Why I May Actually Be Excited for ‘The Wolverine’

Well this is certainly a surprise. I hated X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Like, hated hated. Like beyond X-Men: The Last Stand hated. I thought it was everything wrong with comic book movies, had crummy effects and dialogue and looked like it was directed and shot by my nephew with an iPhone. So then why am I suddenly looking forward to The Wolverine? Well, to be perfectly honest, first and foremost I think it's that ridiculous poster you can see above.

Isn't that the most ridiculous, bat-shit crazy thing you've ever seen? Like, what the hell were they thinking? It's gone past bad though, into some kind of realm of pop art. I feel like a physicist who finds one of those particles that shouldn't exist, but it does. It's fucking madness. Which means maybe the movie is too? Maybe this really is just a super crazy, genre-defining ninja movie. And that sounds kind of awesome.

Secondly, and more importantly, James Mangold is the director. This isn't Gavin Hood, who came from the indie scene and probably didn't know how to stand-up against the studio when they turned the last Wolverine movie into a steaming pile of adamantium trash. This is the guy who did Cop Land and Walk the Line and the awesome 3:10 to Yuma, which was a pretty badass movie. Even Knight and Day was a valiant effort that, if nothing else, at least didn't look like it was spewed out of a studio's rear end like sap from a tree.

Also, Mangold just released this Wolverine teaser through Vine. In six seconds I've forgotten all about Origins and I've also seen a glimpse of Famke Janssen as Jean Grey. Wait...what? Yep, whether she's appearing in a flashback, or in some kind of post-death continuity after Last Stand but before Days of Future Past, Phoenix has risen once again.

So call me crazy, but maybe we actually have a decent Wolverine movie on our hands. But we'll have to wait until July 26 to find out for sure.