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Over the past few weeks, many YouTubers who review movies have been revisiting the Wolverine trilogy in anticipation of the release of “Deadpool & Wolverine” later this month. I thought to myself, why not do the same? I have all of these movies on Blu-Ray, so it’s the perfect time to revisit them. I’ve only seen them once upon their release, so it’s time to reacquaint myself with Logan’s earlier adventures, starting with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”.
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” has become the poster child for bad superhero movies. Intended to launch a series of X-Men origin films, its failure forced Fox to rethink their strategy. They reworked Magneto’s origin story into “X-Men: First Class“, a prequel to the original trilogy, with Hugh Jackman making a cameo as Wolverine. This gamble paid off, resulting in three more X-Men movies with the new cast, though it also introduced numerous inconsistencies and plot holes.
When I first saw “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, I was disappointed. That disappointment was likely the main reason I never revisited the movie. Its reputation as a punchline didn’t help either. Already in on the joke, I couldn’t justify wasting two hours on a film that killed the prospect of a Deadpool movie for almost seven years.
Despite being universally regarded as a bad superhero movie, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” currently holds a decent 6.5 rating from over 534,000 votes on IMDb. This is far from the image of a film that shouldn’t score higher than a 3. So, is this movie as bad as its reputation suggests, or have people been shitting on it just for the sake of it?
There isn’t a clear-cut answer to this. My best guess is that people back then were so hyped for this movie that it failed to live up to expectations. With its reputation as a terrible film, the opposite often occurs: people expect a disaster and are pleasantly surprised when it isn’t as bad as anticipated.
That was the case for me too this time around.
This second time watching the movie didn’t leave me with the bad taste I had the first time. Maybe it’s because I was expecting to be disappointed again, or maybe it’s because since its release, we’ve seen plenty of other terrible movies—ones far worse than “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. Films like “Green Lantern” or “Eternals“.
Watching “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” as a standalone film, it’s a decent movie with a consistent enough plot, especially considering it was made during a writer’s strike. While I won’t forgive all its faults, of which there are plenty, I was never bored during my rewatch. It actually felt refreshing to watch a fairly self-contained 100-minute movie that isn’t concerned with setting up 20 other films.
The original criticisms still stand: this big-budget movie features terrible CGI in several scenes, presents a version of Deadpool that’s miles away from the comic counterpart, and offers a William Stryker who pales in comparison to Brian Cox’s performance in “X2“. The bone claws are ridiculous, and the array of bland mutants fail to make any significant impression.
I suppose I felt a bit sorry for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” having been the butt of jokes for all these years. But this rewatch wasn’t as tiresome as I expected, so my overall sentiment is much more positive than it was 15 years ago. In a way, the movie’s reputation has kept it in the public zeitgeist. Its sequel, 2013’s “The Wolverine”, is largely considered the forgotten Wolverine film. Meanwhile, this movie has remained alive in online discussions, either through jokes or as an easy target for the Deadpool films. While it’s not the legacy any filmmaker aims for, it’s a legacy nonetheless.
