Wolverine

The summer flicks just keep rolling out as if Hollywood is on some sort of deadline. Fantasy is the key ingredient during this season, what with kids out of school and families on vacation. So what a better film involving fantasy than that of "Wolverine".

Lured by a Japanese businessman, Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) to a Japan Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) hasn't seen since WWII when he saved Yashida's life, this century old mutant finds himself in a shadowy realm of yakuza and samurai. Wolverine is pushed to his physical and emotional brink when he is forced to go on the run with a powerful industrialist's daughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto) and is confronted--for the first time--with the prospect of death. As he struggles to rediscover the hero within himself, he must grapple with powerful foes and the ghosts of his own haunted past.

Others to round out the cast are Rila Fukushima as Yukio, Logan's 'bodyguard', Hiroyuki Sanada as Shingen, Svetlana Khodchenkova as Viper, Brian Tee as Noburo, Will Yun Lee as Harada, Ken Yamamura as Young Yashida, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Shinji Ikefuji as Pock-Face, and Qyoko Kudo as Aya.

This was intensely directed with a ton of grit by the comparable James Mangold ("Heavy" '95, "Cop Land" '97, "Girl, Interrupted" '99, "Kate & Leopold" '01, "Identity" '03, "Walk the Line" '05, "3:10 to Yuma" '07, "Knight and Day" '10). This guy never fails me for amazing intensity in his films. It was written by Mark Bombeck and Scott Frank based on the Marvel comic book. It has a few slow places in it, and there were a couple of places where the cohesiveness could've been more spot on, but this was solid and certainly looks good visually--visual effects were created by Weta Digital, Ltd.

Wolverine was certainly one of the more delineated characters of the X-Men franchise, so when Hollywood produced this, that was a great idea, if for no other reason than for marketing reasons. And with the 3D process, this is a ride you won't soon forget. Oh, and there is a bit of a surprise, but you have to sit through the end credits.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                         Rated: PG-13                         126mins.