Solid, ferocious fun, "The Wolverine" is a well-made and exciting adventure for the titular hero, that runs laps around the underwhelming prior solo-film.

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2013)

It's fairly interesting going back and watching the thus-far six entries in 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" film franchise. From a solid start with Bryan Singer's excellent first two films, through the plunge into mediocrity with Brett Ratner's shockingly underwhelming third entry and the subsequent (and almost equally as underwhelming) fourth entry, which also focused on a solo-adventure of "Wolverine." Then there was a glimmer of hope with the extremely strong and very well-made "X-Men: First Class", which redeemed the series in a big, bad way. It lived up to Singer's first two installments (which isn't surprising, as Singer was a producer and co-writer after his 2-film absence), and gave new hope for the series.
And it is nice to see that this revitalization of the series continues in this newest entry, a solo-film for everyone's favorite clawed antihero- "The Wolverine." While it may not quite live up to "First Classes" first-class storytelling and direction, this entry in the franchise is still another step in the right direction, giving us a solid storyline, great visual direction, and a stronger depiction of the character than in his prior solo-effort.
Hugh Jackman returns as Logan/Wolverine, some time after the death of his beloved Jean (Famke Janssen, who returns in several dream-like sequences) in "X-Men: The Last Stand." He now lives as a hermit in the Yukon, living off of the land and away from civilization as much as he can. However, he is soon located by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), and taken to Tokyo, Japan to meet with Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), whom he had saved from the Nagasaki nuclear blast in WWII. However, after a deadly series of events occurs, Yashida dies and Logan is forced to protect his granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto) from various forces, all while discovering that something, or someone, has somehow been able to suppress his healing capabilities, making him mortal and weak for the first time.
The cast is great. Jackman is as (for lack of a better description) awesome as ever as good-old Wolverine, but he is also able to pull off some great dramatic moments as well. It's a great, compelling performance. Janssen is very decent in her small role, as a figment of Logan's imagination, reminding him of all he's lost. Rila Fukushima is a lot of fun as the mutant Yukio, as is Tao Okamoto as Mariko, whom Logan is sworn to protect. And Haruhiko Yamanouchi is very interesting in his limited role as Yashida. And all of the actors portraying secondary characters are equally solid as the lead cast.
James Mangold's direction is top notch. I'm only familiar with some of his prior work (mainly in the excellent "3:10 to Yuma" and "Identity"), but here, he is able to adapt to the almost Sci-Fi tone and the rampant action with ease, conveying just the right tone and style to tell this story correctly. I also highly admired his fantastic visual choices, and choice in shot and composition. The direction was top-notch, for sure.
Scott Frank and Mark Bomback's script is also a lot of fun. It's tightly paced, well-constructed, and gives just the right balance between action, development and even a little dark humor here and there. Although I will admit it is far from a perfect script. Some scenes are pure cheese (including, sadly, many of Janssen's scenes as Jean Gray), and the storyline itself is unfortunately nothing to write home about. It's a bit basic and cliché. And it really is what holds this film back from getting a higher score. It's not a bad script. But it's just not quite as good as it could have been.
The rest of the production is very admirable, though. Costume and set design is fantastic. The visual effects are awe-inspiring and put the cheap-looking crap from Wolverine's last solo-film to shame. And the music by Marco Beltrami, while not one of his finest scores, is still a lot of fun, and it compliments the words and images on screen very well.
This is thankfully another step forward for the "X-Men" film series. And it is thankfully (and finally) a film the likes of which Wolverine deserves. It may not be perfect, but it's fast, ferocious fun, and I think fans of the character will dig it.
"The Wolverine" gets a good 7 out of 10 from me.