The Back Alley Archives

It came as a welcome surprise that The Wolverine takes place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. For whatever reason, I had assumed that this was going to be a direct sequel to the previous Wolverine movie. Instead, we finally find out what happened to Logan/Wolverine (again played by Hugh Jackman) after walking away from his life as a member of the X-Men. We now know that Logan lives in the woods and is sad. He gets even sadder after a bear is killed -- going as far as to confront the hunters at a local honky-tonk that plays songs from Cracker's Kerosene Hat album. It's all very depressing. Granted, I was in the mood for a depressing superhero movie.

The Wolverine isn't your typical superhero movie. It's gritty, but "Marvel" gritty, not The Dark Knight gritty. Yet even The Dark Knight is still a huge movie. The Wolverine doesn't aspire to be a huge movie. The Wolverine doesn't even aspire to be a superhero movie. The Wolverine seems to be content with just being a good movie -- and it succeeds.