Like Wolverine, Hugh Jackman is himself a bit of a strange animal. At times it seems like he’s been fashioned in a laboratory, designed by engineers looking to make the most perfect modern-day star performer possible. He sings, dances, acts, is funny and presumably a nice guy. Oh, and he can also can kick ass. He’s routinely tremendous in pretty much everything he does these days. It’s as if he’s so seemingly perfect that part of us want to see him really mess something up to reassure ourselves that he is human and fallible like the rest of us. He’s almost so perfect that it’s boring. You know? The person who does everything right can get dull.
With the exception of work in the likes of Movie 43 and Real Steel, minor, forgettable pieces of work in which he was certainly not the reason they weren’t great, Jackman is the type of actor who clearly puts a ton of work into his characters but not quite so much that it looks like he’s working really hard when he’s playing them. He balances this work out with what seems like a natural charisma and showmanship that results in the type of magnetism that separates star actors from character actors. It’s why he initially stole the show in X-Men from the first time we encountered him as Wolverine, to the point where he has spawned two solo movies including the newly released The Wolverine.
Looking at his filmography, it also feels as though he’s just beginning to get going when it comes to movies. Here are the 5 of the best roles Hugh Jackman has inhabited on screen for us so far.
Continue reading on the next page…
