Still not the perfectly ideal 'Wolverine' film but it's a damn good one!

Rating: 9/10 (14 August 2013)

'THE WOLVERINE': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
The sixth 'X-MEN' film and second revolving around the popular Marvel superhero Wolverine. Hugh Jackman launched his movie star career playing the character (and is now the third highest paid actor in Hollywood), here he plays the role for the sixth time (counting a cameo in 'X-MEN: FIRST CLASS'). The movie takes place multiple years after all the other 'X-MEN' films and revolves around Wolverine traveling to Japan to meet a former soldier he saved from a nuclear blast, during World War II, who's now on his deathbed. He finds his healing powers severely suppressed as he must battle well trained samurai and a sexy mutant femme fatale with an immunity to poisons. The film is not only vastly superior to the last 'WOLVERINE' film, 'X-MEN ORIGINS', but it's also an extremely impressive superhero action film given it's the sixth installment in it's franchise.
The film begins in a flashback of 1945 when Wolverine (Jackman), also known as Logan, is being held in a Japanese POW camp near Nagasaki, as it suffers an atomic bombing. He rescues a Japanese officer named Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) who several decades later (during present day) calls on Wolverine for help (at his deathbed). Logan is living alone in the Yukon where he's haunted by nightmares of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen reprising her role), who he had to kill at the end of the film 'X-MEN: THE LAST STAND', when a mutant working for Yashida, named Yukio (Rila Fukushima), comes looking for him. She convinces him to come with her to Japan to say goodbye to Yashida before he passes on. Once there Yashida tries to convince Logan to give him his healing powers and live the normal life he always wanted to (as he explains he knows how to transfer his special abilities from one body to another). Logan refuses but finds his powers weakened the next day anyway. He then must battle ruthless samurai and a seductive poisonous mutant who spits poison, called Viper (played by the gorgeous Svetlana Khodchenkova), as he struggles to protect Yashida's granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), from their attack.
The film is based on the 1982 limited comic series 'Wolverine' by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. It was scripted by Mark Bomback, Scott Frank and Christopher McQuarrie and directed by James Mangold. Mangold also directed the hit films 'WALK THE LINE', '3:10 TO YUMA' and 'KATE & LEOPOLD' (also starring Jackman). The movie is action packed, intense and always involving. Jackman is the perfect Wolverine once again and Khodchenkova makes the perfect seductive villain (she's one of my favorite parts of the movie). It's surprisingly dark and somewhat disturbing for a superhero comic book movie. Mangold did an excellent job with the atmosphere and the screenplay was definitely well written. From what I understand it's pretty faithful to the comics (with a few minor changes here and there) and ultimately lives up to what fans want to see for once. While it's not as good as the first two 'X-MEN' films (which are two of my all time favorite movies) or the last installment, 'FIRST CLASS', it is greatly superior to 'X-MEN ORIGINS' and 'THE LAST STAND'. It's still not the perfectly ideal 'Wolverine' film but it's a damn good one!
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