Wolverine versus ninjas and Yakuza

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 2013)

A man on his death bed beckons Logan to Japan to see him for one last time. After his passing Logan/Wolverine finds himself caught up in a family and corporate power struggle and must survive as a normal man when is his power of regeneration is taken away.
Hugh Jackman returns in the lead role, thankfully the change of setting injects some much needed freshness and dynamics into the genre. Although you can spot that final twist a mile off Mark Bomback and Scott Frank's screenplay rolls out an interesting action packed bodyguard yarn for the first half. (For fans) Famke Janssen reprises her Jean Grey role which is a nice touch and connects it to the previous X-Men outings, it also gives room for some emotional scenes with Jackman.
Director James Mangold's delivers some great action sequences from the start including ninjas, yes ninjas and Yakuza going head to head with the Wolverine. There's guns, sword play and stabbings with some finely executed martial arts on display. However, the second half puts Wolverine back in familiar superhero hero territory with a giant robotic samurai warrior and a toxic spitting woman Viper played menacingly by Svetlana Khodchenkova.
Notable actors Hiroyuki Sanada and Will Yun Lee appear. Actress Tao Okamoto is Logan's love interest Mariko and Rila Fukushima appears as Yukio, Logan's 'bodyguard' both are on fine form. There's some good chemistry between Jackman, Okamoto and Fukushima which gives some sentimental weight and comedy to this instalment.
The excellent Marco Beltrami offers another great score which adds to the events highs and lows, the effects are what you'd expect from this big budget but The Wolverine is more impressively fulfilling with it's physical action scene setups.
Overall it's an entertaining ride, with a strong opening which - love it or hate it falls - into formulaic territory especially in the last act.