds Stryker, who tells him about the Deadpool and that Kayla wasn't really killed but blackmailed into helping Stryker because he had her sister Emma in captivity. Eventually Victor interrupts and demands to have the Adamantium, trying to kill Kayla for real this time. Logan hears her scream and fights Victor yet again. When Logan has the chance to decapitate Victor, he doesn't.

Kayla tells Logan that her sister is being held captive on the island, and he agrees to help her and the other Mutants. After freeing them, he is stopped by the now Active Weapon XI - The Deadpool. They fight as the other Mutants flee.

Logan faces Weapon XI alone and eventually climbs one of the nuclear reactors, Weapon XI follows in an instant using Wraith's teleportation ability. Logan puts forth his best effort, but is pinned down. Just as Weapon XI is about to decapitate him, (at the command of Stryker), Victor shoves him away, and both of them fall into the reactor. Victor catches Logan, explaining the only reason he saved him was so he could kill him himself.

Logan and Victor eventually end up back to back with Deadpool teleporting in front of each of them back and forth, eventually they catch him and stab him, but he teleports across the reactor.

Victor attacks Deadpool as he fires on Logan with his optic blasts. Logan falls over the edge of the reactor as Victor is caught jumping at Weapon XI and shot back. Logan climbs back onto the reactor and just as Weapon XI is blasting Victor into the ground, Logan runs, jumps and slashes Weapon XI through the neck. Weapon XI holds his neck as Logan kicks him into the nuclear reactor, his head falling off as he tumbles below, with the lasers still firing.

Logan helps Victor out of the hole and tells him they're done, with nothing being changed. Victor tells him that brothers always look out for each other, and jumps off the reactor. As the reactor starts to crumble, Logan follows, collapsing as he lands. The reactor falls apart, with a piece about to land on Logan, but Gambit saves him.

Gambit and Logan briefly talk and split up, with Gambit going to help the children and Logan attending to Kayla. He carries her a few steps before Stryker shoots him in the back. In a feral rage, he turns and sprints at Stryker. He leaps but is shot again, this time in the head with Adamantium bullets. Logan falls to the ground, unconscious. As Styker is about to kill Kayla, she grabs his ankle and tells him to walk until his feet bleed, and then keep walking.

When Logan awakens, he has forgotten Gambit, Kayla and everything before. He shuts Kayla's eyes, and after Gambit asks if he knows her, he replies with a short "No". The authorities are arriving, and Gambit offers to take him, but Logan says he will find his own way, and they leave in different directions.

As the end credits begin to roll, Stryker - exhausted and worn - is seen wandering down an isolated road, some time later. A military van approaches and an officer emerges, stating that Stryker is wanted on charges of murder. This is referring to the Washington military official who he killed when confronted and forced to halt his mutant experimentations; the official claims that Stryker has gone too far as a result of his anger at the death of his wife. It is then revealed that this is due to his son, who turns out to be a mutant, indicating the source of his hatred of the mutant race. There are two post credit endings, one being the alternate ending that was shown in theaters. The first is a post-credits scene in which Deadpool's hand is seen reaching for his severed head, at which point, he opens his eyes and whispers "shhh". The second shows Logan drinking at a bar in Japan. The bartender asks if he is drinking to forget; Logan replies that he's drinking to remember.

Cast

 * Hugh Jackman as James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine
 * Troye Sivan as Young Logan
 * Ryan Reynolds/Scott Adkins as Wade Wilson/Deadpool/Weapon XI
 * Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth
 * Michael James Olsen as Young Victor Creed
 * Dominic Monaghan as Chris Bradley/Bolt
 * Lynn Collins as Kayla/Silver Fox
 * Danny Huston as William Stryker
 * Daniel Henney as David North/Agent Zero
 * Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau/Gambit
 * Kevin Durand as Fred Dukes/The Blob
 * Will.i.am as John Wraith
 * Tahyna Tozzi as Emma
 * Tim Pocock as Scott Summers
 * Peter O'Brien as John Howlett
 * Alice Parkinson as Elizabeth Howlett
 * Max Cullen as Travis Hudson
 * Julia Blake as Heather Hudson
 * Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier
 * Asher Keddie as Dr. Carol Frost
 * David Ritchie as Abraham Cornelius
 * Matthew Dale as a Surgeon

Production
The film was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana, British Columbia, Canada, New South Wales, Australia, and Otago, New Zealand.

Reception
The film recived generally mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans. The film was praised for its action, visuals, music, and the performances by Hugh Jackman, Liev Schriber, and Ryan Reynolds. Other critics called the film and its screenplay uninspired and dull. The fans praised Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, but also criticized for his limted screentime. The "Weapon XI" version was also criticed. The film has also been a victim of cruel references in reviews for other Marvel films, and even a video game made fun of this film. Despite its negative reviews, it was a success at the box office, grosssing $373,062,864 worldwide. According to box office mojo, it was the 14th highest-grossing movie of 2009.

Continuity Errors

 * The scene in which Wolverine is given the adamantium is very different from the flashback of this event in X2: X-Men United. It is not as dark or gritty, and Logan is not shown to have blood running down his arms. Furthermore, a young William Stryker appears in said flashback, played by Brad Loree, and he looks nothing like the Stryker in this film. This could be the way Logan remembers the event, through distorted memories.
 * Both Logan's dog tags and Alkali lake have different appearances in this film compared to X2: X-Men United. Producers and other crew members have stated that it is the same item/ location but simply different visual adaptations.
 * The character Sabretooth has a different look than in X-Men. Whilst these are two different versions of the same character, it is also accepted that Victor experienced a second mutation at some point between the two films.
 * X2: X-Men United makes it very clear that the procedure which gave him the adamantium caused Logan to lose his memory. In this film, he loses his memory when Stryker shoots him in the head with an adamantium bullet.
 * In X2: X-Men United, when Logan asks Stryker about his past, Stryker says: "You were an animal then, you're an animal now. I just gave you claws." In this film, Logan has claws before Stryker gives him the adamantium. However, Stryker's line could be interpreted as giving Logan adamantium in which to do more damage.
 * In X-Men: The Last Stand, Beast tells Logan: "I've been campaigning for mutant rights since before you had claws." In this film, Logan is shown to be over 100 years old, and to have had claws since he was a child. It could be that Hank is not aware of this fact. This can however be seen as a true statement as Beast was most likely referring to the adamantium on Logan's bones, thus making it a true statement.
 * In X-Men, Charles Xavier reads Logan's mind and discovers that Logan has been a drifter for almost fifteen years. The trilogy are stated to be set in "the not-too-distant future". However, the inclusion of the Three Mile Island accident sets this film in 1979. This would mean that X-Men takes place in 1993 or 1994. Likewise, in X2: X-Men United when Stryker encounters Wolverine he says it's been 15 years meaning the second film takes place in 1994 although it is also set in "the not-too-distant future".
 * Also in X2: X-Men United, Wolverine is shown in his flashback to have escaped from the scene by opening a door. However in this movie, he cuts a way open to escape.
 * In this movie, Charles Xavier appears as an older, bald man with the ability to still walk, yet in X-Men: First Class, Charles is paralyzed from the waste down at a much younger age.

Gallery

 * Main article: X-Men Origins: Wolverine/Gallery

Images
To see more images, see X-Men Origins: Wolverine/Gallery.

Clips
To see more clips, see X-Men Origins: Wolverine/Gallery.