The Wolverine (2013)

Director: James Mangold

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Tao Okamoto

Wolverine comes to Japan to meet an old friend whose life he saved years ago, and gets embroiled in a conspiracy involving yakuza and mutants.

Oh, yet another completely unnecessary sequel just for the sake of cashing in…

There really is nothing more to tell about Logan. ‘The Wolverine’ follows the events of ‘X-Men 3: The Last Stand’, with Logan blaming himself for Jean Grey’s death and trying to live with the guilt. Famke Janssen gladly accepted a paycheck to appear as visions only in this installment.

So, the story starts in 1945 with the bombing of Nagasaki, and Logan saving a soldier, Yashida,’s life. Years later on his death bed, Yashida – now the owner of a successful business enterprise – summons Logan to Japan to “say goodbye”. However, arriving there Logan realizes Yashida wants his power in order to stay immortal.

The actual villain here, is Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) – or Viper Woman as they keep referring to her. I didn’t find this character believable and she wasn’t a nearly as good a villain as in the previous ‘X-Men’ films. Yashida’s will states his granddaughter Mariko is to inherit his empire, thus people are after her to eliminate her, and – off course – Logan is there to protect her. Only problem is, he is losing his powers no thanks to Viper.

This is a very slow moving film with little to none of the exciting visual effects we’ve become accustomed to in the franchise. There’s more drama than action, and the action only comes in the form of kung fu fighting – and I’m so not a fan of kung fu! Hence I found the action sequences tedious and annoying to watch. By the way, that fighting sequence on top of the bullet train was absurd! That was pushing believability to the limit – even for a fantasy film. Oh, and how many near death moments must Logan have in one movie?? I mean, jeez, enough already!!

Quite frankly, I became bored. At least beefy Hugh Jackman is still a feast for the eyes – and he is indeed looking mighty fine! Thankfully they find every excuse in the film to have him take his shirt off. As for the rest of the movie…yawn…

‘The Wolverine’ earned $414.8 million on a $120 million budget. Guess there are still die-hard fans of the franchise out there.

Would I watch it again? I tried, twice. No more.