I really went into this movie wanting to like it. I was willing to forgive the X-Men franchise for the disaster that was X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But, I was disappointed. Why? Because the movie had so much damn potential and it failed. The source material was obviously the Wolverine limited series from 1982 along with bits from Uncanny X-Men #172-173. So how could it go wrong?
The Wolverine felt like a four issue limited series that had a different creative team parachute in for the 4th issue, disregarding everything they had built up until that point. The film sadly fell apart in the last 20 minutes and unfortunately took down the entire film with it.
Hugh Jackson was again a wonderful Wolverine and there's no blame to lay at his feet. Tao Okamoto was great as Wolverine's love interest Mariko and Rila Fukusima was outstanding as his bodyguard, Yukio. As the movie rolled along, I really had a great feeling on how things were shaping up. But, then near the end, it was as if the director/writer tried to get a little bit too clever for their own good.
The setting was also a great bonus for the film, really capturing many scenes from the Japanese adventures of Wolverine.
Make sure you stick around for the teaser after the credits. It's a nice touch to let you know that Marvel does indeed have a plan for its various movie franchises.
