Having read a few comics in my youth, I do know a thing about Wolverine and his mythology. Him being in Japan looked like this was going to be the most faithful and emotional adaptation of them all.
Only it was not. In my opinion, this was perhaps the second worst of all the X-Men movies, the worst one being X-Men 3: The Last Stand. I know some of you would have thought I would say X-Men: Origins. And no, while they messed up a lot of what the comic books were about, I found it to be one of the most entertaining action/adventure movies I had seen that year. I simply could not get hung up about most of the characters being portrayed wrongly, since the action and the spectacle was immensely enjoyable, and I was able to forgive them for a lot of flaws. Besides, Origins never took itself too seriously, as opposed to The Wolverine. Which I did not mind at all. Logan was always a character that was more anti-hero than hero. And it was nice to see attempt them to explore this side of him more. But then they stop to look into his character and begin to focus on the compulsory action scenes and other events, undoubtedly to keep the fans happy. However, they weren't fun at all. For the first time in my life, I could not enjoy action scenes set in Japan that featured Yakuza and Ninja. And trust me, I have seen some terrible ones. Even the worst of those were vastly more entertaining that what was shown here. The only scene that I truly enjoyed was the one of Wolverine fighting some bad guys on a speeding train. Other turns in the story could not interest me in the slightest. Mariko which is supposed to be of huge importance romantically comes off as your typical damsel in distress. Speaking of damsels. Maybe it was me but Wolverine seemed less ferocious as he can be, and it became almost comical how this little red-headed Japanese girl had to come to his rescue several times. I was also a little dismayed how less was done with Japan as the scenery. It really could have added to the viewing experience to show some of the beauty and mixed it with the brutal action scenes. To name just one of the many possibilities.
Overall I am very disappointed as I could barely find reasons to keep watching. I also baffled how many people could say this was good. Exactly what was so good? Sure, Hugh Jackman delivers and is always reliable. But is that enough? Not for me. I hate to say this, but avoid this.
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