Plotholes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Starting in 2000, the X-Men saga has gone on to tell various stories involving the mutants from the Marvel Universe. X-Men was a huge hit, and many argue that it was the movie that proved that a comicbook movie can be done well. There is actually a lot of debate about whether it was Blade (1998), X-Men or Spider-Man, but most say X-Men. The X-Men movies started in 2000 and the original trilogy ended with 2006’s The Last Stand, which, for lack of a better phrase, delivered less than its potential allowed. The following movie was meant to explore the origins of the protagonist of the X-Men movies: Wolverine. It was meant to show us exactly what happened for him to end up the way he was when we first saw him. Just like every other prequel ever made, this one has some inconsistencies to the original trilogy, and this article will explore those inconsistencies.

1. Logan and Victor Creed Are Brothers

The first scene of the movie shows us a sickly boy who is being cared for by his father, while an older boy, who seems to be stronger and more able-bodied watches in contempt. Drama ensues and the sickly boy finds his father on the floor, only to realize that the man who killed him was his actual father…after stabbing him with his newly discovered bone claws. That’s right. That’s Wolverine when he was a little boy. The first person he ever killed was his own father. The shocking part about this is that his real father was also the father of the older boy, making them half-brothers. We find out that the older boy is none other than Victor Creed. In X-Men, we see Victor Creed as Sabertooth; the guy who kept fighting and beating Wolverine up every time they met. In that movie, he makes no mention at all about their past together. He doesn’t seem to recognize Wolverine at all. How can this be if they are brothers? As far as X-Men Origins has shown, Victor didn’t have his memories erased. It was only Wolverine. So, how and why did he not recognize Wolverine?

2. The Movie Takes Place Around 1979

Through the opening credits, we see Wolverine and his brother fight in several wars throughout history. The last war we see them in is the Vietnam War, which, as we all know, ended in 1973. They are then recruited by William Stryker and start working with other mutants that they came across…doing…strange things…We don’t really know what they do, since we only see them in one mission and then Wolverine walks away from it all…then, later on, Wolverine is surprised by what he finds out about what they did when he left. What exactly did this team do? Shady stuff? Like what? That’s a question for another day. We then see that the movie skips ahead in time 6 years, meaning that it should be around 1979. This goes against what was established in the original trilogy. No specific year was given to the events of those movies, so the fans just speculate on their own. The most we know is that they were set ‘in the not too distant future’. However far into the future that is, is up to the viewer’s interpretation. Since the movie was released in 2000, one can only assume that the movie takes place either in that year or a few years after. We hear Charles ask (rhetorically) if it has been almost 15 years since Wolverine’s memories were erased. In X-Men United, William Stryker says that it has been 15 years, meaning that the sequel happened a few months after the first installment. However one would want to spin it, the timeline doesn’t make sense if we take the years that the events take place into consideration.

3. The Flashbacks

When making a prequel, one steps into a very limited area. One must make sure that they get the details right…even the most minute ones. In the original trilogy, we see flashes of Wolverine’s escape from the Weapon X facility. We see him being experimented on in X-Men, and it is clear that Wolverine is reluctant and being held against his will. In X-Men United, we see more of it, and we see bits of his escape, and he is covered in blood. When we see how that scene played out in the Origins movie, it is nothing like what we saw in the flashbacks. He is not there against his will. He doesn’t go through what we see in the flashbacks. He isn’t covered in blood when he escapes. He isn’t helpless and confused when he escapes like we saw him in the flashback. He just escapes like the pure badass he is and always has been.

4. Bullet to the Head

Sometimes, plotholes and inconsistencies in prequels don’t come from disagreeing with events or storylines. Sometimes they are just about what the characters are capable of. Remember the infamous scene in X-Men United when Pyro attacks the policemen outside Bobby Drake’s family house? Remember when Wolverine was shot in the head, fell to the ground unconscious and even bled a little? Well, when Agent Zero did it in X-Men Origins (shoot Wolverine in the head), the bullet just scratched him in the forehead. The durability of Wolverine was made to be cartoonishly ridiculous. He was completely invincible in the movie, save from adamantium bullets, which couldn’t even kill him. They were what was used to erase his memories instead of…you know…experimentation by Weapon X like the original trilogy suggested. No wonder James Mangold had Wolverine weak and helpless for most of the runtime of his two movies.

5. The Strykers’ Fates

There are some bad guys we just love to see suffer, and Major William Stryker was one of them. He dealt so much damage and ruined what was already a messed up life for Wolverine. He just did so much evil, not only to Wolverine but to every mutant he came across…and when he shot down Wolverine, all we could feel was anger towards him. When Kayla spared him, we thought that it was a waste, and that she should have killed him straight away. She told him to walk until his feet bled, and then keep walking. He did just that. The problem comes after that. It involves something that came up in the middle of the movie. The government knew that William had personal problems with mutants and they wanted him off Weapon X. How did he manage to get himself promoted to Colonel by the time of X-Men United if he had all of these problems? Also, if, it was stated in X-Men United that Charles had Jason Stryker as one of his students and then Jason left and drove his mother to commit suicide, and Charles said that Scott, Jean and Storm were his first students in X-Men, shouldn’t Scott have already been an X-Man by the time this movie’s events took place? Wouldn’t it have been cool if Xavier sent him into the facility to rescue the captured children and lead them to the helicopter as his first mission?

As mentioned above, every prequel has its continuity problems, but that shouldn’t be a reason to say that a movie is not good or well made. Some prequels are well made and others are not, just like any other sequel or original standalone movie. X-Men Origin is no exception to the rule.

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