X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Note: This review contains spoilers X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Despite X-Men: The Last Stand’s mixed reception among fans and critics, the X-Men property still proved lucrative enough for Fox that they greenlit the film series’ first prequel and spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Origins). The final film, which came out in 2009 during the earliest stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, went through a rather troubled production and received the lowest critic scores in the series up to that point, with most criticism aimed at the lackluster script. While Origins does have its fans, I can’t say I disagree with the criticisms, especially with one contentious aspect in particular. I’ll also freely admit that while aspects of a film’s production shouldn’t necessarily factor into a review, it’s difficult in this case to ignore just how much of a negative impact an out-of-touch executive can have on the finished product.

Stubs - X-Men: The Last Stand

 

X-Men: The Last Stand aka X-Men III (2006) starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen. Directed by Brett Ratner. Screenplay by Simon Kinberg, Zak Penn Based on the comic book series X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, Avi Arad Run time: 104 minutes. Color. United Kingdom, United States. Adventure, Science Fiction

Following the success of X2 (2003), it seemed only natural that there would be a third film in the series. However, the director of the previous two films wasn’t all that interested in pursuing it. Singer stated that he "didn't fully have X-Men 3 in my mind" and was more interested in making the next Superman film, Superman Returns (2006) at Warner Bros.

Finding a replacement was not easy. Hugh Jackman's contract included the approval of director, and the job was offered to Darren Aronofsky, with whom he had just finished filming on The Fountain (2006). But Aronofsky was not the last person to be offered the position. Joss Whedon, Rob Bowman, Alex Proyas, Zack Snyder, Peter Berg, and Guillermo del Toro were all approached, but had other projects that kept them from taking the job.

In February 2005, even without a director, Fox announced the film’s release date (May 5, 2006) and that production would start in July 2005. A month later, it was announced that Matthew Vaughn had been secured to direct, but family issues would force him to resign from the project. Apparently, Vaughn also wasn’t happy about the tight deadlines imposed by Fox, stating that he "didn't have the time to make the movie that I wanted to make".

X2

Note: This review contains spoilers for X-Men

Like many other superhero films, both past and future, 2000’s X-Men proved so successful that Fox immediately commissioned a sequel, X2 (also marketed as X2: X-Men United). While the production didn’t proceed without its own hiccups, including budget cuts, rewrites and on-set disputes, Director Bryan Singer’s concept of a more personal angle and having a human villain persisted throughout the writing process, with the initial outline based on Chris Claremont’s X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel (which we haven’t read at the time of this writing). When X2 finally released in 2003, it received rave reviews, with critics considering it a rare time when a sequel surpassed the original (although this sentiment wasn’t universal). As a modern viewer experiencing the full X-Men film series for the first time, I found myself agreeing with the critics of the time and thought the film actually aged pretty well and felt like a breath of fresh air from other superhero films from recent memory.

X-Men

The early 2000s proved to be quite the boon for superhero films, with the Spider-Man and X-Men films proving that the genre could be financially successful if put into the right hands. While I did grow up during this time, I didn’t have much of an interest in X-Men at the time outside of the X-Men: Evolution cartoon on Kids’ WB (I was more interested in Spider-Man at the time), only ever feeling motivated to watch a select few of the X-Men films years later. After recently watching all three X-Men cartoons at the time of this writing (X-Men The Animated Series, X-Men: Evolution, Wolverine and the X-Men) in their entirety (with X-Men: Evolution still being my personal favorite), I felt more motivated to actually watch the film series in earnest from the beginning, with additional motivation from the upcoming release of Deadpool 3 as well as Spider-Man: No Way Home setting a precedent for the MCU now requiring intimate knowledge of outside film continuities. After rewatching the original X-Men film from 2000 that started it all, I found it to be a solid beginning for the series, one that is still enjoyable over two decades later.