Starts off as a wonderful character study, but veers off halfway through

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2013)

In 1945, Logan (Hugh Jackman), the Wolverine, is held in a Japanese POW camp near Nagasaki. During the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Logan rescues a Japanese soldier named Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) and shields him from the blast. In the present day, Logan lives as a hermit in the Yukon, tormented by nightmares of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), whom he was forced to kill at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand. He is located by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a mutant with the precognitive ability to foresee people's deaths and is skilled with a samurai sword, on-behalf of Yashida, now the CEO of a technology corporation. Yashida, who is dying of cancer wants Logan to accompany Yukio to Japan so that he may repay his life debt. The moribund Yashida offers mortality to Logan, transferring his gift to him, but Logan does not accept the offer.
This movie is completely different from any Hollywood superhero movie. Its also a hardcore and character driven movie. It definitely stands out from the plethora of superhero movies. Halfway through the movie, I was thinking to myself about how surprisingly good of a character study this was even though I could predict most of the story and some of the action was over the top. Then it all went bonkers and the strong first half was ruined by a completely contrived romantic turn. Of course, the white guy has to sleep with the first beautiful girl that he sees in another country and she'd obviously be willing to jump him. I wouldn't really blame the girl though. Have you looked at Jackman! He could probably turn me gay. But, Logan moving on from Jean in such a short amount of time and loving the new girl didn't ring true on any level, especially when he dreamt of her every night and was highly emotional for her. A stupid typical final act destroyed any hopes of The Wolverine somehow veering on to the right path. The villains, Viper and the Samurai transformer, were ridiculously cartoonish and didn't have much purpose for the final fight to take place. The less we talk about them, the better. I'd still like to re-watch this movie someday in the future and see how it holds the test of time.
6/10