The Wolverine
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Rila Fukushima
Directed By: James Mangold
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[rating: 2/5]

When this current instalment of the seemingly never ending Wolverine Saga was first announced, it was revealed that they wanted to take a more mature take on the character and hired Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky to helm the project. This piqued interest and at the very least would prove for an interesting take on what was quickly becoming a stagnant property. Unfortunately Aronofsky ended up quitting the project because it would apparently take him away from his family. 3:10 to Yuma and Knight and Day director James Mangold ended up helming this iteration and now we can see if he kept on track in making a more interesting Wolverine or continued the character’s plunge into mediocrity.

The Wolverine opens with our title character, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), brooding in the wilderness after the events of the previous X-Men movies where **seven year old spoiler alert**he killed the love of his life, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen)**end spoiler alert**. As a result, he gets frequent crazy-person-ghost-visits from a lingerie clad Jean Grey making it as clear to the audience as possible what his inner-most turmoil is. He is then located by sword-savvy clairvoyant Yukio (Rila Fukushima) and whisked away to Tokyo after being reminded of a man he saved once during World War II, Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi / Ken Yamamura – older and younger versions, respectively). Yashida is on his (weirdly impractical) deathbed and implores Wolverine to strike a bargain with him, to transfer over his healing abilities so that Yashida may live and Wolverine can finally die. All of this being made possible by the wonders of science and the crazed, campy fashionista-scientist Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova). Wolverine states that “Trust me, bub, you don’t want what I got…”, ready to return to his solitary brooding but is quickly caught up in Yashida’s family affairs as sheltered granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) is targeted by the Yakuza and it’s up to Wolverine to protect her and unravel the mystery around this damsel in distress.

After the initial hope of something more interesting and different than we’ve had before, The Wolverine is a pretty dire affair. With uninspired direction and an often over-convoluted yet familiar script, this iteration reeks of something that was originally intended as a more mature take on the character but was eventually completely neutered by the studio system. A notion that makes even more sense after the recent announcement of an ‘Uncut’ version of the film being released later in the year on Blu-Ray.

Disappointments and expectations aside, there’s nothing overly offensive about this movie other than the fact that it’s just another uninspired, unimaginative and horrendously ‘safe’ addition to the X-Men Saga that simply falls flat be being the same fare you’ve come to expect. With a complete lack of notable 3D effects, this definitely isn’t worth the upgraded ticket price but feel free to check out a 2D session if you’re a fan of the franchise. Ultimately, the safest bet may be to wait for the ‘Uncut’ version to be released and hope it will add some extra intrigue. Either way, at least it was better than Wolverine: Origins.

P.S. Don’t forget to wait for the mid-credits scene, it’s easily the best part of the movie.