The dullest and sloppiest entry into the whole X Men canon.

Rating: 3/10 (28 July 2013)

I'm gonna come straight out the gate and say The Wolverine was the dullest and most amateurishly wrought entry in the entire X Men canon. I didn't particularly like "Origins" but it had a whole lot more entertainment value to it than this lackluster attempt, so that's saying something.
Jackman is fine as usual, which is pretty impressive given the material he got to work with here. Unfortunately he gets to spend most of the movie getting wounded and then waking up on various beds and makeshift operating tables and that's about it.
It seems like a huge attempt was made to make the movie grittier and more complex than the simple soap opera that was Origins, but in doing so director James Mangold completely overshoots the mark and throws the baby out with the bathwater. What's left is an extraordinarily dull work that had me looking at my watch and even considering leaving the theater. Considering this is a superhero movie, there's a surprising lack of superheroes. In fact, other than the rather lame villain - the viper - there are no mutants in the film other than Wolverine, and he spends 90% of the movie without his powers.
While there are a couple of action setpieces (a fight on top of a train that's a little too close to the first Mission Impossible climax for comfort, and a fight with a Samurai suit of armour that's a little too close to the Iron Man climax for comfort), The Wolverine never seems to build up enough steam to get really rolling. Just when it seems a high point might be in view, Mangold throws in another half hour of fairly forgettable drama.
To cap it all off, there's an after credits scene that actually has the opposite affect as intended. It's a good after credits scene, and yes it tickles the fancy for the next installment, but what it also does is remind you how lacking the film you just saw was in just about every department. If James Mangold is let anywhere near the next entry, I'll be waiting for it to hit cable before bothering.