Sequel Saturday: X-Men: Days of Future Wolverines, by Mat Bradley-Tschirgi
That wascally Hugh Jackman posted a pic on Instagram of his hand with the iconic Wolverine claws and the not very cryptic message “One last time.” He’s started filming a third solo Wolverine film and has played the character well over half a dozen times. He’s the Roger Moore of the X-Men film franchise.
It’s a real shame, then, that the solo Wolverine movies have been bad for different reasons. X-Men Origins: Wolverine had an incredible opening credits sequence spanning wars throughout history, but devolved into a messy mutant mash. The concept for the film wasn’t bad, but it was a bit curious considering so much of the plot of X-Men 2 revolved around Wolverine remembering his origin to begin with. A sequence set at a farm felt straight out of the original Superman film. Despite all of its problems (the movie leaked online really early, even the final film had sloppy FX work, etc.), the flick was still a hit so we got another Wolverine solo film a few years down the road with The Wolverine.
The Wolverine had a better idea for a story, adapting a famous run of stories from the comics in which the titular character zips off to Japan to fight ninjas and find romance. While Origins had a moronic zippiness to the story (it made you feel like a kid who just gulped down his third bowl of Fruity Pebbles), The Wolverine was downright laborious in its plotting. It didn’t help a central element of the plot was the tired trope of Wolverine losing his powers. Too bad he was still able to run on top of moving trains and get the shit kicked out of him to little consequence.
Not much is known about this third Wolverine movie. Maybe they’ll kill off the character so a new actor can play him in the next confusing time traveling X-Men caper they have planned after the 1980s set X-Men: Apocalypse. I hope they go for a crisp plot with a truly memorable bad guy. Make us remember why we loved Wolverine back in the first film when Rogue asked him if it hurt when it claws came out. He replied, “Every time” and won our hearts and our loins. He won himself a career in the movies.