The Wolverine

The Wolverine

The Wolverine mythos meets samurai lore and yakuza nastiness in the latest entry in one of Hollywood’s most enduring franchises. The Wolverine seems to have been made one eye on fans of the X-Men set of movies and another on the lucrative Asian market, especially Japan. Claws clash with swords and the often bare-chested Wolverine takes on black-suited men in an attempt to infuse exotic flavour into an increasingly stale series.

As is de rigueur for movies based on Marvel comics, The Wolverine takes off from events in the last of the three X-Men movies, The Last Stand (2006), rather than from the spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) or from the origin yarn, X-Men: First Class (2011). James Mangold’s movie attempts to further carve out an ex-X-men identity for the mutant with the fictional metal alloy adamantium fused to his skeleton, retractable claws, and the ability to heal instantly from his wounds.

The grumpy mutant also known as Logan (Hugh Jackman) is scowling about a forest and marking his territory like an animal when he is summoned out of hibernation by Yashida, a Japanese soldier whose life he had saved several years ago. Yashida (Hiroyuki Sanada) is now the vastly successful but seriously ailing boss of a financial empire who attempts to drive a Faustian deal with Logan: give me your healing power and I will grant you the gift of mortality, he says.

Logan doesn’t initially bite but is forced to by family intrigue, bloodthirsty yakuza and Svetlana Khodchenkova’s evil mutant Viper, whose flicking tongue and poisonous breath makes her a memorable villain. Famke Janssen, who played the mutant Jean in previous editions, and who was the love of Logan’s life (despite a dalliance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and some dainty snogging in The Wolverine), returns as a ghost who eggs on Logan whenever he is anxious or doubtful, which is all the time.