With the cavet that I do not read comic books and only really know Wolverine from the first few X-men movies and gamer-community conversation, I thought that the movie was very well done. All the major events in his life seemed to be there, but it seemed more of a stand-together story, unlike the watchmen, which I thought was a slave to the books, to its detriment.
I think even someone who knew little about that history of the character could appreciate the movie, though some parts might be a little harder to understand.
God movie, overall, with some nice special effects, especially showing that kind of unique supermen in a non-super world feeling I got form most of the X-men movies.