Couldn't be worse than X-Men Origins: Wolverine...right?

Rating: 6/10 (1 August 2013)

The X-Men movies have been a roller coaster for fans of the source material. 2000's X-Men was a delight to see on the big screen, seeing our favorite band of heroes actually come together on screen for the first time. X-Men 2 topped that, becoming one of the finest comic related movies still to this day. Unfortunately, that's when X-Men: Last Stand came out.
Helmed by a new director (Brett Ratner, infamous in Hollywood for his mediocrity), Last Stand basically flushed the X-Men legacy down the toilet. Armed with memes and the audacity to murder off prominent members of the X- Men lineup, the X-Men movies came to a halt.
In '09, Wolverine had his first solo outing, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was, in a word, terrible.
After seeing those two duds, I was not excited for X-Men: First Class, but went to see it anyway. It was surprisingly good, and brought life back to the X-crew. Finally, the series had a pulse. Now, in 2013, in anticipation of X-Men: Days of Future Past, comes The Wolverine.
First, the cast. Hugh Jackman has never looked better as Logan. He worked hard to get in shape for this role (even employing help from The Rock), and it really showed. The rest of the supporting cast is sufficient, but does not stand out.
The direction was sufficient by James Mangold. I can only dream about what may have been with Darren Arronofsky at the helm. He had worked on the film and script for 6 months, but wanted a much darker, rated R film, which the studio did not want. Shame. Could have been amazing, and much closer to the comics.
Overall, I liked this movie, but I liked it to the point that I probably wouldn't watch it again. There was one scene that really stood out as being amazing - a fight along a bullet train that happens near the beginning of the story. It was simply breathtaking, and one of those scenes that will stand out for years to come. It's a shame it wasn't topped later on in the movie.
I think that the problem with The Wolverine is that there was no great villain. The villains in the film, including one female mutant, are very one-dimensional and very, very uninteresting. From the trailers, you can see that we get the Silver Samurai, although he's nothing like he is in the comics. I hope that the next Wolverine outing comes with a dose of Omega Red, as I think a one on one Omega/Wolverine movie would be outstanding. If you look at the great comic book movies, they all have iconic, menacing, charismatic villains. The Dark Knight had Joker, the king of villains. Spider-Man 2 had Doc Oc. The Dark Knight Rises had Bane. This movie...had a few unmemorable villains. Shame, really.
There were a few good scenes here and Jackman did a great job as Logan/Wolverine, but as an overall product, I didn't think it was great. It was better than Origins, however.
PS: Be sure to stay after the credits, as (if you watched and remember the abomination known as X-Men: The Last Stand), there's quite a shocker that leads us into 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Final Score: 6/10