This is basically a tale of two movies. I know Hugh Jackman wanted this movie to be an adaptation of the classic Chris Claremont/Frank Miller comic book mini-series. You can see bits of that story here. But then you have this other stuff, far removed from that story, that seems to be studio-imposed and ultimately hurts what could have been one of the best comic book movies to date. The good stuff, the stuff worth watching this for, are the slower, quieter parts of the story. The Wolverine and Mariko parts, basically. But all of the special effects-heavy parts and the loud, flashy action sequences suck and take away from the impact the movie would have otherwise had. There's probably no better example than the different climactic battle scenes. Wolverine vs Shingen is a much more powerful, emotional scene than the shallow, garish stuff with Viper and a guy in robot armor.
I don't really blame James Mangold. No doubt it was Fox's interference that caused the problems and also caused Darren Aronofsky to bail before filming. You can see a better movie underneath this one. But Fox didn't have the guts to make that movie. Probably felt it wasn't commercial enough. Needed more robots and CGI fights on top of a speeding train. Still, it's good enough to watch and enjoy most of it. It's certainly miles better than the last Wolverine movie. But I can't help but feel sad thinking about what might have been. They very well could have given Wolverine his own 'Batman Begins' but instead we get just another watchable popcorn movie with hints at something more substantial.
