X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

As the most popular member of Marvel’s X-Men, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has always been among the franchise’s biggest crowdpleasers. So Fox made the right call in developing a film around the character’s mysterious backstory. Centering on the military experiment gone awry that gave him his signature adamantium claws, X-Men Origins: Wolverine aims to reveal the story that led Logan to lose his memory and ultimately seek redemption alongside Professor Charles Xavier’s team. However, the film’s script is so by-the-numbers and its visual effects so poor (those CGI claws!) that audiences were likely left checking their watches throughout. Also, the film makes a mess of the X-Men movie timeline and does an absolute injustice to the character of Deadpool (finally reprised in 2016 by Ryan Reynolds in this year’s R-rated adventure). Once intended to kick off a series of X-Men Origins solo films, Fox wisely cut its losses and delivered the far superior The Wolverine four years later.