Solidly enjoyable even if it is not as memorable as it should have been

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2013)

I'm not sure if this film counts as sequel or a reboot or what but it certainly feels like another run at making a Wolverine film rather than a sequel to the first attempt at it. From the very start the tone is noticeably darker which I guess is to try and placate fans who don't like the family friendly version of the character that was more or less served up before. Although this dark edge isn't really present in more than the mood, it is a more satisfying tone to the film and it engaged me more as a result. The second thing it did well was to set the vast majority of the film in Japan and to blend the reality of the country (tradition, bullet trains, pachinko arcades) with the version that will appeal to the target audience comic book fans (beautiful women, samurai, ninjas etc).
This setting gives the film an sense of cool that matches that of its central character and of course of its main star. This cool factor helps it a lot because the plotting is not particularly strong; good enough to frame the film but nothing special. Unfortunately the same can be said about the action. It is perfectly fine for what it is but in terms of action sequences there was only really one scene that I felt was pushing me and showed ambition and this was the action spreading out across Tokyo in the daytime. Outside of this there are some good martial arts scenes and then lots of CGI nonsense – all of which was fine but no more than this. I enjoyed the film but I never got away from the sense that this was a very careful film; the reaction to the previous had not been great and it felt like it was really making effort to not mess things up. This lack of real flair or risk taking was apparent and, while not enough to really hurt the film, certainly didn't see it excel.
The cast are as reliable as the film as a whole. Jackman is as good as Wolverine as he has ever been and he makes the most of his haunted and violent character; it really is a character that he was born to fit. Looking like she came right out of a graphic novel, Fukushima is a cool presence as "bodyguard" Yukio while Okamotois suitably fragile. Outside of this Will Yun Lee is cool in a rather obvious character but is underused. Khodchenkova does feel a little like someone who wouldn't have made the cut into the main X-Men movies and she didn't have the sexual presence that the film needed, even if she had the looks. The supporting cast of Japanese standard characters are fine and do what is asked of them.
The Wolverine is a solid, safe film which is enjoyable for what it does even if I would have liked more from it. It plays things safe for the most part, giving the viewer more or less what they expect but not pushing things beyond that. It'll do the job but it never has the style, flair, imagination or cruelty that I had hoped it would bring.