I liked your points, they did open my eyes to a different perspective, particularly the point about the old couple adopting Wolverine as their own.

My main complaint is that given all these situations, all these scenarios, nobody says anything profound, anything worth remembering. Things just happen and that’s it. And everything happens at a surface level. It feels superficial.

There’s no commentary behind anything that happens onscreen; I feel like it’s just a sequence of events, tied together with no prevailing theme. Or maybe it’s there, and I’m just not seeing it.

Your last paragraph about Wolverine is a great description of the modern warrior – and I agree with that. However, this reflects Wolverine in the comics – it’s deep, it’s complex. But Wolverine in the movie was nothing of this sort. Remember in the Dark Knight at the very end, when Batman is fleeing from the authorities as their dogs chase him, and Gordon has that beautiful verse about “being the hero that Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now…” and the accompanying music lifts the legacy of our hero off of the screen and into our hearts? (well, my heart lol) This feeling, this idea that he was something greater, that all the elements interact to create the exhilarating experience of “I just watched something both entertaining and meaningful” was completely absent from Wolverine.

Maybe I just expected a tad much. After all it’s just a movie. But movies always have the potential to be greater than what they are. Hopefully all the complexities and revelations will arise in the next chapter.

As for the scene with the old couple, I think it represented a rebirth for Logan as Wolverine. He came to them naked after an intense struggle (birth), and the couple rapidly adopted him as their own. Then, just as he lost his original family through violence, he lost his new one.

The power of the Wolverine character is that his suffering never resolves and he never finds peace. Because of the events of the film, he loses himself (through amnesia) and quests to find the answers that are always just beyond his reach. He is shadowed by a dark cloud, and the world never ceases to test him and put obstacles in his path. Despite his curse, he is still a protector of the weak, and strives to find the truth of himself and his past. To me, this is the template for the modern warrior.

Although I disagree with your review, I like any article that makes any reference what so ever to James Dean. So… great article!!! Hope you keep them coming.