The Wolverine

Rating: 6/10 (27 May 2014)

Wolverine has appeared in every Marvel X-Men film so far, including a cameo in First Stand, The Last Stand was disappointing, and the Origins of the title character could have been a little better, but he gets his second solo adventure here, from director James Mangold (Cop Land; Girl, Interrupted, Identity, Walk the Line, Knight and Day). Basically the films opens in 1945 where Logan (Hugh Jackman) was being held in a Japaense POW camp, and in the atomic bombing of Nagasak he rescues and shields young soldier Yashida (Ken Yamamura) from the blast. In present day Logan has become a recluse, following the death of his beloved Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who he was forced to kill, he is haunted by her memory, he is found in Yukon by mutant Yukio (Rila Fukushima), who has the ability to see people's deaths, she has come on behalf of older Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), now a technology corporation CEO, he wants to repay his life debt to Logan before he dies of cancer. In Tokyo Logan meets Yashida's son Shingen (Ring's Hiroyuki Sanada) and granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), he is offered the chance to pass on his healing abilities and immortality, which he sees as a curse, on to Yashida, to make him mortal and save the old man's life, Logan refuses, but before he can leave Yashida's physician Dr. Green, aka Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) puts something into his body, and the next morning he is informed that Yashida has died. Yakuza gangsters show up at the funeral and attempt to kidnap Mariko, but Logan saves her and they escape to urban Tokyo, during the chase Logan is shot and his wounds do not heal as they should, another chase and assassination attempt occurs on a bullet train, but the thugs are defeated and Logan and Mariko make it to a love hotel to hide, meanwhile Yashida's bodyguard Harada (Die Another Day's Will Yun Lee) demands he finds them. The pair reach Nagasaki and Yashida's house, they slowly fall for each other, Yukio meanwhile has seen a vision of Logan dying and must warn him, before she arrives Mariko is kidnapped by the Yakuza gangsters, but information leads Logan and Yukio to corrupt Minister of Justice, also Mariko's fiancé, Noburo Mori (Austin Powers in Goldmember's Brian Tee), he confesses a conspiracy was started because Yashida left his fortune to Mariko, not Shingen, also in on the plan. Mariko meanwhile is taken by ninjas led by Haraka, while Logan and Yukio arrive and use the specialist X-ray machine to see that Logan has a robotic parasite attached to his heart, suppressing his healing abilities, he cuts himself open to get it out while Shingen comes in to attack Yukio, Logan dies on the operating table, like Yukio saw in her vision, but he recovers and kills Shingen. Logan heads for Yashida's birth place to find Mariko, but he is captured by the Harada's ninjas and taken to Viper, she reveals her plan to take his healing abilities, and he comes face to face with an electromechanical suit of Japanese armour with energised swords made of adamantium, the Silver Samurai, Harada meanwhile realises what he is doing is wrong and allows Mariko to escape and frees Logan, the machine kills him. While Logan fights the Silver Samurai, losing his adamantium claws in the process, Yukio arrives and kills Viper, and inside the machine it is revealed to be Yashida, he faked his death, and he is able to slowly extract Logan's healing abilities from his body and regain his youth, but Yuko intervenes and kills Yashida with one of Logan's severed claws, Logan regenerates his bone claws to finish Yashida and throw him off the cliff. Logan in one final hallucination is finally able to let go of Jean Grey, Mariko becomes CEO of the Yashida Corporation and says goodbye to him, Yukio says she will stand by him as a bodyguard, returning to the United States two years later Logan is confronted with Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen) and Professor Charles Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) who warn him of an oncoming danger to the mutant race, this of course will lead on to Days of Future Past. Jackman as always is tough and often gruff, the supporting cast members do well also, especially acrobatic and premonition seeing Fukushima and slinky female villain Khodchenkova, I can see what critics mean by the film being set in Japan having elements and near references to famous samurai and battle films, like Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood, the fight and chase sequences filled with fantastic special effects are definitely what keeps you gripped, it works much better than the previous Wolverine film and is a good warm up for the next X-Men romp, a most watchable action adventure. Good!