Growing up, we are told to be ourselves. We are reminded that we each have special gifts with which to do good and wonderful things. We are encouraged not to follow the paths of others, but to forge our own. But the trouble is that not every aspect of who we are is good, not every path our instincts will tell us to follow is right, and often the very traits that can be our greatest gifts can also be our greatest curse&ellips; especially when your gift involves an indestructible Adamantium skeleton, accompanying Adamantium knives protruding from each knuckle, and amnesia.

Of course, for Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman), one of the many mutants we've already met in the three previous X-Men films, he hasn't always been like that. When X-Men Origins: Wolverine begins, he is just a young boy sick in bed. When a confrontation occurs between the man he thought was his father and the man who really is, the claws that flare out of his knuckles are made of bone. And after an extended lifespan spent fighting in multiple wars and briefly volunteering his skills to a mysterious government task force, Logan holds in his mind far more memories of violence and its effects than are necessary to make him perfectly content to keep his claws under wraps in a remote corner of the Canadian wilderness with his girlfriend Kayla (Lynn Collins).

But as we have seen in all the previous films, since there always seem to be those either bent on destroying all mutants or harnessing their power for their own use, Logan can only hide for so long. As Colonel Stryker (Danny Huston) challenges Logan and his Saber-toothed brother Victor (Liev Schreiber) when he firsts meets them, "You boys tired of running? Tired of denying your true nature?" As Stryker says to Logan after Logan has already refused to be a part of Stryker's plots once and he has returned to recruit him again, "I know you Logan. I know who you are."

When Kayla is murdered, who that man proves to be is one whose love demands nothing short of vengeance and whose body is up to the task of carrying it out. And so unfolds the transformation of Logan from superhuman to Adamantium fortified superhuman, the revelation that where there are mutants there is almost always someone trying to use them, and the reality that the very instincts that drive us and characteristics that define us are almost always equally capable of both good and evil.

From the beginning of the film, various people offer commentary on who Logan is. As his mother looks at the horror that surrounds her son soon after the movie's opening, she asks, "Who are you?" As his brother's violent nature seems to only grow with every decade they live, Victor reminds Logan that they share the very same "animal" blood. But as Kayla, a woman who is aware of Logan's past and what he is capable of, tells him, "You're not an animal." Introduce both Logan's gift and his curse.

Sure, because Logan is not an animal, he is capable of controlling his deadly powers. Because he has been given not only the power of instinct but also free will, he always has the choice as to how he is going to use his powers. And because he desires not just food, water, and shelter but also companionship, his choices also reflect a consideration for those around him instead of just himself.

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