The Wolverine

I am ridiculously glad The Wolverine wasn't an affront to films.

Don't get me wrong, The Wolverine has some serious problems, but it's a solid watch and worth seeing, especially if you're a fan of the X-Men franchise.

Hugh Jackman reprises his role as the hairy, blade-y, shouty mutant who is dealing with the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. An unspecified amount of time has passed and Wolverine is sorting through his issues like a sensible human being, drinking heavily, alone and living in a cave. I suppose killing the woman of your dreams will do that to a guy.

While in a random border town, Wolverine is picked up by a Japanese woman who tells him an "old friend" wants to see him. Turns out said friend is a soldier he saved from the bombs at Nagasaki in World War II. Despite being set some time in the future, this friend, Yashida, is still alive and is basically the Tony Stark of Japan.

Apparently Old Man Yashida stole some Kryptonian technology to make his bed.

Yashida offers Wolverine the "gift" of mortality and is promptly turned down. Yashida dies, due to probably being more than 100 years old, and then shit hits the fan.

Turns out Yashida was actually the head of a family that takes cues from the Borgias - they're a bunch of scheming liars and all want a piece of the old man's empire. And by a piece, I mean the entire thing.

Wolverine is tasked with protecting Yashida's granddaughter, Mariko, who seems to be the only decent family member of the dynasty.

Seriously, just look at her dad's expression in the background. 

It seems like the filmmakers were trying to capture the lightning in the bottle that was Wolverine's cameo in X-Men: First Class, and for the most part they succeed. Wolverine is significantly more likable in this incarnation and has regained his sardonic wit from the first X-Men films.

An earlier attempt to make Wolverine more likable.

The supporting cast does an admirable job, despite the fact most of their screen time is just spent looking villainous. Wolverine's new "sidekick," Yukio (Rila Fukushima) is surprisingly not annoying and was compelling enough to leave me wanting to see her character developed more.

Actually, her fringe really annoyed me. 

The villains of the film are almost cartoonishly evil and seemed to have powers that relied on deus ex machina rather than complex things like "logic" or even "consistency."

While the plot twist was painfully obvious to me, the machinations of various other characters had me second-guessing myself enough to hold my attention.

Totally not a baddie, you guys.

The action is great and the fight scene on the top of a bullet train was actually amazing. From what I saw of the trailers, I expected the scene to be contrived and dull, but it turned out to be well designed and choreographed.

The Wolverine also does what no other X-Men film has done, and that is giving an element of danger to the combat. Not only is Wolverine stuck protecting somebody who isn't a mutant, he also finds himself unable to use his impressive healing factor, making fight scenes all that more interesting.

I think know way too much about Hugh Jackman's dental work,
thanks to The Wolverine and Les Miserables. So that's something.

Using Japan as a setting was an ingenious choice and handled tastefully. The locale was exotic and unfamiliar enough to intrigue me, but Wolverine never once lit some incense or meditated or anything as cheesy as all that.

Despite being an X-Men film, there's not really that much distinguishing it from other action movies. There are only a few passing references to The Last Stand and there are only two other mutants in The Wolverine - not that that's a bad thing, per say, it just doesn't have the same feeling as the other films in the franchise.

Although, Wolverine does fight ninja.

The Wolverine is a solid film and infinitely better than the last endeavour lead by old Bladehands McSideburnface. I had this awful sinking feeling for the first hour and kept waiting for the film to jump the shark, but the moment never came.

 It's not brilliant, but it sets up Days of Future Past...so think of it as Iron Man 2.

And a giant samurai robot thing.

Three stars.