The Wolverine

In the first forward-thinking Xmen film since 2006, The Wolverine sets itself some time after the events of X3, with Logan haunted by the death of Jean Grey and living alone and wild in the Canadian Yukon (whose highest point rather delightfully is Mount Logan). Sadly, whilst this film is no doubt a very welcome return to the X franchise in the modern day, that set-up does bring with it a series of rather infuriating dream sequences featuring Famke Janssen, which aside from adding the square root of bugger all to the depth of Logan's character, or indeed the plot as a whole, just feel a bit like what they are; a slightly lazy storytelling technique.

Truth be told, that's not the only thing that feels a little bit weary in this film. The Japanese setting doesn't seem to add a whole lot, save for an excuse to pit Logan against a selection of samurai, although they do make good use of the beautiful locations and the historical significance of the country. The rest just feels a bit too formulaic to really excite, and is riddled with annoying inconsistencies. Perhaps the biggest nuisance though is that the whole thing just feels a little bit 'old Marvel', with a storyline and a set of bad guys that would have felt more at home in a Maguire-era Spider-man, or more worryingly, a 90's Batman and Robin. In fact, aside from the extraordinarily tenuous 'suppressing his mutation' story, which fundamentally doesn't make sense with everything we know about the character, the similarities with 1997's Poison Ivy and The Wolverine's Viper are horrendous in the extreme.


Logan resorts to extreme measures when he forgets to pay for his ticket aboard the bullet train

In fairness, it is true to say that this is a departure (and a better one) from the previous Wolverine-focussed film, with a much grittier and more character based treatment of the story, but if Jackman isn't able to deliver that in a character he's been playing for the best part of a decade and a half, then we may as well all pack up and go home now. Sadly, as a whole, about the only worthwhile thing to stay for is thirty seconds of post-credits intrigue, but even that, aside from turning more than a few heads, just feels slightly like whole movie was a time-filler before they bring the big guns out in 2014. Overall, The Wolverine really isn't a worthy continuation of the franchise, so just keep everything crossed for Days of Futures Past next year...