X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston

Synopsis:
After leaving his black ops unit, Logan is approached by Colonel Stryker to participate in an experiment that will make him strong enough to kill his archnemesis.

Impressions:
Some people didn't think things could get worse for the X-Men franchise than the third movie and then this comes along. I avoided this for years due to its notoriety, but I decided I needed to see the trainwreck for myself. Honestly, I didn't think it was that bad at first, but as the movie progressed it got worse and worse until it started to veer into the face-punchingly frustrating territory. Even if we ignore the continuity snarls and the total bullcrap they pulled on Deadpool, there's still plenty to annoy. Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth is fairly controversial. I'll give him credit for putting the work in to bulk up for the role and doing a fair job of conveying the character's feral menace, but they really could've kept Tyler Mane from the first movie. I thought Taylor Kitsch was well-suited for the part of Gambit and it's a crying shame he's been replaced by Channing Tatum for the Gambit movie. For what little time he gets to show off, Ryan Reynolds is entertaining as Wade Wilson. And then he gets turned into Baraka and has his mouth sewn shut. At least it's something we can laugh about now that Deadpool has a proper movie that totally kicked this one's tail. It's not a total waste and some people may find some value in it, but I can't really recommend it.

Rating:
50/50