The Wolverine- review

The Wolverine follows the events that took place after X-Men the Last Stand. It is the sixth film with Hugh Jackman as the Logan/Wolverine character.  While the movie is entertaining as a summer popcorn movie, it is required that you leave critical thinking outside of the Cineplex with this movie or it can be nitpicked into a bloody mess.  The action scenes are fun but it’s also fairly cheesy, lacks subtlety, and is somewhat predictable. 

Logan/Wolverine, played by Jackman, is living in the Yukon after the events of the last X-Men movie.  He is summoned to Japan to see a man he saved during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The man is dying and wishes to end Logan’s immortality.  After the man passes, his granddaughter becomes the target of Yakuza gangsters and Logan must protect her.  However, he is finding that he is not healing from every injury any more.

The Wolverine has many good action sequences, from a chase on a bullet train to Logan being turned into a human pincushion by several ninjas arrows.  Taking away his healing factor was a good way to elevate the threat a bit.  Plus, they made a villain that could actually cut into his adamantium so there was something very real at steak. It was very entertaining in that respect.

The movie loses some points in terms of writing.  The script has some hammy dialogue, which is pretty par for the course in this series.  Then there is a romance with Mariko, a girl that he had very little chemistry with.  It would make a lot more sense to have him romantically involved with the girl that he has actually spent time with and has fought along side, Yukio.  There is also a villain called Viper who seems to gain new powers at the whim of the script. 

As a whole The Wolverine is not a bad movie.  It’s also not a great one either.  If you are a fan of the X-Men series than it would be worth seeing as a matinee or as a rental.  It would be nice for a change to see another X-Men movie that wasn’t centered on Wolverine like X-Men: First Class.  However, with X-Men: Days of Future Past being another Wolverine it looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better.