Dear Network Executive: The Case for Why a Wolverine Franchise Won’t Work

The release of the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie is in just over a month and I find my television set assaulted with endless commercials for the new movie. The thing is, I don’t care. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the X-Men cartoons as a kid, have read some of Chris Claremont’s work, and I went to see all three X-Men movies. But let’s face it X-3 was just plain bad. It was a badly written and badly executed story. But in typical Hollywood fashion, instead of just letting the franchise be (there are so many other franchises worth digging into!) they decide to mine the property one more time, with an origins story based on Wolverine. Which makes me wonder: Do spin-off franchises really work?

Case #1 is Catwoman. Everybody loves Catwoman in the Batman world. She’s a wonderful villainess. But did audiences really need to see a Catwoman movie? Well, apparently not, considering the movie is rated 3.2 stars out of 10 on IMDB. The star of the movie, Halle Berry who played the title role, actually received a Razzie in 2004 for worst actress. The movie is almost a parody. Catwoman’s costume is awful, the scripting is juvenile, and as I said already, I’m not the only one that thinks this.

Halle Berry Catwoman

Case #2: Elektra. Now, true, Daredevil wasn’t exactly a brilliant movie to begin with, but it still shouldn’t have led to Elektra's lightening fast delivery to DVD stores everywhere, shortly after it was released. Jennifer Garner’s portrayal of Elektra in Daredevil (heightened by Alias fever) was so popular a spin-off starring Garner was inevitable. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s good. Elektra’s rating on IMDB, whilst being a little better than Catwoman is still an abysmal 4.9 and the movie was universally panned by critics. Another thing that Catwoman and Elektra and the Wolverine movie seem to share is that while the studio has coughed up for a star for the title role, the rest of the cast is somewhat more B-list. Catwoman co-starred Benjamin Bratt, whilst Elektra co-starred Goran Visnijic (yes, the guy from ER). And this new movie? While it does also star the always wonderful Liev Schreiber, it also stars a whole bunch of mini-X-Men. Does this automatically mean it’s a bad movie? No, but it makes me wonder what else the studios is skimping on.

Can Wolverine carry his own movie? I’m not so sure of that, even despite the fact that he is a massively popular character. And of course, let’s not forget some of the trailer clips which seem to go against what we already know about X-Men, such as Wolverine having claws as a kid. I just don’t have high hopes for this movie. The movie has already had controversial re-shoots that led to Jackman releasing a statement to the fans about the re-shoots. While I’m sure Twentieth Century Fox has put some money into this movie, what I feel most of all, is that this is first and foremost, a way for Fox to wring every last penny out of this franchise, and that’s not okay with me. It hasn’t worked before. And while Wolverine is more popular than Catwoman or Elektra, I’m certain it won’t work this time either. I know it’s too late for this movie, but please, next time, just let it go. There are plenty of other comic book movies to be made.

Sincerely,Editor Nicki

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