Wolverine : X-Men Origins | The Movie

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Wolverine. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) strikes out on his own in this "X-Men" spin-off, in which he faces off with Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).

The film focuses on the violent past of mutant Wolverine and his time with Team X, before Wolverine's skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X–Men universe whose debut in the film series have long been anticipated.

The plot also details his early encounters with Colonel William Stryker (Danny Huston), the Weapon X program and Wolverine's interactions with other mutants including his relationship with his half-brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).

During it's first day of wide release, Wolverine took in an estimated $35 million, with almost $5 million of that from midnight showings.

Regarding Wolverine within the context of the X-Men film series, Tom Charity of CNN commented: "Serviceable but inescapably redundant, this Wolverine movie does just enough to keep the X-Men franchise on life support, but the filmmakers will have to come up with some evolutionary changes soon if it's going to escape X-tinction.

Critics reactions have been muted. Scott of The New York Times expressed that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine will most likely manage to cash in on the popularity of the earlier episodes, but it is the latest evidence that the superhero movie is suffering from serious imaginative fatigue." Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph stated that "Wolverine is an artificial stimulus package of the most unsatisfying kind."