To be honest, I actually hate Wolverine. Not always. When he first appeared with Chris Claremont’s X-Men, he was actually interesting like that cool uncle you just met. Over time, however, he just appeared everywhere: X-Men, Avengers, X-Factor; not to mention a whole bunch of his own titles. Soon it was all Wolverine this and Wolverine that. I hated it. So much so that I found it funny that Magneto berated him in the very first X-Men movie that not everything was about him. The worst, was when they made X-Men: Future Past and replaced Kitty Pride with Logan as the main character. The movie was terrible with Quicksilver as the only saving grace. So, out of all the X-Men movies, I only liked X-Men: First Class and, surprisingly, Logan. Let me tell you why.

First, both are character-driven. Yes, there’s plenty of action, especially in Logan, but they all serve a purpose. It furthers the main storyline and isn’t there just because it was an action film. Both should be characterized as dramas rather than action films. 

Second, the action scenes were worthy of the characters. The fight scene in the first movie was boring. The opening sequence of the second movie with Nightcrawler is the best I think but the rest was, again, ho-hum. Again, Quicksilver’s sequence in Future Past comes in as second best. Most fight scenes are just bits and pieces but never cohesive like in First Class and, now, Logan.

Logan stands out because all the scenes were worthy of Logan and Laura. They slice and dice like they just don’t care. The fact that Laura is a kid was also refreshing. Deadpool-level sequences without the humor. Very very Logan.

Finally, both movies go to the core of not just being a hero but a decent human being. Xavier trying to stop Magneto from pushing a coin through the villain’s head, and Laura ending the villain wasn’t just a good versus evil thing but had a deeper, much more human, motivation. The conflict was that more effective because of it. I’m glad both movies ended the way it did. You walk away with more than just a couple of hours of entertainment.
Fox finally made a true Wolverine movie. 5/5 Stars. Yes, it was that good.