Jackman is forceful and charismatic, only if he had something more interesting to do here.

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2013)

Choosing the artful director James Mangold "Walk the Line" (2005) and "Knight and Day" (2010), certainly enjoys a much smoother journey to the big screen than its predecessor, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009). The movie adopts a new, visually appealing setting encouraging a change in tone for the heroic comic book character, with a script written by Scott Frank and Mark Bomback that contains themes of mortality, family, honor, and forgiveness. In "The Wolverine," Mangold, Frank, and Bomback introduce new layers to the popular, charismatic mutant with a tortured soul who is making his sixth "X-Men" franchise appearance.
It's a character driven plot that takes the Wolverine into new territory, both figuratively and literally. Logan (Hugh Jackman) is a wolf without a pack, in a self- imposed exile after the ruinous losses of 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand." The movie takes place mostly in modern-day Japan, where Logan reconnects with a former soldier he shielded from the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
Decades later, the immortal mutant is summoned to the side of the man he saved by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), an electric redhead with superior knife skills, and an ability to foresee the future. The dying Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), now a billionaire, offers his savior the chance to lose his immortality, and to live a normal life span without his super-healing powers and incredible strength. Logan finds himself mixed up in the succession between Yashida and the Japanese mob, the Yakuza. The Yakuza is trying to assassinate his beautiful granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), and Logan chases her down cross-country to protect her from harm.
Drawing on the influence of Samurai films, the action is refreshingly tactile, with well- choreographed fight scenes and some genuinely impressive blockbuster set-pieces. The high point of the movie is the Tokyo bullet train sequence around the halfway mark, which provides some sorely needed thrills -- something which the final showdown fails to provide entirely. The third act is overloaded with CGI driven combat scenes which feels overly artificial given its character driven storyline. By the end of the movie however, nothing has really changed, and Wolverine is more or less the same superhero from two hours earlier. This is Jackman's show entirely, and he is as forceful and charismatic as ever. If only he had something more interesting to do here.