Wolverine (2013)

When it’s over, Hugh Jackman returned as Logan (aka: Wolverine) in the second film of the Wolverine series. Logan travels to Japan on the request of a dying friend, who seeks immortality. There was an interesting locale and some romance, but none of these aspects helped to make The Wolverine a memorable film. The film was plagued with loose ends, to include: a symbolic Japanese sword, which was given to Logan early in the film by a Japanese man he had saved (decades earlier), and Logan promised he will someday come and claim the sword (leading the viewer to believe the sword’s story would continue), but the sword's story never fully resurfaced. The sword proved to serve more as a prop than a character. A true shame. I had hoped the sword would be used by Logan for some symbolic purpose. There were plenty of ninjas, but hardly any swordplay between Logan and the ninjas. The romance was dull and uneventful. The growing love story between Logan and Mariko (Tao Akamoto) was laughable. Their short kiss lacked everything that the “one” kiss should have embodied – passion, tenderness, admiration. The kiss between Logan and the Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) was a kiss that never was fully explained. If the kiss was what injected Logan with the spider (the foreign object that depletes Wolverine's powers), how come we never see the spider enter his mouth? Instead, we only see green vapors, something reminiscent of Poison Ivy, the character from the Batman comics. Furthermore, who was Viper, and what was her motivation? These were just some of the many questions and plot holes that turned me off from this film. Two things I did like about this film was (1) the character of Yukio (Rila Fukushima), the tough sword swinging sidekick who befriends Logan; and (2) the story's attempt to search deeper into the emotional struggles of Wolverine. Less concern about being a summer blockbuster and more attention to drama may have been the better path for The Wolverine.

My rating: 2.5 out of 5