X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics' fictional character Wolverine. It was released on April 28, 2009 in the Netherlands and worldwide up to May 1 2009. The film is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Hugh Jackman as the title character. It is a prequel to the X-Men film trilogy and is primarily set roughly ten to seventeen years before the film X-Men.

The film focuses on the violent past of mutant Wolverine and his time with Team X, before Wolverine's skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium. The plot also details his early encounters with Colonel William Stryker (Danny Huston), the Weapon X program, Wolverine's interactions with other mutants and his complex relationship with his half-brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber). The film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand.

Wolverine was released to mixed reviews; critics praised Hugh Jackman's performance, but considered the film and its screenplay uninspired. It opened at the top of the box office, grossing $85.1 million domestically on the opening weekend, and has grossed over $210 million worldwide as of May 12, 2009.

In 1845 Canada, young James Howlett sees his father killed by groundskeeper Thomas Logan. The trauma activates the boy's mutation: bone claws protrude from James' hands, and he kills Logan. In his dying breath, Logan tells James that he is his real father. James flees with Logan's abused son and James' half-brother Victor Creed. The two survive for over a century as men in their prime, living out their violent urges together in the American Civil War and both World Wars. During the Vietnam War, Victor kills a superior after he stops a rape attempt, James defends his brother and the two are executed by firing squad, which they survive. Major William Stryker approaches the two and offers them membership in Team X, a group of mutants which includes marksman Agent Zero, mercenary Wade Wilson, teleporter John Wraith, invincible Fred Dukes and electricity-controlling Chris Bradley. The duo joins the team, but the group's questionable actions cause James to leave.

Six years later, James-now going by the name Logan-lives in Canada with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Colonel Stryker locates Logan and warns him someone is killing members of the team. Shortly afterwards Victor murders Kayla and brutally beats Logan. Stryker offers Logan a way to beat Victor. Logan undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal. Before the procedure, Logan asks for new dog tags inscribed with "Wolverine". Stryker orders Wolverine's memory to be erased, but Wolverine overhears him and flees, with former team member Zero tracking him. Wolverine takes refuge in the barn of an elderly couple who take him in for the night. Zero kills the couple and attacks, but Wolverine subdues and kills him.

Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek is a 2009 science fiction film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It is the eleventh film based on the Star Trek franchise and features the main characters of the original Star Trek series, who are portrayed by a new cast. The film explores the backstories of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), before they unite aboard the USS Enterprise to combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from the future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. The time-travel story establishes an alternate reality, freeing the film and the whole franchise from continuity constraints.

Development of the film began in 2005 when Paramount Pictures contacted Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman for ideas to revive the franchise. The creative team contrasted Orci and Lindelof, who consider themselves "Trekkies", with casual fans like Abrams, who all aimed to create a film that would interest a general audience. They wanted to be faithful to the Star Trek canon, but they also introduced elements of their favorite novels, modified continuity with the time-travel storyline, and modernized the production design of the original show. Filming took place from November 2007 to March 2008 under intense secrecy. Midway through the shoot, Paramount chose to delay the release date from December 25, 2008 to May 2009, believing the film could reach a wider audience.

In 2387, Romulus is threatened by a supernova. Ambassador Spock pilots a ship carrying "red matter" that can create a gravitational singularity, drawing the supernova into a black hole. However, Spock is too late, and Romulus is destroyed. Captain Nero of the Romulan mining ship Narada attempts to exact revenge on Spock for the destruction of Romulus, but both ships are caught in the black hole's event horizon, traveling to different points into the past. The Narada arrives first, 154 years earlier, and attacks the Federation starship USS Kelvin. As the Kelvin is evacuated, acting-Captain George Kirk stays behind to provide cover for the fleeing shuttlecraft. The Kelvin is destroyed moments after George's son, James Tiberius Kirk, is born. Ambassador Spock arrives 25 years later and is captured by Nero. Spock is marooned on the planet Delta Vega so that he can witness the destruction of Vulcan.

Kirk grows up into an intelligent, but reckless and cynical young man. Captain Christopher Pike tells him of his father's heroic efforts and convinces him to join Starfleet. At Starfleet Academy, Kirk befriends fellow cadets Leonard McCoy and Uhura. In his third year at the Academy, Kirk is accused of cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test by its programmer, Commander Spock. During the hearing, Starfleet receives a distress signal from Vulcan, and the cadets are mobilized to help man the ships in orbit. Acting as his attending physician, McCoy smuggles the grounded Kirk on board the USS Enterprise.

Kirk recognizes the similarities between the distress call from Vulcan and the encounter that destroyed the Kelvin. He warns Captain Pike that the fleet is heading into a trap. The Enterprise arrives late; the fleet has been destroyed. As the Narada drills into Vulcan's core, Nero orders Pike to surrender himself via shuttlecraft. Pike agrees, promoting Spock to captain and Kirk to first officer. En route to the Narada, Kirk, Hikaru Sulu, and Chief Engineer Olson perform an orbital skydive onto the drilling platform to destroy it; Olson is killed, but Kirk and Sulu stop the drill. However, it has drilled deep enough for Nero to launch red matter into the planet's core, imploding the planet into a black hole. Spock rescues most of the planet's elders, including his father, but his mother dies along with the majority of the planet's population. Nero sets course for Earth and tortures Pike for the command codes to its perimeter defenses.