Every Movie of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Ranked(Photo Credit –YouTube)
Advertisement
Hugh Jackman’s Logan/Wolverine is as closely connected to a live-action comic book character as any other actor. Jackman starred in all of Fox’s X-Men movies from the 2000s as Wolverine, a role that made him an instant star. Of the eleven X-Men films, Jackman appeared in nine, three of which are solo Wolverine movies, and his character portrayal remains iconic. The release of the recent Deadpool & Wolverine marks his 10th live-action appearance as the beloved mutant and now’s the time to reflect on his every movie considering their overall quality.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Directed by Gavin Hood, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the easiest way to start binge-watching Wolverine films, which date his beginnings in Canada, in the 1800s, crossing his time with Major William Stryker’s Team X, and the bonding of Wolverine’s skeleton with the indestructible metal adamantium during the Weapon X program. Although this movie is an origin story, it did not portray the story very well because of shaky visuals and an unbalanced screenplay. Overall, the movie feels messy and overstuffed.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Directed by Bryan Singer, Apocalypse is set in the 1980s, following the events from previous films set in the ‘60s and ‘70s, one of which featured a Wolverine cameo and the other in a leading role. In the whole movie, Jackman’s appearance is brief as a deranged monster who is stalking the new cast, and the main plot involves the Apocalypse seeking as many villains from the book for the destruction of the world as humanity knows it.
Directed by Brett Ratner, The Last Stand combines two big X-Men comic arcs, The Dark Phoenix Saga and Gifted. This movie follows Jean losing control of her telepathic powers while Magneto fiercely tries to stop a new mutant cure that threatens everyone with superpowers. The film also introduces new characters played by Kelsey Grammer, Elliot Page, Vinnie Jones, and Ben Foster in the mutant ensembles, with Wolverine battling with his feelings of love for Jean and stopping her from causing mass destruction. While certain characters were written out, either by being killed off suddenly or didn’t show up, the new characters didn’t make such an impact. The movie feels baffling and only a few parts are watchable, making it a disappointing “Last” movie.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
The Wolverine (2013)
Directed by James Mangold, Hugh Jackman appeared in 2013’s The Wolverine after his time with X-Men. The movie follows Wolverine traveling to Japan where he agrees to transfer his healing powers to a tech CEO named Ichiro, giving up his curse of immortality. The Wolverine was certainly a much better improvement on X-Men Origins: Wolverine and stays strong for most of the movie. Moreover, The Wolverine is among the greatest solo Wolverine movies and is worth a watch.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, the Wolverine has a funny cameo in a scene where James McAvoy’s Xavier and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto are looking for candidates to recruit mutants for Xavier’s school. Overall, X-Men: First Class is an entertaining and well-made movie, but Jackman’s cameo is short-lived, which could easily be missed by any watcher. Moreover, this film introduces fresh blood, new energy, and an excuse to move forward from the disappointing scenes of The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Wolverine’s cameo involves him rejecting an offer from a young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr to join the mutant team.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Directed by Shawn Levy, this movie was one of the unexpected moves that MCU made. Bringing Deadpool & Wolverine together on one screen, after Jackman had his perfect curtain call in 2017, was something that none of us expected. Although Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t give him much great material, he did well in this film. He delivered serviceable scenes, including being comedic and bonding with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
X-Men (2000)
Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men was the origin of all the superhero movies till now; without this film, the world of superhero movies would have looked different. Of course, the 20th century had some superhero movies including Superman and Batman, but X-Men was enough to bring the characters from comic books to a blockbuster potential. Many characters including Spider-Man and others were adapted for movies and set a different genre that dominated the industry for years. Nevertheless, X-Men was the first movie that introduced Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to the audience and prompted the adaptation of other movies.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
X2 (2003)
The sequel to the original X-Men is a good watch that introduces all the characters and the world they inhabit. But X2 raised the stakes for the X-Men franchise after featuring the story of mutants that came together to defeat a greater threat. X2 is actually the winner of all X-Men films and worked better in terms of special effects and creative action sequences. Besides, it also included some newcomers like Brian Cox’s Col William Stryker.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
As X2 was an improvement on X-Men, Days of Future Past is also an improvement on X-Men: First Class. The movie perfectly tackles the time travel narrative and nicely shows the gap between the previous X-Men movies and the new ones. Days of Future Past not only portrays a superhero genre but also instills sci-fi and action genres. Overall, the movie is fun to watch and has an incredibly big ensemble cast who never stop to steal the show.
(Photo Credit –YouTube)
Logan (2017)
Directed by James Mangold, Logan’s Wolverine had the perfect end in 2017, as the movie portrayed a more violent and darker narrative than other X-Men movies, not to mention the emotionality it inculcates. The simpler approach used in Logan worked really well, even without a lot of flashy effects. The movie focused on building its world and developing its characters, especially Logan’s Wolverine, Professor X, and Laura’s X-23. In the movie, Logan is a mature and powerful comic book movie, better than many others from the same period. It’s considered the best Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman and possibly his best movie overall.
