Even though the most ardent movie nerds have mentally shifted their focus onto next May’s X-Men: Days of Future Past (think The Avengers with X-Men characters), everyone’s favorite clawed hero Logan/Wolverine still has a movie out in theaters, and it just might be the best of the summer's Big Three superhero movies (the others being Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel) — which is sort of ironic, since nothing here even closely resembles a typical genre offering.
Everything about The Wolverine feels so … anti-comic book movie. Instead of semi-bored A-listers and overtly epic action sequences bookended by a serviceable plot, we’re given a relatively small yet poignant character study that hinges itself on Hugh Jackman’s sometimes graceful, sometimes snarky, sometimes fierce take on the character.
Jackman’s portrayal of the indestructible X-Man has been among the more underrated superhero portrayals so far. He’s shown up in every X-Men movie, and no appearance has ever felt even close to dialed-in (say what you will about Origins outside of Jackman’s performance). I love Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark as much as the next person, but Jackman should be getting the same sort of recognition for crafting one of the hallmark film characters of the Aughts.
