Movie Box Office Results

X-Men Origins Wolverine Movie Poster

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Movie Review – Box Office Results

USA Box Office Results, May 8–10, 2009

Box Office Australia Movie, April 30–May 3, 2009

USA Box Office Results, May 1–3, 2009

UK Box Office Grosses, May 1–3, 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Movie Review – Plot

In 1845 Canada, young James Howlett sees his father killed by groundskeeper Thomas Logan. The trauma activates the boy’s mutation: bone claws protrude from James’ hands, and he kills Logan. In his dying breath, Logan tells James that he is his real father. James flees with Logan’s abused son and James’ half-brother Victor Creed. The two survive for over a century as men in their prime, living out their violent urges together in the American Civil War and both World Wars. During the Vietnam War, Victor kills a superior after he stops a rape attempt, James defends his brother and the two are executed by firing squad, which they survive. Major William Stryker approaches the two and offers them membership in Team X, a group of mutants which includes marksman Agent Zero, mercenary Wade Wilson, teleporter John Wraith, invincibleFred Dukes and electricity-controlling Chris Bradley. The duo joins the team, but the group’s questionable actions cause James to leave.

Six years later, James – now going by the name Logan – lives in Canada with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Colonel Stryker locates Logan and warns him someone is killing members of the team. Shortly afterwards Victor murders Kayla and brutally beats Logan. Stryker offers Logan a way to beat Victor. Logan undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal. Before the procedure, Logan asks for new dog tags inscribed with “Wolverine”. Stryker orders Wolverine’s memory to be erased, but Wolverine overhears him and flees, with former team member Zero tracking him. Wolverine takes refuge in the barn of an elderly couple who take him in for the night. Zero kills the couple and attacks, but Wolverine kills him.

Wolverine locates Wraith and Dukes and asks them about the location of Stryker’s new laboratory, referred to as, “the Island”. They explain that Stryker is performing experiments on mutants. One of them, Remy LeBeau (also known as Gambit), escaped and knows the location of the Island. Wraith and Wolverine locate Gambit and Wolverine asks for the Island’s location, but Gambit suspects Wolverine was sent to recapture him and attacks. Victor kills Wraith and takes a sample of his blood. Wolverine attacks and, with his enhanced strength, almost kills him. Gambit interrupts the fight, allowing Victor to escape.

After being convinced of Wolverine’s honesty, Gambit takes him to Stryker’s facility on Three Mile Island. There, Wolverine learns that Silverfox is still alive. Wolverine leaves, and Stryker refuses Victor the adamatium bonding promised for his service. Victor tries to kill Kayla, but Logan hears her screams and stops him. Logan spares Victor and agrees to help Kayla free the imprisoned mutants.

Stryker activates his Weapon XI, a “mutant killer” super-soldier with the abilities of other mutants. Wolverine holds Weapon XI off while the escaped mutants flee. The mutants escape through the facility’s tunnels, guided by a young Scott Summers who is following a voice in his head. The party is greeted by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who offers them shelter at his school.

Kayla, mortally injured in the escape, decides to stay. Wolverine lures Weapon XI to fight on top of one of the plant’s cooling towers, where Victor arrives and aids his brother. Together, they decapitate Weapon XI. Victor escapes and Wolverine is saved from the collapsing tower by Gambit. As Wolverine carries Kayla to safety, Stryker shoots Wolverine in the back and head with adamantium bullets, knocking him unconscious. Silverfox uses her powers of persuasion to order Stryker to walk away before dying from her injuries. Gambit returns, but the brain damage causes Wolverine not to remember anything. As the police and ambulances arrive, Gambit tries to convince Wolverine to come with him, but he declines, wanting to make his own way. Stryker is found and arrested for killing a general in Three Mile Island.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Movie Review - Cast

• Hugh Jackman as James Howlett / Logan / Wolverine: The mutant and future X-Men member. Jackman, who played Wolverine in the previous films, has also become producer of the film via his company Seed Productions, and earned $25 million for the film.Jackman underwent a high intensity weight training regimen to bulk up for his role. He changed the program to shock the body into change and also performed cardiovascular workouts. Jackman noted no digital touches were applied to his physique in a shot of him rising from the tank within which Wolverine has his bones coated in adamantium.
  • Troye Sivan as Young James Howlett: Casting directors cast Sivan as the young Wolverine after seeing him sing at theChannel Seven Perth Telethon, and he was accepted after sending in an audition tape.Kodi Smit-McPhee was originally cast in the role, when filming was originally beginning in December 2007, but he opted out to film The Road.

• Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed: Logan’s half-brother and fellow soldier. Jackman and Hood compared Wolverine and Sabretooth’s relationship to the Borg-McEnroe rivalry in the world of tennis: Victor hates him because he loved and needed his brother, but is too proud to admit he needs him back. Tyler Mane, who played him in X-Men, had hoped to reprise the role. Jackman worked with Schreiber before, in the 2001 romantic comedy Kate & Leopold with Meg Ryan and described him as having a competitive streak necessary to portray Sabretooth. They “egged” each other on set to perform more and more stunts. Schreiber put on 40 lb (18 kg) of muscle for the part,and described Sabretooth as the most monstrous role he ever played. As a child, he loved the Wolverine comics because of their unique “urban sensibility”. Schreiber had studied to be a fight choreographer and wanted to be a dancer like Jackman, so he enjoyed working out their fight scenes.
  • Michael-James Olsen as Young Victor Creed: James’s half-brother.

• Danny Huston as William Stryker: Schreiber was originally in negotiations for the part, while Brian Cox, who played the character in X2, wanted to reprise the role. He believedcomputer-generated imagery, similar to the program applied to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the opening flashback of X-Men: The Last Stand, would allow him to appear as the younger Stryker.Huston liked the complex Stryker, who “both loves and hates mutants because his son was a mutant and drove his wife to suicide. So he understands what they’re going through, but despises their destructive force.” He compared the character to a racehorse breeder, who rears his mutant experiments like children but abandons them when something goes wrong.

• Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox: Wolverine’s love interest and later captive of Stryker. She has the powers of tactile telepathy/hypnosis. Michelle Monaghan turned down the role because of scheduling conflicts, despite her enthusiasm to work with Jackman.In the film, Silverfox is the sister of Emma Frost.

• Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau / Gambit: A Cajun thief who has the ability to charge any object he touches with kinetic energy, forcing it to explode. The size of the object determines the magnitude of the resulting explosion.^[4] He is also skilled in the use of a staff.

• will.i.am as John Wraith: A teleporting mutant. It is will.i.am’s major film debut. Although he initially did not get on with the casting director, he got the role because he wanted to play a mutant with the same power as Nightcrawler. He enrolled in boot camp to get into shape for the part. When filming a fight, he scarred his knuckles after accidentally punching and breaking the camera.

• Kevin Durand as Fred J. Dukes / Blob: A mutant with an indestructible layer of skin and the ability to create his own gravitational field. In the film’s early sequences, he is a formidable fighting man but years later, due to a poor diet, has gained an enormous amount of weight.

• Daniel Henney as Agent Zero: A member of the Weapon X program and an expert tracker with lethal marksman skills.^[4]

• Dominic Monaghan as Bradley: A mutant who can manipulate electricity and a technopath.It was originally reported that Monaghan was going to play Barnell Bohusk / Beak.

• Tim Pocock as Scott Summers: A younger version of Scott Summers who will later become Cyclops and future leader of the X-Men. He is shown as a Weapon X captive as he is captured by Victor Creed. He is freed by Wolverine and leads the Weapon X captives to safety, guided by Professor Xavier telepathically. He has the power to emit powerful beams of energy from his eyes. However, where in the comics and previous movies his eyes emit a beam of concussive force, in this film it appears that his eyes emit a heat as well, causing things to burn. 

• Tahyna Tozzi as Emma Frost: A mutant with the power to turn her skin into diamond.X2 writer Dan Harris said that Sigourney Weaver would have played Emma Frost in X-Men: The Last Stand if Bryan Singer had stayed on to direct.The film depiction of Emma does not exhibit the character’s traditional telepathic abilities. Film credits list the character as “Kayla’s sister/Emma” as opposed to “Emma Frost”; however, trailers and television ads identify her by full name as “Emma Frost”.

• Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson: A wisecracking mercenary with lethal swordsmanship skill and athleticism, who later becomes Deadpool. He was not actually a mutant until he underwent experimentations which gave him the same healing factor as Wolverine. Reynolds had been interested in playing the character in his own film since 2003.^[22] Originally, Reynolds was only going to cameo as Wilson but the role grew after he was cast..
  • Scott Adkins as Weapon XI/Deadpool: Weapon XI is the final antagonist of the film, having been genetically altered to be the ultimate mutant killer. He has powers taken from other mutants killed or kidnapped in the film, as well as retractable blades in his arms. In the comics, Weapon XI and Deadpool are two entirely different characters, but they decided to incorporate this new take into the film. Ryan Reynolds portrays Weapon XI for close-ups, standing shots, and simple stunts while Scott Adkins is used for the more complicated and dangerous stunt work.

• Peter O’Brien as John Howlett: James’ alleged father, shot by Thomas Logan in the film’s opening.

• Alice Parkinson as Elizabeth Howlett: James’ mother.

• Aaron Jeffery as Thomas Logan: Victor and James’ real father.

• Max Cullen and Julia Blake as Travis Hudson and Heather Hudson: An elderly couple who take care of Wolverine after his adamantium bonding. The Hudsons are heavily adapted from the comics’ James MacDonald and Heather Hudson.

The film includes numerous cameo appearances of a younger versions of characters from the previous films, including characters in the film are Jason Stryker (William Stryker’s lobotomized telepathic son whom he keeps on ice). There was a cameo for a young Storm, which can be seen in the trailer, but it was cut out. A digitally “de-aged” Patrick Stewart also makes an uncredited cameo as a younger Charles Xavier. Xavier’s facial features appear to be entirely digitally created. The fact that he is not credited makes it conceivable that his “cameo” is actually an appearance by his digitable double.

Asher Keddie is in the film, and played Dr. Carol Frost. Poker player Daniel Negreanu has a cameo. Phil Hellmuth wanted to join him but was unable because he committed to an event in Toronto.^[29] X-Men co-creator Stan Lee said he would cameo, but he was not in Australia during filming, so this will have to be a pick-up conducted during January 2009, though he was erroneously credited as “Lawnmower man” in the leaked work print (notable since the work print inexplicably has part of X-Men: The Last Stand’s credits tacked on to it).

One Response to “X-Men Origins: Wolverine Movie Review”