The Wolverine (dir. James Mangold).

Mangold deserves credit for crafting a cinematically interesting, insular portrait of the mutant known as Wolverine. I found the first half a slow, tense, gripping tale about the ultimate outsider exploring his inner demons and violent tendencies. By the end, it morphs into the sillier, more graphic and very uneven action extravaganza that sunk its predecessor. It doesn’t quite pull off being both the dark, brooding character piece and full on superhero film it wants to be, but is effective, nonetheless.

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