The MCU has been criticized by some for its mile-a-minute comedy, where serious moments often don’t last long enough to land. However, for the most part The Wolverine does not feel like a film trying to emulate Marvel Studios.
The influence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t totally absent take the post-credits scene here that sets up X-Men: Days of Future Past. As a result, it feels like a product of the small sliver of time - post-The Dark Knight but pre-Avengers - when studios were trying to make more “serious” superhero movies and TV rather than building cinematic universes. The Wolverine debuted just over a year after The Avengers changed superhero movies forever.
