The Wolverine (2013)

Wolverine is a great comic book character. I mean, he's just really, really cool. When I first read him I thought he was such a total badass, and I was intrigued by a character that was so different from what I was used to reading (Superman, Spider-Man, etc..).
Jackson, while not quite an accurate physical match to the print character (he's too tall), did a great job in bringing this character to life in film. He was the best thing in The X-Men, and he rocked it in X2: X-Men United (which was simply a great movie all around). Even though X-Men: The Last Stand was bland and disappointing as a film, Jackman's Wolverine was still decent.
Now, of course, X-Men Origins: Wolverine simply wasn't any good. Period. It's such a shame, because there was such potential for that to have been something really cool. But Fox lost sight of what the character should be, and the movie was just unengaging and unfocused. I was so disappointed in that movie. How the hell can you make a bad Wolverine movie!!?
I'm still holding out hope for The Wolverine. I'm getting the impression that this will be less "X-Men light" and more of a straight on badass Wolverine story. Yes Aranofsky is out, but hopefully James Mangold can deliver a good Wolverine solo film. The film's story is based on Logan's arc in Japan, so there is the potential for a damn good movie. Here's hoping that's what we get instead of another disappointment .
A promotional photo from The Wolverine

From Jackman:

“For various reasons with the first movie I don’t think we got to the bottom of the character and I think that’s why, in this one, we’re calling it ‘The’ Wolverine. It should feel like a standalone movie,” he told us.
“It’s a wonderful idea, which is why Darren [Aronofsky] was interested in doing it. He’d been looking for a movie for a long time and he said that this was the best script he’d read. It didn’t work out in the end for many, complicated reasons but it was kind of a reassurance to me that I knew we were on the right path.”

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http://www.totalfilm.com/news/hugh-jackman-talks-about-darren-aronofsky-s-interest-in-the-wolverine

James Mangold says The Wolverine will be set after the events of The Last Stand. It's not another prequel.

"Where this film sits in the universe of the films is after them all," revealed Mangold. "Jean Grey is gone, most of the X-Men are disbanded or gone, so there’s a tremendous sense of isolation for him."
"That’s something that for me was very important, that I land in a very specific place in his timeline," says Mangold. "I wanted to be able to tell the story without the burden of handing it off to a film that already exists and having to conform to it. The ideas of immortality reign very heavily in this story and the burden of immortality weighs heavily on Logan. For me that’s such an interesting part of Logan’s character that is nearly impossible to explore if you have a kind of league or team. "

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He described the tone of the movie as

Japanese noir picture with tentpole action in it.

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http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=35599

A bit more from Mangold (from the Empire interview)

"It's rooted in drama. Effectively almost every superhero film, in a sense, revolves around some large group of humanity that's either killed or held hostage while superheroes battle it out with supervilains. The essential driving forces of this movie are interpersonal and dramatic, about love, bitterness, loss, vengeance, redemption, depression, suicide, conquering inner demons - it's going to make it a very different film than people have seen."

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"The cultural qualities that Japan and its people bring - honour, a sense of duty, of conflict - really fit beautifully around Logan. Our film find Logan at a point where he's very much a ronin - a samurai without a master. Anyone he ever had a connection to is either dead or gone."

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"When I say realistic, what I mean is that it's not built on 70-foot lizards from outer space. Our goal is to try to be a little less super-CG and wires, and a little more hardcore. I want the film to feel analogue. You always have large-scale action and adventure - it wouldn't be a movie about gods if you didn't have epic physicality. But we all feel we're making a Japanese noir picture with tentpole action in it."

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Cool teaser poster!

That certainly IS an awesome poster!

Must... have... that... poster!!!

So is Origins no longer canon? Please say yes.

I'm not sure. But it definitely seems as if they want to distance themselves from Origins.

I'm certain no one cares what is canon or not, just what film they like or not.

Well, to be fair, the continuity has been pretty shaky in the X-films once the prequel movies were made.
In X-Men, Xavier said he was 17 when he first met Eric. In First Class he's maybe 30. Also, Charles is surprised that Magneto has found some way to block his telepathy but in First Class Charles obviously is aware of what the Helmet is and what it does.
In X2, Hank McCoy is shown on the television and looks completely normal, but he turned blue and furry in First Class.
In The Last Stand, Charles and Eric go to see a young Jean Grey together, but they had their falling out in First Class. And Xavier is walking despite being paralyzed in the 60's.
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine Charles is shown to be able to stand in his cameo at the end, and again he was paralyzed at the end of First Class in the 60's. Also, the "Emma" character who is the sister of Logan's chick is clearly meant to be Emma Frost (same first name and same power), but she's an adult in First class which takes place over a decade earlier.
And there's a huge difference in the way Mystique is portrayed the original trilogy and First Class.
Some of the stuff can be explained away if you have knowledge of the comics and/or some imagination. Like maybe Hank uses an "image inducer" to appear normal in certain situations. Maybe Xavier is just a Mental projection at the end of origins, but that's harder to sell for X2 since he's shown conversing with Eric outside the house. Maybe Xavier uses some type of tech to allow his spine to work for periods of time, but it's painful and he doesn't use it often? Something like that. It's a stretch, but you can make up little explanations for some of the stuff if you want. And maybe the relationship between Charles and Eric is complicated throughout the decades where they work together on some occasions and are at odds on others. And it's not too hard to imagine that over 30-40 years, Raven is hardened into a badass fighter and has little love left for Charles.
The continuity problems come from both of the "prequel films" (though it's really First Class that causes all the problems) and the fact that there really was no overall "big picture" guidance for the X-films and their prequels. I think the fact that most fans think First Class was good and XO: Wolverine was bad leads to people giving FC a pass on these inconsistencies but wanting to erase Origins from their memory.
The reality is that First Class takes a good deal of liberties with the story that has been established in the trilogy and Origins. If they would have gone for a pure reboot it wouldn't have been a problem. But they seem to have wanted to have it both ways. This was all before FOX wanted to use the Marvel example and have an interconnected "Marvel" Universe of their own and hired Mark Millar as overall consultant. Perhaps the events in Days of Future Past will allow them to do a "STAR TREK" and reboot while keeping the original story intact?

New international poster. Love the look of this!

More from Mangold:

"It’s set after 'X-Men 3', but I wouldn’t call it a sequel to 'X-Men 3'," says Mangold. "...Because of some of the themes in the Claremont/Miller saga. I felt it was really important to find Logan at a moment where he was stripped clean of his duties to the X-Men, his other allegiances, and even stripped clean of his own sense of purpose. I was fascinated with the idea of portraying Logan as a ronin – the definition of which is a samurai without a master, without a purpose. Kind of a soldier who is cut loose. War is over. What does he do? What does he face? What does he believe anymore? Who are his friends? What is his reason for being here anymore? I think those questions are especially interesting when you’re dealing with a character who is essentially immortal."

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"What I wrote on the back of the script when I first read it was 'Everyone I love will die,'" Mangold continues. "The story I’ve been telling, he enters it believing that. Therefore he’s living in a kind of isolation. He gets drawn to Japan by an old friendship and then finds himself in a labyrinth of deceit, caught up in the agendas of mobsters, of wealth, and other powers we come to understand... You find Logan and his love is gone, his mentors are gone, many of his friends are gone, his own sense of purpose – what am I doing, why do I bother – and his exhaustion is high. He has lived a long time, and he’s tired. He’s tired of the pain."

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http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/174341-james-mangold-explains-the-wolverines-placement-in-the-x-men-film-universe

Wow, sounds like "the feel-good movie of the year!"

The domestic and international trailers are out
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/175791-the-first-domestic-and-international-trailers-for-the-wolverine

I like the look of this!

Saw the trailer in front of Iron Man 3. Now, I don't judge movies by their trailers, and I want to see this move (and am a fan of the old comic book series on which it is based) but I have to say: That's one lousy trailer. Completely generic. Gives the audience no clue why this film might be worth seeing.

New trailer!
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/177043-watch-the-new-trailer-for-the-wolverine
I think this looks really cool, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Umm...WOW.