Better than Man of Steel

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 2013)

So, after 'X-Men' and 'X2', the X-Men series was doing very well. Then, they came out with 'X-Men: The Last Stand', which the general audiences did not care for. After that, there was 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine', which audiences didn't care for, either. In 2011, the X-Men series was brought back to life with 'X-Men: First Class'. That was movie was reviewed well by general audiences. Now, after the two X-Men prequels, we have a sequel to 'X-Men: The Last Stand'.
'The Wolverine' stars Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Svetlana Khodchenkova. Hugh Jackman is of course great in this film, like he always has been as wolverine. The wolverine is Hugh Jackman. He nails the role in every way. The rest of the cast and the supporting cast also do very well. I had no doubt that any of them were who they portrayed in their role. Svetlana Kohchenkova did really well as the main antagonist in the film. She had that "bad guy" feeling that went along with her the whole time. The only problem I have with the acting is that some of the actors overacted their role. They brought the acting too far and it was over the top.
The story was also good. It had a clear conflict, adventure, and task at hand for most of the time. When it got to then, it wasn't like that, but the end was only a little part of the film. For most of the film there are certain reasons characters fight, and what they fight for. They have their motivations and their weaknesses. The characters were all very rich. They didn't need to do much character development on wolverine because we know who he is, but they let us know what he is like now. It also developed the other characters well and gave them back stories. 'The Wolverine' was not all about wolverine. It was about the situation at hand and many of the characters. It was still focused, but it didn't stay on one thing the whole time.
The writing for the movie made it seem more realistic, and gave the characters more depth. It helped us know them better and care about them more. Sometimes it got a little unrealistic and illogical to the characters, but at the beginning of the film it made the characters what they were. Sometimes the dialog was clichéd, like when characters had situations and were in trouble, but for the mood of the movie, it would be hard not to cliché the dialog. There was one thing in this action film that really separated it from most acting movies. In most action films, the antagonist always loses because they talk to the protagonist and tell them their plan. In this film, there's not very much of that. The antagonist doesn't talk too much. I liked how an action film pulled that off.
The action sequences in 'The Wolverine' were excellent. They mixed the right amount of emotion and intensity into the action scenes that balance out into very big fighting scenes that seem like they should mean something big to the film. There was one sequence that I thought got old and didn't really make sense at some points, but it was still good.
The slow scenes after a big action sequences were done well. They were there to show the change in the characters, so they weren't that boring. Yes, they weren't incredibly entertaining, but they were still good. This film captures the emotions of you and puts them into the prolonging intensity of the situations at hand. This film has done this better than any other action film I've ever seen. There was also a very big twist at the end that I would've never guessed. It did get the smallest bit over the top, but it still worked very well.
My only other problem with the film is that it seems like it ends several times.
So, amazing battle scenes, great acting, very well done, very rich characters, good writing, it captures your emotions, and has good slow scenes, but has some unrealistic things, sometimes the acting and events of the movie get a bit over the top, and it seems like it ends several times. 'The Wolverine' is not perfect, but is excellent. I will definitely buy this movie on Blu-Ray and DVD when it comes out and highly recommend it to anything who is thinking about going to see it.