Scratches with claws but lacks bite

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 2013)

The Wolverine' is released in UK cinemas today in Hugh Jackman's fifth outing as the super-healing adamantium filled mutant super-hero. Set, very loosely I might add, after the events of X-Men 3 we see the Wolverine yet again as a lone wolf trying to find himself. He heads to Japan where in a previous World War II visit he did a little bit of hero work and saved a Japanese soldier from a rather large nuclear explosion.
Back in the present day the previously mentioned Japanese soldier is now rather old, grateful and seriously rich and powerful. As any mental billionaire would he has taken quite a keen interest in Logan's super mutanty healing ability. The sort of interest any mega rich dying man would take in a guy who can heal himself quickly and live rather a long time.
So basically an old rich guy who Logan once saved wants to steal his healing ability. That's the tall, short and depth of this film. The film also sees a brief return for Jean Grey, but only in Logan's mind. The films a journey for 'The Wolverine' to find and forgive himself after killing Jean and leaving the X-Men far behind.
Wolverine is easily the most interesting of the X-Men characters (just ahead of magneto) and probably the reason he has spawned what are now two spin-off films. Logan has lived a long time due to his ability to heal, so he has seen and done a fair bit that can be explored in films. See what I wrote there, he can heal. He is not, as this film states, immortal. This is the first of very many problems this film has. I'm quite sure it was written by someone who has no grasp of the character at all. Logan can heal, he can't however live forever. If he could live forever he wouldn't get any older looking and would be a man-baby with very annoying baby claws.
My second problem with the film is the fact that its rubbish. It's basically a Japanese government funded film about how great Japan is and how it looks at its past and embraces its future. Yet again there are no, and I do mean no, decent action scenes in the entire movie that are not in the trailer. It's basically 3 minutes of action dragged out into nearly two hours. There must be a total of 6 minutes combined screen time for the films entire tepid and boring bad guys. It's woefully short of any serious or major bad guy catalyst and this is one of the main reasons for its general crappyness. Even the weirdly weird looking good girl Yukio, played by Rila Fukushima, is underused in a film that offers very little new action.
The what I shall sarcastically call 'epic showdown' at the end is nothing more than what's on the trailer mixed with sheer predictability. The only interest I took any interest is when yet again i found myself wondering why the writers failed to take into account the Wolverines actual powers. This is a running theme in the movie where they forget that 'The Wolverine' has an adamantium (a very rare super strong metal) skeleton. Basically he has a Terminator undercarriage so shoving bullets, knives and swords into him wouldn't go in very far in unless you went in through the stomach.
The only reason Logan can tolerate the adamantium skeleton and not get metal toxicity is the fact that he is a super healer. When stripped of his healing powers he would die very suddenly, or at the very least feel the effects. They also forgot that retracting and showing his claws would mean them ripping through his skin and leaving him in agony, as seen previously. The end of the film has Logan losing the visible part of his claws, and being left with adamantium stumps. Then suddenly the writers forget about the adamantium claw stumps and he was back having his re-grown boney claws again. So he grew bone around a metal claw stamp. Obviously Logan's Wolverine abilities now involve growing back bone claws around indestructible metal in mere seconds.
When you have had Man Of Steel recently with its varied and new type action sequences this film just seems like turgid drivel. It offers nothing new action wise with Logan throwing his claws about in a boringly routine, as seen before manner. The only glimmer of hope was that there is a very interesting after end-credits scene. Not worth sitting through 'The Wolverine' movie for I might add, but interesting none the less.
If you haven't seen any of the trailers, TV clips or ads you may find this a tolerable watch. If you have then you have seen it all. Hollywood clips have ruined yet another film and I can tell you not to bother. Watch the trailer and save yourself time and money.
Turgid, lazy storytelling, a failure to grasp the characters abilities and lacking in bad-guy screen time. Very, very disappointing.