One of the year's best films.

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2009)

It's not just that this movie is more filled with eye-popping effects and thrilling action sequences than the trilogy, though that's true. Rather, it's that there's a whole story here. Wolverine starts fast, and springboards from the long-running Marvel Comics series in breath-taking ways. It's a multi-faceted tale with an emotional richness seldom associated with the phrase "summer movie." For good reason, we equate summer movies with empty, flash-bang exercises in computer-generated imagery and mindless action. (I'm sure Transformers 2 will give us plenty of that later in the summer.) But the writers here are as interested in the subtext as they are in the high quality action. There's no denying that mutant super-powers drive this film. This is what state-of-the-art special effects look like: the live-action version of the way comic books appear in your mind. That would be irrelevant, however, without a good story. The movie delivers enough story and skillfully weaves together character, plot and action. This movie and the action are just plain spectacular.
One of the great things about this film is that virtually no screen time is spent on background character development. Like with last year's Incredible Hulk, the opening credits serve as a cool update and feeder for a basic origin. Even the newer characters that are introduced get very little time devoted to their past and it all works quite well. People in general are smart and can read between the lines, thus negating the necessity for cumbersome background information. Apparently the director figured this out and doesn't "talk down" to his audience even though it's an action film. The pace flows smoothly, with hardly a stutter along the way to break up the story or the action. That's the key. As good as X2 was, Wolverine simply has better action without sacrificing the heart or character development or the emotion that made this franchise the juggernaut that it has turned out to be.
This movie stands on its own, as its own Wolverine. People who've never seen any of the other movies can go and see it and enjoy it. I saw it with two people that have never seen any X-Men stuff and they loved it. One of the year's best.