For a character that can really only be joined by Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark when it comes to the conversation surrounding the most iconic run of performances in the history of the comic book genre, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine didn’t exactly get a solo trilogy befitting of his status as a cultural icon.
Logan may have given him a phenomenal sendoff in one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, but everything before that was marked with inconsistency. His first standalone effort in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was an absolute mess on every level, and the spinoff’s only lasting legacy is that it gave us our first taste of Ryan Reynolds playing Wade Wilson on the big screen, and even then we’d have to wait another seven years before we got to see Deadpool.
Follow-up The Wolverine was a much better movie, which saw James Mangold step behind the camera and mount a loose adaptation of the legendary 1982 comic book run by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. Jackman was excellent in the title role once again, even if the third act eventually devolved into formulaic CGI nonsense, diluting much of the story’s impact in the process.
Still, overall it’s a pretty great film – at least, as far as the X-Men movies go – and there’s plenty to love from the characters to the production and costume design, it just comes off the rails a little towards the end. But with the Mouse House continuing their slow rollout of Fox’s superhero content on Disney Plus, The Wolverine is set to arrive on the platform this coming week, on September 4th.
Much better than X-Men Origins but nowhere near as good as Logan, there are very few people who would argue against the notion that the second chapter in Wolverine’s trilogy is still a pretty entertaining and enjoyable outing, and if you haven’t seen it in a while, then its debut on D+ marks a good chance to revisit it.
