The Wolverine Review

The Wolverine is a much better film than expected. Maybe my original feelings on the film were clouded by the awful X-Men Origins: Wolverine film where the CGI of his claws was some of the worst CGI I've seen in a film for a number of years. Like X-Men: First Class though, this film went past my expectations and left me looking forward to what comes next.

Ultimately though, this is Wolverine at his best. I'd happily say that this is the best incarnation of Wolverine that we've seen on the big screen. Allowing him to become a bit vulnerable probably helped as it gave you a sense that he might not win - whereas in the previous films you knew he was invincible and would win no matter what punishment he took. The mental side was well played also, with the film pretty much carrying on from X-Men 3 with Logan suffering from killing the woman he loved to save the world. 

The fight scenes were brilliantly choreographed, which is the least you'd expect for a film that contains ninjas. They don't hold back either, and it makes me want to buy the blu-ray when it's released with the extra footage which promised to be more gory. They also push the boundaries of it's rating with it's swear words, which isn't a bad thing as it's something that you'd expect to hear from someone like Wolverine, and it's quite funny hearing it in a Marvel film when swearing is hardly used.

The supporting cast also don't disappoint and played their parts well. If Yukio doesn't use a stunt double for her fight scenes then she's got some real skill, although her choice of hair style is questionable (not that it matters or is relevant).

I don't want to go into spoilers so don't want to say too much about the film, but the main plot is pretty obvious. The action and how we get to the end though make the film entertaining and although you get the initial "I saw that coming", I didn't find myself disappointed about it as it was fun getting there. I'd say that if you had doubts about seeing this film, ignore them. Throw your doubts out of the window. This is a Wolverine film worth seeing. And remember, stay for the after credits as it's a good scene.

Maybe going in with low expectations helped a lot, but I stand by my statement that this was a good Wolverine film. If the first solo Wolverine film was up to this standard I would certainly have higher expectations of this one. If I had to give it a rating, I'd go with 7 out of 10.