With a new Wolverine film (a team-up with Deadpool) unexpectedly coming out, it seemed time to properly organize a Wolverine film rankings list. We are going to do something a little different with this list. We are going to include the various write-ups we have written over the years for these films when ranking X-Men films AND include new write-ups. We will update the list as needed
Other previous X-Men Articles:
Top 10 Performances in the X-Men Films
5 Takeaways from Re-Watching X-Men [2000]
8 Takeaways from the “The X-Men Adventure” in Spider-man and his Amazing Friends
7 Takeaways from the Juggernaut Episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
11 Takeaways from the Pryde of the X-Men Pilot
7 Takeaways from The New Mutants
Top 7 Villainous Sidekicks in the X-Men Cinematic Universe
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine [2009]
Matt Waters wrote the following about this film in 2017:
The writers of this film think that wolverines howl at the moon. They think wolverines are small or possibly female wolves. The fact THAT isn’t the worst thing about this train-wreck is a testament to what a disaster it is. Not even the presence of the always excellent Liev Schreiber and cult hero Taylor Kitsch Tim Riggins can overcome the ridiculousness of Weapon XI, adamantium memory loss bullets, poor writing, enormous plot holes and a teleporting will.I.am giving a legendarily bad performance. Still, those opening 3 minutes of Ryan Reynolds: pretty great.
I (Mike Thomas) wrote the following about this film in 2020:
This movie is MISERABLE!!! It is so bad that I will never pretend to re-watch it for the rest of my life. There is NOTHING of value in it.
The only reason I can pretend it’s not worse than The Last Stand (which at least has Kelsey Grammer in it!) is because it is very easy to pretend this one did not happen.
I (Mike Thomas) am going to add the following now.
Okay, I have kept to my word and have not rewatched this film at all despite publishing this list. Time and perspective have not changed my opinion (that the film is worthless trash) but they have changed how to choose to write about the film. Origins: Wolverine was such an ominous film in retrospect. A portent of the terrible things to come in the movie business over the next decade. The very concept of this film feels pure slop to be fed to the masses. It was an origins story that no one asked for – cynically made to cash-in on the newfound stardom of Hugh Jackman in his trademarked role. It stuffed a handful of familiar characters and actors in there to dangle some keys to entertain the baby-brained masses. Nothing about this is close to being a real movie and back in an age when that was honestly still the expectation of these things. A ghastly film that kicked off a ghastly era of this kind of shit.
I (Mike Thomas) wrote the following about this film in 2017:
I actually almost feel bad about this movie getting put ahead of #9 and #10. This might be the most boring film released in the last decade. There’s almost nothing remotely interesting, redeeming, or notable about this picture at all. It’s really just its lack of dramatically bad things that prevent it from being the worst X-Men film. It’s crazy that this creative team would go on to produce Logan, which is easily one of the most fun and compelling X-Men features. Life is weird that way.
Matt Waters wrote the following about this film in 2020:
Is it better to be boring than bad? That’s the question that has always weighed on me when trying to critically assess this film. The notion of rewatching this plodding retelling of the classic ‘Logan goes to Japan’ story that helped make the character so popular never fills me with excitement. It’s slow, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t really do much with that slowness unlike its eventual sequel. It’s also difficult to care about the majority of the characters, who are generally paper thin, existing only to orbit around Logan as with the worst Wolverine stories.
Still, I’ve likely been overly harsh on this Very Okay flick over the years, because there’s not very much actually wrong with it and it certainly has a cohesive vision, albeit one centred around Wolverine bleeding a lot. There is an inescapable white saviour narrative (also present in the original source material), but it’s handled about as well as one of those can be and in places Logan is a respectful little gaijin.
The driving factor of the plot being tied to Logan’s longevity allowing him to be present throughout world history is good, as is his general distrust of others being proven right once again when the villain selfishly turns on his one-time protector in the hope of stealing his healing abilities to cheat death. It’s just a bummer that Wolverine and Mariko have zero chemistry, especially in comparison to the more chaotic big brother/little sister dynamic he has with Yukio.
I (Mike Thomas) am going to add the following now.
Inexplicably, against all odds, in 2024, I actually enjoyed re-watching this film. In fact, I actually liked it more now than I ever have before. So, I set out to figure out why. Because you do not get me wrong, the film still has plenty of issues. The power stealing shit is stupid. Wolverine losing his claws at the end is stupid. (The people who make X-Men movies really overestimate how interesting it is for the X-Men to LOSE their mutant abilities). The pace is a little too slow for what happens on screen. The deluge of previously unseen characters never really pop off the screen.
So why did I enjoy it is this time? I think the biggest key is the time in which I am rewatching the movie. I have a lot more emotional distance from the X-Men series at this point which means my biggest gripe with this movie is no longer relevant. I used to think this was such a waste of an X-Men movie, and now I am really just over that. They certainly could have made a more interesting movie, but overall, this has that 2 Fast 2 Furious side-adventure vibes that I have come to appreciate more with age. It is inessential, and that is as much as a feature as it is a bug. It aims small and misses small. It serves up some genuinely fun and dynamic action. Jackman doesn’t get his best material, but this was his star-making, breakout character for a reason.
1. Logan [2017]
Matt Waters wrote the following about this film in 2017:
Where the hell was this when James Mangold had Wolverine drudging around Japan and putting us all into a coma? I guess the third time really is the charm, with Hugh Jackman finally getting to make good on all his Wolverine related promises over the years, going out with an almighty bang and giving one of the best performances the genre has ever seen. Logan is funny, heartbreaking, exciting and features fantastic acting, writing and directing. There’s plenty of small things wrong with it, but it doesn’t matter because of how good the core of the film is, thanks in no small part to the big-screen debut of my favourite X-Men character, X-23, who pretty much steals the show. As it turns out, making smaller, more intimate, character-driven superhero films is the way to go, based on critical reactions… so… maybe learn from this, Fox… and Warner Bros… and Marvel.
Matt Waters wrote the following about this film in 2020:
They did it. The bastards finally did it. On his third try, Wolverine finally got an Actually Good solo movie. With superhero films swelling to a critical mass of homogenous, formulaic PG-13 safety, this movie responded by leaning hard into genre. Specifically a western. For as much as I love Marvel’s machine, this was a welcome change of pace that Warner Bros. have somewhat adopted themselves with Shazam! and Joker. It still has some generic superhero moments, and the very notion of the evil digitally de-aged clone fills me with dread, but the emotional weight is unmatched in the franchise, and contends with anything the MCU/DCEU/Spider-Verse has put to screen.
Logan’s depressed isolationism is nothing new, but it’s done in a more quiet, confident manner this time, weaponising its pace and not-quite-apocalyptic setting, with much of the film taking place out in the wilderness. Patrick Stewart gets to have a comical amount of fun in his final outing as a senile, foul-mouthed Charles who is more of a nagging parent than he is a wise leader, though seeing that spark to mentor re-ignite when he meets Laura is legitimately touching.
Laura ❤ I’ve made my love for X-23 known in the past, and I am so thankful that she got to explode into the mainstream with such a show-stealing performance from Dafne Keen. Logan acting as a surrogate father to young female mutants is such a lay-up, and Jackman’s scenes with Anna Paquin are probably the best in X-Men, so it’s surprising it took them so long to return to the formula. These two have incredible chemistry and it drives the entire film forward as well as ensuring both of the major death scenes have maximum impact.
I (Mike Thomas) am going to add the following now.
It took me a really long time to revisit this film. It made a real emotional impact on me at the time, and I was avoiding watching it back both because I thought it might be hard emotionally or it would not hit again in the same way. I am glad I finally went back though because my second time through showed me that part of the reason the movie worked so well was that it got back to the fundamentals of what made the X-Men films so good in the first place.
At its core, this is a film about adults with competing goals, desires, and worldviews sitting down and talking coming into the organic conflicts and difficulties that stem from merely being alive. In the first film, those conflicts were dominated by Eric, Charles, and Logan. For this (not) final film, it was just about Charles and Logan.
Logan is finally aging. Charles is suffering from dementia. There are essentially no more mutants (with Charles having accidentally killed most of the X-Men due to his brain deteriorating). Charles and Logan are now in perpetual conflict. Logan is desperately trying to do what he knows best: isolation, hiding from the world, and just trying to cope with existence. Charles is desperately trying to do what he nows best: trying to guide and protect young people in the hopes of building a better world.
Logan’s cynicism does not allow him to believe something better is possible. Charles’ ego makes him believe he must be the one to do something to make it better. This is an unstable foundation for them, and then their world (such as it remains) comes crumbling down.
This movie works well, and it should have been the end of Jackman’s Logan.
The Reel World 