#185 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine – A Multiverse Misfit with Claws

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. This is your host, Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest. And today we're digging into a movie that's both infamous and kind of charming in its own way. X Men Origins. Wolverine. The first solo outing for Logan. A prequel to the main X Men films and a reminder of just how different Marvel movies felt in the pre MCU era. I've seen this a couple times, but I did watch last night to prepare just to get a fresh take on it. And I'll be honest, this movie really took me by surprise. Really took me by surprise. Like I, I, I actually was, I wasn't in the best place like last night. It's not like anything was wrong with me. But I just got to say, I, I went in, I'm like, I'm covering this one because we're doing all the X Men movies, and I know it's not infamously that good, but I'm just going to do it. But then I got really drawn into the story to a point where I'm like anything with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, where he's fully into the role. I think it's going to be a fantastic addition. He is so good at what he does. He keeps you as an audience member at the edge of your seat. And I got to say, the cast was pretty great too. Like, a lot of, there's a lot of reasons that this movie works for me, opposed to, let's just say, some of the inconsistencies with the first 3x men and the overall tale of all the X Men. I do have a theory. It's very. We'll get into it. I have a theory. So, yeah, right out the gate, the movie feels like a product of its time. The pacing is fast, the effects are hit and miss, and yet there's something about Hugh Jackman, his Logan, that just works. No matter what the setting, he's got this presence that carries even the silliest CGI claw scene. Watching it now, you can almost feel the tension between the filmmakers wanting a gritty character study and the studio pushing for a popcorn action blockbuster. There are some moments in the movie that made me laugh, like, unintentionally. And I gotta say, it's mostly revolving around Deadpool. Like, let's be real here. I'm just gonna say that, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna probably say it again later, but this is a multiverse we're in, and we're not just walking into this movie not thinking that. Okay, with last week's Loki. This is like a strand of that multiverse. So plot holes, character recast. And anything that just doesn't fit in or align with the original trilogy just tells me that this is a multiversal story. This is one of the first. And if you watch it right after Loki, it just makes sense. We know there are certain through lines which we'll discuss, but if you look at it through that lens, this movie becomes, I want to say, 10 times better. I'll be honest. The scene where he's on that bike and he turns it around and he like takes down a helicopter. Captain America vibes kind of from when he did that thing trying to escape Hydra and the Winter Soldier. Wolverine is so gritty and so badass. To see him get his animantium. It really, really landed for me. So let's break it down a little bit further and let's talk about what are some of the biggest highlights of this movie. The opening montage. We start with James Howlett in the 1800s. Wolverine is old, sick, in bed, discovering his bone claws for the first time after a traumatic family confrontation. The reveal that Victor Creed, AKA Sabertooth, is his half brother. And that sets up a lifetime bond and also a rivalry. Then comes the war montage. A civil war, World War I, World War II, Vietnam. It's stylish, quick, and one of the film's best sequences. The Sabertooth in this multiverse is probably like the coolest we've seen. No harping on the other guy with the long hair who's in debt. He also comes back in Deadpool and Wolverine instead of live streamer or the actor for Sabertooth in this multiverse. But he brings a lot more emotional weight to the role, in my opinion. I personally think this is one of the best intros to an I almost said MCU to X Men movie. I. I'd say it's up there with X3. I think X3 also got some probably negative reviews, and I think it's more, let's just say, nostalgically fun. I. I had a fun time covering it. Honestly, all 3x Men movies were so of their time that I'd say everything's worth a rewatch if you're somebody who hates continuity eras. The multiverse is baked right into the MCU right now. And guess what? It branches all the way out here to this weird little timeline. And I have an absolute point in time I want to discuss later too. But first, let's talk about Team X. We jump to the modern era with Logan and Victor Joining a black ops. Black ops mutant team led by William Stryker, another recast. We meet Wade Wilson, Ryan Reynolds, pre makeover Agent Zero Blob, who we learn, I mean who we get to see the in full effect and Wraith. There's swagger, banter, and hints that Logan isn't cut out for this morally gray work. His tension with Victor is already cracking the team apart. And I, I have it in my script that his name is Victor, but Sabertooth, he's one of like the characters that like they usually say real, real names more often in these movies. But for me, I feel like Sabertooth is way more known than, than like his real name. So this version of Wade, I mean, let's say before the ending of the movie, it gives me pure Deadpool vibes. We get to see a little bit of that dynamic that we see in Deadpool and Wolverine on a very low, low key level. And it, it really sits and looks to me like freaking foreshadowing if you ask me. I mean he's a constant. And they've been together before in this movie. And who knew how many years later they'd come together to make an entirely different vibe of a movie. Solidifying every Wolverine movie, every Deadpool movie. A part of the MCU multiverse. It is what the multiverse was born to do to bring in characters like Deadpool and Wolverine into our greater expanding mcu. But yet poor Deadpool at the end. I could see why Ryan Reynolds. I think I just said why in Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds. I think he, I think he really, really wanted comic accurate Deadpool. And after seeing his role in Origins, you know, he probably really fought for that. I think this gave him the springboard to really make the Deadpool from the comics and make it so damn successful. It's undeniable. Hugh Jackman is going to do a movie with that kind that good. So after leaving the team, Logan is lured back by tragedy. Cue the famous Adamantium bonding scene. It's brutal, it's clinical and oddly quiet compared to later retellings. Striker's plan to erase Logan's memory is planted here. It's a short reminder that Will I am of the Black Eyed Peas is the. This variant of him. He's a superhero and is on Team X. I think that's pretty, pretty bold. Black Eyed Peas don't even get Will I am. The world gets him as a hero. In all reality, I don't see Will I am in much of anything, let alone this movie. So he was very like, I didn't remember That I don't know if I watched this with just more intention, and maybe I was, like on my phone just chilling, watching it last time, but, man, I didn't make any big deal about the fact that he's in it. I think that's kind of. It's kind of funny, you know what I mean? I don't know. I don't really see him as an actor as much. He probably. He didn't do terrible either. I mean, mean, I didn't say he was bad. It's just the fact that, like, that boom, boom, pow just ended up in our Wolverine movie. Weapon X is definitely a complex point to all of these movies. More and more reasons we're getting multiversal variants and timelines. I want to just say and guess in. In the light of Doomsday, knowing that a lot of these characters are recurring, I would like to imagine, honestly, that there are so many branches of the multiverse that belong to the X Men, and I think most branches are centered around the team we knew through X1X all the way to X3. I think variants come from very similar versions of that universe. I think their main timeline is that and everything else is branched off it. This one is kind of a far off branch in its own world. But just imagine Loki lighting up the tree of yg, or cell opening the multiverse, and then just random things happen. Like this version of Logan, the absolute point in time, Alkali Lake. The beginning of his weapon Ax journey. I know we get to see him in. I think it was X Men apocalypse, where they actually end up breaking him out. And he escapes and runs like, just into, like, the woods or something, like, naked. So, like, that's another multiverse. I'm gonna say there's probably four or five main ones. Okay. This one, I think, stands on its own. It's just so different, so out there. But I just want to say again, if you're thinking about re watching this movie, reframe it that way. And you. You're gonna love it. The Gambit detour. Let's talk about Taylor Kish's Gambit. He's charming. He's got the cards and his accents. Okay. The fight in the alley, the rooftop stunt, and the escape, it's all fun, but it feels like a random side quest. Still, for Gambit fans, it was something. They didn't have any bit of Gambit in any of the movies yet, so to see some of that magical card play was pretty special. And I think we'll see Gambit done justice in the MCU even more through Channing Tatum. Well, I'd say Channing Tatum's so buff. He makes like, he makes Gambit look just a little bit different than you'd expect from the comics. But any actor who owns their role should. And I think he owned it in Deadpool, Wolverine. And I think I like Channing Tatum's Gambit best. I like how his commitment to his blabbering rants. Yeah, that's exciting. But it's also cool to see multiversal variants, you know, variants. I feel like I'm really selling, I'm really selling the, the multiverse thing here. But it's, it's important to me. It really is that making that continuity as head Cannon even it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we ended up here right after Loki just made the multiverse. I'm just saying, if you haven't seen Loki, I'm so sorry. How about the final battle at the island where Stryker is just doing all of these experience experiments on all these mutants. Logan and Sabertooth actually team up against Weapon X. I, I mean, sorry, weapon 11. A heavily altered silent mouth sealed Deadpool. The design was divisive, to put it politely. The fight atop the nuclear plant is flashy, but a reminder that not all third acts stick the landing. Deadpool, I can't imagine. See, I, I didn't see this movie when it came out. I've seen it. I, I actually have seen it before Deadpool came out though, and he wasn't that memorable of a character at all. I liked Ryan Reynolds. My favorite movie for him was probably honestly, what's the movie called? Just Friends. Great book. Ryan Trahan's wife Haley is making a book with that same name for the. Anyone else watches that series? Completely random shout out to Ryan Trey in there. But they did a road trip series. So like you watch every day for 50 days, 50 states and all that and you totally just feel like social parasocial relationship to the max. Like you're friends with these people anyway. I don't know why they would close his mouth like as a one off joke. Like Deadpool isn't going to be an important character going forward. We're going to delete the most in a funny maybe like we know more. We're totally nodding to he's a talker in the comics. So we're going to put a seal on his mout a little like haha, that's funny. Let's, let's close that mouth. That's a funny little running joke. I just don't think they thought it through enough. And I don't know if on set, Ryan Reynolds had any say or even tried to have any say. I think, like, part of him was probably happy to be in this movie. He was still kind of upand coming at this time. Well known, but also upand cominging. So let's talk about that ending. In the memory wipe, Striker's bullet to the head wipes Logan's memory completely, tying neatly into X Men from 2000, the original. If you squint, it's one of those, sure, I guess it works moments. The biggest betrayal in this movie was his wife, who I completely. I said I'd seen this movie before. The fact that she was alive and betrayed him broke my heart for him so much. Another part that broke my freaking heart is the farmer and his wife who took a naked Logan and sheltered him, fed him, gave him their lost son's jacket. Very emotional, very good acting. And then I just felt it coming. I just felt it happening. They get killed. Oh, my God. That was the worst death of the movie. That was so heavy for me. I was so into the wholesomeness of what they were doing with this. I. I honestly thought he was just going to drive away on that motorcycle. But no, they had to kill them. That was one of the most vicious and horrible deaths in a lot of Marvel movies because those people were genuine and the acting was phenomenal. I mean, for the sake of what. What they were like, apparently attempting to do, they needed to explain w Wolverine's memory loss. But in the context of this multiversal journey, I probably said multiverse 50 to 100 times so far. Sorry. You know what? I like lining things up. This is fun. This is kind of like, I don't know, it's a little bit of more creative work sticking them together like that. But I like to believe in fate. And it kind of just hit me with all the variants we see of Loki in the Void, there's got to be a chance that there's a bunch of. Bunch of X Men variant timelines, and this one just happens to be a. A few timelines off the beaten path. But that's what makes it kind of special in its own way, because when you can watch it through that frame, you become less critical of this movie. You just accept it for what it actually is, which is a really fun superhero movie. If you like Wolverine, you're gonna love this movie. The thing that I like is before Wolverine loses his Memory. He really is the same guy. Like, he's true to who he is. Like, it's. It didn't feel like he was a guy who was about to lose all his memory and start a new life. And that new life version of him was different. No. I think that if they did anything to justify it moving into the first X Men as a real prequel, they did a great job at establishing who Wolverine Logan is and how he becomes who he is in that actual movie. X Men Origins. Wolverine is a weird relic, panned on release, but it's got lore that still matters. Victor Creed, Gambit, Wade freaking Wilson, all characters who could pop up in Deadpool and Wolverine. And while this Logan is likely a variant, but the multiverse gives Marvel permission to nod to this new to this era in a fun way, a new way. I think of anyone else from this movie who made it into Deadpool and Wolverine, I'm sure might be like a few people did, but I don't know. Like, the main cameo I'm thinking of literally is just Wade Wilson. The difference between him and the him in, like, the mo. His actual movie, and the obvious self aware part where Wade Wilson walks in with his time traveler and kills the mouthless version of Deadpool, possibly setting another. Another multiversal branch outward somewhere. You know, they used to just prune them, but not anymore. So let's get to the closing thoughts here. I think we've talked a little bit about this movie here. I'll try to keep it around 15 minutes. As you know. Look, it's. Is Origins perfect? No. Is it enjoyable? Absolutely. If you watch it for Hugh Jackman's commitment and the occasional burst of great character work, it's a movie that reminds us how far superhero films have come and how much Jackman's Wolverine has grown. I'm gonna give this movie 6.5 out of 10. I want to put it at a 7, but something's telling me I'm gonna keep it a little bit lower because of the standards and all the recasting. And they didn't frame this as a multiverse movie. I did so unintentionally. They might have created a really fun movie, but too much recasting, too much change, and then the one absolute point in time, in my opinion, is Alkali Lake. And that's where Wolverine becomes Wolverine and Weapon X is created. However, now thinking forward to the X Men apocalypse movie where we see Wolverine, they cut him loose. It makes me wonder. It just makes me wonder if that's at Alcott Lake. I don't. I don't think it is. And that's going to wrap up this trip into the X Men vault next time. We're moving forward in the series, but not without carrying some of Logan's baggage with us. And hey, big thanks to my co producer Nova for helping me keep this machine running smoothly behind the scenes. You can find more about them in the about section if you're curious. We fully honest here. We're fully upfront, but I'm also a very creative guy and I like jumping off of other ideas and putting my ideas on the wall. I was always in bands growing up. Okay, enough about me. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. We have a patreon. It's a patreon.com marvel maniac Join Michael Finney on our Wall of Heroes Support the show. It goes a long way and every Saturday you get another mini soda at 5am A little early, but I like to have it there from when a lot of you wake up. Slash, I know there's people from around the world who listen. I appreciate all the Day one listeners. I definitely notice you. I see you. We have a niche little community going here and I want to keep growing it and tendering to it with care. Email me your thoughts. Marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com Again, it's been an absolute pleasure. Don't forget we're starting Daredevil this Monday. I am so ready for this and I hope you are too. A reminder that Daredevil and all the Netflix series we will be covering will be Monday. Wednesday drops and we will still have our Friday Variety pick. Unless we get to Marvel Zombies and need to fill that area with like a show. Just want you to know that if you're not really into the Netflix journey, you're still good to come here on Fridays for the classic Marvel Maniac experience. For me, I get a lot out of setting up the Daredevil show. There's a lot going on with Punisher so I want to get to him and meet him via this podcast. So when we all see him in Spider man and his solo event on Disney plus, it feels that much more earned. So if you're along and down for that journey, join me Monday. If not, come back next Friday for another breakdown of something random and awesome. Most likely an X Men movie because we're cruising through them and I'm loving it. Until next time, Avengers Disassemble.