The Wolverine focuses more on character than spectacle.

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2013)

After the event of Last Stand, Logan has become a loner. He lives in the wilderness with his demons. Until a young woman enters his life with news that the man Logan once saved back in WWII when the US dropped the bomb on Nagaski, has asked to see him once more. He's dying and wants to offer Logan something no one ever thought could be true. His mortality.
I still, to this day, wonder what this film would have been like had Aronofsky been behind the camera. Without a doubt it would have been a hard R rated spectacle with blood and violence. This Wolverine is the PG-13 version of what an R rated comic book film could be. It's violent, has harsh language and isn't set an wowing the audience, it instead has a story it wants to tell. Which is a step above what Wolverine had to go through with his origins tale and the atrocity that was Ratner's entry.
The Wolverine sets itself apart from the other X-Men films by focusing mainly on the setting of this tale. Logan is now in Japan, something that the comic book readers will be familiar with as Japan plays a pretty big part of Logan's history. The change in local was a welcome addition as it gives the film a breath of fresh air about it. It stands out from the crowd, this is both a blessing and a curse. Why a curse? Well, I can't help but shake the feeling that this entry was ho-hum. I love that it tells a smaller story, a more focused story, but in the grand scheme of things is kind of feels pointless. It's like a side stop to sight see while we wait to continue on with bigger things.
This film has a lot of issues, but nothing major that made me hate it. In fact, I liked it. This is probably one of the better entries in the series where Jackman has played this character a whopping 6 times. Here he looks leaner, meaner and more at ease with the character. Logan is haunted by his demons, mainly Jean Grey. Jackman plays the character with an emotional detachment, but also the need to belong. This character is a loner, he doesn't play well with others, but all he really wants is acceptance. Even if he says he doesn't.
There are only three mutants in this film. Our titled hero, a one dimensional venomous vixen by the name of Viper and a redheaded martial arts expert who can see people's deaths in the future, Yukio. Rila Fukushima who plays Yukio, does well for herself against Jackman. She was impressive considering this is her first major role. Tao Okamoto plays Mariko, sister to Yukio and the target of the Yakuza. Logan takes it upon himself to protect her...maybe even fall for her in a forced there needs to be a love story kind of way.
There are some twists in the film, that a child can see coming a mile away. Nothing too confusing in the plot that features assassination attempts, kidnapping, betrayal, family issues, etc. The most interesting aspect of this film is the fact that Logan has his healing power taken away from him. Now we have a guy who was once immortal (or close to) getting tired from simply chopping some wood. His healing powers are significantly slower, he bleeds, needs to see doctors and finally feels the pain. This raises the stakes for a once unstoppable character. One issues I had right away was that even with his healing powers gone, he shows no signs of pain or slowing down with his metallic claws rip through his hands. No sign of damage there. Big oversight from the filmmakers on that one.
The Wolverine is an interesting character study. It has one showy fight sequence on a train, that walks the line of cartoonish. It's more concerned with the fact that this guy is an animal, a loner who goes by his own rules being thrown into a society that has honour, rules and obedience at the forefront. He is out of his element and the audience is unaware they are too for the first time in this characters life. Shoddy storytelling near the end involving Logan's power makes the film end with me scratching my head. Throw onto that a ballsy move the filmmakers decide to do with Logan and you've got my interest in the next film.
Does it reflect badly on the film that I thought the best part of it was the after the credit sequence?