As the “X-Men” saga continues to add new chapters, we’re likely to hear fans arguing about the ideal viewing order for a newcomer, as often happens with the “Star Wars” saga. While some would argue that “Days of Future Past” is the second movie in the saga, I contend that it’s the seventh movie.
While the bulk of the film takes place in the 1970s, I think it should be watched last because the 2023 portion of the film includes characters from later movies and the timeline-reset twist is more satisfying if you know what it’s resetting.
And, as a practical matter, “Future Past” isn’t out on DVD yet. As such, although I desire more adventures of the “First Class” characters, next on the rewatching schedule is the formative tale of a guy who just has one throwaway line in “First Class” (“Go f— yourself”): “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009).
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009)
Director: Gavin Hood
Writers: David Benioff, Skip Woods
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds
THE STORY
It turns out there’s quite a yarn behind the “Go f— yourself” guy. Known as Jimmy in his youth (is his last name Logan?), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) grew up in the latter half of the 19th century in the logging country of the Northwest Territories, the brother of Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber). Both kids have a high healing factor (and, as such, long lives) and claws – Jimmy’s bone-claws emerge from between his fingers whereas Victor’s grow from his fingernails.
They get dual citizenship in order to fight in various U.S. wars through the years – Victor loves the violence whereas Jimmy apparently has a sense that he’s doing something good (outside of World War II, that’s debatable, but U.S. foreign policy is a discussion for another day). Or maybe he’s just keeping an eye on Victor.
Military man William Stryker (Danny Huston) forms the mutant equivalent of the commando unit in “Predator”; I half expected one of them to declare himself “a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus.” But really, Stryker is using the mutants for a power grab, the key to which is a super-mutant, Weapon XI (the adamantium-injected Wolverine is known as Weapon X). Weapon XI, also called Deadpool (and played by Ryan Reynolds in the pre-transformation scenes), is essentially an artificial version of Rogue: He is a composite of mutant powers.
BEST GOOD GUY MUTANT
Wolverine. The pathos is so piled on this poor guy that it’s almost funny. Victor (a.k.a. Sabretooth) is such a jackass that one gets a sense that Logan never really liked him. But Logan escapes the military and falls in love with Kayla Silverfox, only to have Victor kill her.
That inspires Logan to undergo Stryker’s painful adamantium process, but – when Logan overhears Stryker ordering his team to wipe his memories — he realizes Stryker just wanted to weaponize him. It turns out that Kayla is actually alive, but was just faking her love of Logan under orders from Stryker, who was using Kayla’s sister as a bargaining chip. And then Stryker shoots Logan in the head, and he loses all his memories.
Yes, it’s almost comical, but dang it, Jackman is fun to watch in the role.
BEST BAD GUY MUTANT
Sabretooth. Likewise, Schreiber is a delicious scenery-chewer as Victor, Logan’s brother and foil. They have identical powers, but Logan is the only one gifted (or cursed?) with a conscience.
WORST MUTANT
Gambit. Taylor Kitsch was downright iconic as Tim Riggins on “Friday Night Lights,” yet he doesn’t click at all as Remy LeBeau, who can infuse objects with kinetic energy (playing cards are his favorite weapons). He can’t do the Cajun accent, and – despite evidence to the contrary when he’s playing Riggins — he lacks the charisma necessary to play Gambit.
BEST NON-MUTANT
William Stryker. The plot and style of “Origins: Wolverine” is 1980s-style action (and indeed, it’s set in the 1980s), but the performance by Huston – who wisely chooses to avoid over-the-top cartoon villainy – keeps it grounded.
MOST UNDERUSED MUTANT
Scott Summers. If a viewer were watching these films in order and they were familiar with the “X-Men” comics, they’d be thrilled to see a teenage Cyclops, since he was one of the original X-Men, and they’d want to see more of him (and Professor X, who telepathically communicates with Scott during the prison escape sequence). In the final act, Scott and the other escaping kids almost steal this movie from the Wolverine-Sabretooth-Deadpool fight.
Still, when Gambit drops off Scott and a bunch of other students at Xavier’s school, it’s clearly leading into an upcoming chapter (which will of course be the 2000 “X-Men” movie). Of course, watching these in release-date order, it was cool to see Scott have a significant role here, along with … Emma Frost? Well, not exactly …
CONTINUITY NOTES AND ODDITIES
We know Emma Frost (January Jones) as a villain in “First Class,” and it seems like Kayla Silverfox’s teenage sister – who, like Emma, can turn her skin into diamond – IS ALSO Emma Frost, although this time on the side of good. She’s not, though. She’s an unrelated character who has the same mutant power and who also happens to be named Emma, according to the “First Class” producers.
“Origins: Wolverine” intended to have that character be Emma Frost – she calls herself “Emma Frost” in a promo ad — but since she’s never named in the film outside of the credits, her last name presumably is Silverfox, and she doesn’t appear in any future films, the “First Class” writers decided they could get away with making up a new Emma Frost. A more fun explanation is that they are the same character and she traveled back in time at some point (after all, “Future Past” introduced the notion of time travel into the franchise).
In “Origins: Wolverine” Cyclops is seen in a regular high school wearing special sunglasses that constrain his energy beams BEFORE he joins (or even knows about) Xavier’s school. I had assumed Beast or someone at the School for Gifted Youngsters designed Cyclops’ high-tech shades, but this scene suggests that he came up with the technology himself. It’s plausible, but it also raises a slew of questions: Did he hide his power from everybody, even his family? If so, what did his parents think about him wearing sunglasses all the time?
Xavier is walking at the end of “Origins: Wolverine.” This is inexplicable if you’ve just watched “First Class,” but “Days of Future Past” sheds some light on it. In that movie he uses a serum that allows him to walk. However, the side effect is that he can’t use his telepathy. Since he both walks and performs telepathy in “Origins: Wolverine,” we can assume he (or Beast) worked out the kinks in the intervening years.
Just as “First Class” left a bunch of characters alive who then failed to appear in “Days of Future Past,” “Origins: Wolverine” leaves us with a few characters who we’re still waiting to see again, most notably Deadpool, who survives (and regains use of his mouth) in the post-credits bonus scene. A Deadpool movie starring Reynolds was in the works, but it has stalled.
While “Origins: Wolverine” gives the impression that the first 100 years of Logan’s life entirely consisted of fighting for the Americans in every war, keeping an eye on his sociopathic brother and being manipulated by Stryker, we know that he was sometimes able to get away from it all. In addition to his brief romance with Kayla and his lumberjack job (ah, fresh air and bucks!) in Canada, he broke free to do some boozing and womanizing Stateside in “First Class” and “Days of Future Past.”
WHERE IT RANKS
It’s not as good as “X-Men: First Class,” certainly, but I don’t understand why so many people consider “Origins: Wolverine” to be terrible. I think it has an enjoyable vibe that cribs from Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies while also peppering in a touch of comedy (I love it when Wolverine accidentally slices the bathroom sink in half at the farmhouse) and sci-fi, with Huston, Jackman and Schreiber preventing the film from devolving into pure cheese.
On the downside, Kitsch’s inability to nail the Gambit role is a big disappointment, and the opening segment where Jimmy kills his dad with his bone-claws doesn’t make any sense.
On this rewatch, I was surprised how many mutants there are in this movie. Although it is a Wolverine character piece, it seems to have just as many mutants as any “X-Men” film, it’s just that most of them are not the mainstream comic-book characters. (Perhaps a comic fan can tell me if these mutants are all from the comics or if some were invented for the film.)
We get teleporter John Wraith (the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am!), electricity-controller Bolt (“Lost’s” Dominic Monaghan!), superb marksman Zero and the self-explanatory Blob. When Cyclops and Professor Xavier pop up at the end, it’s a pleasant surprise and a nice hand-off to the next ensemble adventure.