X-Men Origins: Wolverinea.k.a. “Wolverine,” “Wolverine: X-Men Zero,” “X-Men - I arhi: Wolverine,” “X-Men Orígenes: Wolverine,” “X-Men le origini - Wolverine,” “X-Men orígenes - Wolverine,” “X-men Origens: Wolverine”

MPAA Rating: for intense sequences of action and violence, and some partial nudity.

Reviewed by: Thaisha Geiger
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:

Offensive

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Moviemaking Quality:

Primary Audience:

Teens, Adults

Genre:

Superhero, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action

Length:

1 hr. 47 min.

Year of Release:

2009

USA Release:

May 1, 2009 (wide—4,000 theaters)
DVD: September 15, 2009

Relevant Issues

Reviews of other films in this series

X-Men (2000)

X2: X-Men United (2003)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Game: X-Men Legends

Game: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

Issues

Can genetic mutations produce positive changes in living creatures?

Murder

Sin

REVENGE—Love replaces hatred—former israeli soldier and an ex-PLO fighter prove peace is possible-but only with Jesus

VIOLENCE—How does viewing violence in movies affect families? Answer

Justice

Does God feel our pain? Answer

Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? Answer

What about the issue of suffering? Doesn't this prove that there is no God and that we are on our own? Answer

The Origin of bad—How did bad things come about? Answer

What kind of world would you create? Answer

• Positive
• Neutral
• Negative
• Young people

Positive - 2 hours of pure X-Men fun for fans of the first three films. Aside from the lackluster visuals (it's freakin' 2009 and T2 still has better fx!), and 2? gds (there aren't any in the other films, if memory serves—why now?) Wolverine is a solid film. It packs more punch than any fisticuffs brawl in the show, and it delivers on its characterizations of both new and old mutants. Stick around for the VERY END.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½
—Keenum, age 22 (USA)

Positive - I first have to say that if you attend this movie you should understand that you are seeing a film based on the Weapon X comic books which were tremendously violent. If that kind of thing bothers you, do not see this movie. The movie howeve, is not bloody the way that the comics were. It is simply violent without most of the blood.

This was a movie made by Marvel for fans of the comic series and those fans know what to expect going into it. If you find yourself offended by this movie then you did not read the comic books or do your research on what you were about to view and you have only yourself to blame. No one forced you to see it.

I found it to be a very entertaining movie with some of the best special fight scenes and effects around (not sure what everyone else saw).

Please do your homework before dragging your 10 year old kids to this movie just because they begged you to. IT IS NOT FOR THEM! And Christians can not continue to blame movie makers for the movies that they willingly attend without researching them first. Take some responsibility for your own actions. If this sort of movie offends you, then stop putting money into the pockets of the people who produce it. Its that simple.

The bottom line is, I knew what I was about to see. I grew up a huge Wolverine fan. This movie was made for fans like me, not for those who would find its themes offensive.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4½
—Joe, age 31 (USA)

Positive - Being an action movie fan and a former Marvel comic fan, I give the film a B+. From the Christian standpoint, though, I give the film a B-.

As an action film, I found the movie to be a fun ride. The violent scenes had actual purpose behind them and flowed with the plotline (as opposed to the producers trying to make excuses for yet another fight scene, which happens too often in action flicks these days). The acting was well done, and the viewer is emotionally pulled into Logan’s world. Its faltering point as an action flick is that it is not a stand-alone movie. It is a decent prequel to the X-Men movies, but by design it falls into the prequel trap . . . you know where the movie is headed (to an extent), and when the ending comes it has no sense of closure.

As an X-Men and Wolverine story, the movie diverges even farther from the original storyline than set-up by the X-Men movies. For instance, a few characters are out of age and out of location from where they should be. Although I’ve been out of touch with all the more recent revelations of Logan’s past, I do know that Sabertooth was not his brother (that plot was teased to the readers, though), I am sure Gambit and the Blob had not had previous interactions with Wolverine before X-Men, and I won’t even mention the alteration done to Emma Frost (the diamond-girl). Concerning Gambit in particular, although Gambit fans may complain that he did not get enough screen time, my complaint is that he didn’t have his trademark Cajun accent. As for Sabertooth himself, this movie’s version is much more true to the character than how he was portrayed in X-Men 1. X-fans will be pleased. However, the fight scene at the end would not be true to the source material, although it does work well for a movie plot twist. Now, as cruel as Logan’s past is portrayed in this film, it only scratches the surface as to what the comic character had gone through, but this can be forgiven on account of how much time was allowed in the movie to give his history.

From my Christian standpoint, I have mixed feelings. Firstly, the standard judgments. I commend them for keeping the blood and gore out of the violence. However, it is still traumatic, and the PG-13 label is well-deserved. Although not devoid of its share of foul words, they are kept at a minimum. As for the nudity – at least nothing more than Jackman’s gluteal region was exposed, and it did fit in with the plot. Unfortunately, Logan lives with Kayla as if they were married when they weren’t. Sigh, this is the world.

On the positive side, Logan is in a constant battle between choosing what is evil and choosing what is good. While Victor embraces the rage, even feeding off of it, Logan acknowledges the rage for what it is and time and again chooses to master the rage rather than let it master him. Along the way, key individuals speak encouragement into his life to keep this in perspective. An example is when the old farmer refuses to let Logan believe his choice was taken away from him. I am reminded of the Scriptures that encourage us to resist temptation and not surrender to sin. Although our salvation is not purchased through our good deeds, as believers we still struggle with this body of sin and are prone to give in to temptation. It is thus refreshing to me to see a character fighting this war against sin within himself and learning to overcome it. So while the offensive elements bring the grade down for this movie, I give it high marks for this lesson of choosing not to sin—even when the worst of circumstances are thrown against you.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½
—Deanna, age 38 (USA)

Positive - This movie wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting a lot of cursing, but as it was spread out it didn't seem like a lot. It had a good story, and the ending was amazing. I have to say I was completely suprised. I wouldn't let children under 13 watch it. There isn't a lot of blood, but there are decapitations. Nothing is shown, though. Great movie!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
—Elizabeth, age 27 (USA)

none

Negative - …there was A LOT of violence. As others have commented; the movie has many murders, slashes, and stabbings. Definetely NOT for children. The theme was revenge. The Bible says, “Vengance is mine saith the Lord.” I was disappointed because all Wolverine wanted to do was kill others in revenge of the death of his girlfriend (or wife? couldnt tell). This is not a christian film. Oh well. Another failure for Hollywood.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
—Alex, age 19 (USA)

Negative - The plot itself was fairly interesting, but they put too much nudity, language, and violence in it, so I didn't like the content. ***CAUTION: SPOILERS—Do not read if you do not want spoilers. In depth review.***

Negative points: Nudity wise, Logan, or Wolverine as he's also called, is experimented on, and after wards runs away naked. His rear end is seen. At one point when he is trying to escape the place that he was experimented on, he jumps off of a waterfall and is seen naked from far away, and his front side is shown. I do not believe that that should have been in a PG-13 movie. If you have children and do not want them to see nudity, I advise you to cover their eyes (for about 2 minutes), or to avoid this movie. After the waterfall scene he is shown, again far away, running across a country field naked, into a barn, as an elderly couple in a vehicle watch him. While Logan is inside the barn the elderly man walks in with a rifle, trying to find the naked man. Logan is seen kneeling down, front side showing again, with his leg conveniently covering any nudity. This is a medium to close up shot of Logan. Then the elderly man kindly offers him some clothes.

Language wise, there is both cursing and blasphemy. Most of the blasphemy is whispered or said in a way that it is a bit hard to make out. There is about a medium amount of language in the movie. It's not used in every sentence, but it isn't in a small amount. If you greatly dislike cursing and blaspheming, I highly suggest you don't see this movie.

As for sexual content, there was nothing objectionable unless you are a person who is sensitive to kissing; though there are two provocative scenes involving a man and a woman; both times the woman is the one that looks provocative. 2-3 kisses are exchanged between a man and a woman. Logan is seen living with a woman, Kayla, who I assumed was his wife. In one scene Logan wakes up from “war dreams” and has apparently pushed out his claws. His 'wife', Kayla, who had been hurt slightly, has jumped out of bed, wearing a sleeping gown. No nudity is seen. Logan might be naked in bed, but he is totally covered by blankets. Logan sees he has hurt her, but she says it's nothing bad. She gets back in bed and she moves close to him and they hug. This could be seen as provocative to some, as they are in bed together and hugging. Later the woman tells Logan a story while they are both at home. She is in a sleeping gown, and while Logan is sitting in an armchair, crawls on top of him. The position she was in I found offensive, as it looked provocative. Though nothing sexual happened between them.

As for violence, the movie is practically one battle after another, though not a lot of blood is seen in the movie as a whole. However, there is some blood. If you are into heavy action films, this is for you. In most of the battles, people are slashed and stabbed. Logan, who is able to survive the followning attacks, possibly due to his ability to regenerate, is thrown into a wall, crushed by heavy objects, slashed at, shot at multiple times (and the bullets go into his body), jumps out of a helicopter and bounces on water, and jumps down from a 20 story tall cooling tower and hits the pavement below (they show him making a small crater). Logan is shot multiple times, and in the head twice, but survives due to his regenerating ability. William Stryker shoots Logan in the head at the end of the movie. William does this because he is unable to kill him (Logan is very hard to kill due to regeneration), and William wants him to forget his past so that Logan won't want to kill William. William plans to injure Logan's brain by shooting him, causing Logan to forget his past. One character is decapitated, though at the very end of the movie, after the credits are done playing, is shown to actually be alive. This decapitated character is able to live after losing his head and his body crawls to pick his own head up. Logan is seen going through the experiment that gave him his adamantium bones (making his bones nearly impossible to break). This is actually not very gruesome, but does show needles sticking into his skin, and he does writhe in pain. He is not given anesthetic because, as is explained, it does not work on him. Logan himself agreed to undergo the experiment.

One person is shown being experimented on and only his eyes are experimented on. His eye lids are shown pulled far from his eyes, with his completely untouched eyes showing (so nothing gruesome except the normal bloody colored inside of the eyelids are shown). I put this under violence because I don't know where else to put it.

Positive points: SPOILER ALERT

During the beginning of the movie, Logan and his brother Sabertooth are USA government agents; along with 5 or so other people, and while Sabertooth was getting more and more bloodthirsty, Logan is sick of all the killing and tries to stop his brother from killing another person. This shows goodness in Logan. Now, while we as humans, are not 'basically good on the inside', because of our sinful nature, we do do some good things. Showing Logan performing goodness was a nice thing to put in the movie.

Logan was shown seeking revenge against Sabertooth for killing his wife. Logan shows love here, though he does do the wrong thing, trying to get revenge. God wants us to leave revenge to him. It is not our place to get revenge for ourselves. Only God knows everyone's heart, and he can tell what the person who harmed us deserves.

Near the end of the movie, Logan finds out that Kayla is alive and that he had been used. A man called William Stryker had wanted to experiment on Logan, but Logan didn't want to have anything to do with William. So William blackmailed Kayla by telling her he'd let her captive sister go if she agreed to pretend to love Logan, and then pretend to be murdered by Sabertooth. Then Logan wanted revenge and went to William in order to get the adamantium put in him, and make him nearly indestructable. Then Logan would be able to go up against Sabertooth and be nearly unkillable. Kayla explains that she didn't mean to hurt him. Logan told Kayla that he had truly loved her. Kayla told Logan that she truly loved him too. Logan shows forgiveness and even helps Kayla free her sister. Jesus tells us to forgive people who hurt us (Matthew 18:21-22). After Kayla's sister is free and Logan meets up with Kayla again, he holds out his hand, to show forgiveness and acceptance of her again, and she takes it.

Kayla shows love for her sister because she wants to free her, though it was wrong of her to play with Logan's emotions.

Kayla is revealed to be a mutant herself, and she has the ability to persuade someone to do anything she wants when she touches them. She only uses her power for good, which I liked. At the end of the movie, while she is lying injured on the ground, and unable to move, William is about to shoot her, but she touches his ankle and tells him not to shoot her (I think. But whatever she says, if anything, he doesn't shoot her). Instead of shooting her, he puts the gun up to his head and prepares to shoot himself. Kayla tells him not to shoot himself. She tells him to instead throw the gun away, which he does, tossing it aside, and she tells him to just walk away from the place until his feet are bleeding, and then keep walking; which he does. His shoes are shown slightly torn, and I think some blood is shown on his feet. Kayla shows compassion in that she stops him from killing himself and then shows love to Logan (who is lying on the ground, shot, not too far away), when she tells William to just walk away, thereby saving Logan.

At the end of the movie, a movie filled with violent, but not very bloody, battles between Logan and his brother Sabertooth, the two of them end up joining forces to defeat a powerful mutant enemy. After the enemy is killed, Logan and Sabertooth appear to have rebuilt a bond of friendship; both refreshing and welcome. Sabertooth tells Logan, after catching him from falling into a dangerous place, that “the only one who's gonna kill you is me.” After the battle, Sabertooth leaves Logan while saying something like, “We're brothers; and brothers help each other.”

I enjoyed the special effects of Scott Summer's eye lasers, though we only see him use them twice in the whole movie. Another character uses eye lasers, and I enjoyed his usage, too. Sabertooth plays his role very well, acting out being a cat and baring his teeth. The special effects technicians did try to make Sabertooth's jumping like an animal, up vertical buildings look realistic, it just didn't look as convincing as it could have been. It looked a bit like some wires were involved; to lift him up. Logan and the people he slashes do a good job of making it look like something is truly happening, as the person acting as Logan doesn't actually have metal claws that stick out of his fists. The stunts are done well, such as Logan falling off of a very tall place.

Other mutants, such as Gambits pole usage and explosive card attack were shown, and were part of a good action scene, though he is only shown fighting in one scene (though it was split up into two parts, with a Logan versus Sabertooth fight inbetween). Special effects were done well with transforming one girl into a woman made of diamond, and she willingly used herself as a shield (which is a good shield, because diamond is supposed to be the hardest substance known to humans).

RECOMMENDATIONS: If you are a person who likes lots of action and violence (with a tremendous amount of slashing and stabbing, sometimes sharp objects going straight through the body and out the other side), and doesn't mind a medium amount of cursing or blaspheming, but not 'filling every sentence', then you will enjoy this movie. There is not a lot of blood in the movie, but it is present, so if you don't prefer to see blood, then this might be a film you want to avoid.

As for Christian families, I do not recommend this movie for children 15 years or younger. I say 15, because of the whole content of the movie (cursing and blaspheming, violence, nudity).
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Gina M, age 22 (USA)

Negative - “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was not a good movie. It wasn't as spectacularly awful as “X-Men 3: The Last Stand,” but it was aggressively mediocre throughout. It started with an awkward credit sequence and continued with awkward plotlines and unimpressive action. Nothing is added to Logan's character that we don't know already. Sure, we learn about his life before he lost his memory, but that's not his character: that's his history. And it's a rather boring history. At least it's only 107 minutes, so it's over quickly (*cough* unlike Transformers 2). And at least Hugh Jackman remains a great actor, even if nobody else matches up.

Content that Christians may find offensive: Most objectionable is the violence. There are many fight scenes, and Wolverine has knives that grow out of his fist. Little blood is shown, but there still lots of implied violence. Also, Deadpool's transformation at the end is grotesque and may be disturbing for kids. I forget how much profanity there was; it isn't listed in the rating reason, so I know there's no use of the F-word. Look to the other reviews to have that question answered. There's no onscreen sexual content. However, Logan has a live-in girlfriend. Though, as the main reviewer noted, their love is portrayed as real love instead of lust.

There are also some brief shots of Logan nude in a nonsexual context, many of them long shots; not highly objectionable. Thematic material is rather dark at times. It didn't feel as dark as the first two X-Men films, though, but that's because I wasn't as into this movie as I was into those, and I became rather detached at about the halfway point.

I suggest giving this one a miss and rewatching the first two X-Men.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 2
—JM, age 19 (USA)

Positive - This was the best X-Men film to date. It was pure fun and just plain enjoyable. The special effects were at its best and the story was well written and tied in almost perfectly with the rest of the X-Men movies. Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Liev Schreiber (Sabertooth) had great charisma and had great performances along with the rest of the cast. The characters in the film are solid and the film satisfies you overall. The film is good, but it is far from being perfect. The film does have going on and takes place over many years. It does seem that this film should have came first and the had a squeal. Then after those two, they should have made the first X-Men. From a Christian view, this film isn't that bad. There is a few instances of the Lord's name in vain and some cursing. Yes, this film is violent, but not excessive or bloody. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is a fun film which keeps you entertained the whole time. It is a must see.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
—Tommie, age 16 (USA)

Positive - This is a great movie. I went to see it with my friend and it was amazing. The special effects were great. But I must warn you, it's not a movie for young children to see. There is a lot of violence, but little blood. The violence is through out the movie. There is a part when Wolverine is running around naked, but all you see is his back side every so often. There is cursing, but nothing extremely bad. Overall, it's a great movie for 10 and up.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Matt, age 11 (USA)

Positive - BEST MOVIE EVER!!!… This is the perfect movie for kids that can watch scarier movies. This movie wasn't scary for me, but it may be for little kids… let's just say it wasn't as scary as “The Dark Knight.” The swearing was mild,no sexual content, but the Violence was frequent. In my opinion, no violence was disturbing, but there were a couple things that people may find somewhat scary or disturbing:

1. On the island, people were testing on a mutant. The mutant's eyes were red and bloody.
2. An evil mutant is decapitated. When his head is severed, it stays on the neck until his body falls off a building on the island. It is shown falling beside the body.
3. The evil mutant is somewhat disturbing to look at.

For some people, the movie can be tense at times, but I give it a 10/10!…
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Liliana, age 11 (Canada)

Neutral - …this movie has good effects. Ok, I don't feel right that I went to this movie; it was SCARY, do not bring 12 or under to this movie. It scared me really bad. WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD. …at the end there is a person called dead pool, and he has all the powers. He is SCARY and his shirt is off the whole time. And I saw how two brothers could act; they were… well, they hated each other. So they killed each other, and one of them killed a lot of people that he wasn't supposed to. And they killed two civillans and blamed it on Wolverine. And you can see him naked when he gets metal claws. And there are A LOT of bad words. There are no f words, but there is a lot of the S and D word, no F bomb. So, to sum it all up, this movie is good for “X-Men” fans. So go see it, if you are not offened that easily.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4½
—Tim, age 11 (USA)