The Wolverine (2013)

 Why is it that at some point in a hell of a lot of movie franchises, the story and the characters end up going to Asia? Particularly in action movies. It seems to be that option that once you've run out of story lines that could occur in the place where the movie has been set previously, you have to throw in a few ninjas and samurai swords to make a new sequel worthwhile.

 This is exactly what has happened with the X-Men spin off franchise following Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the movie following the character after the final movie in the original X-Men trilogy. After saving a soldier from the nuclear bomb that tore through Nagasaki, many years later this soldier turned multi-billionaire offers Wolverine the opportunity to get rid of his mutation and become normal so he can die and no longer have the curse of eternal life. However, as you would expect, not all is as it seems with Japanese gangs fighting for the science developed by this billionaires company, family members vying for inheritance and other mutants being a pain in the arse (rather like all of the other X-Men/Wolverine/other spin offs then).

 I personally don't see the point in this movie and here is why. The story doesn't need to be told. I understand why they made the first of the Wolverine movies. It told the story of how he became the mutant we all know and love (or don't) and it helped to explain a lot of the issues that came up with the character in the X-Men trilogy. However, that movie wasn't overly great to begin with (I'm not saying it was horrifically bad, I'm just saying it wasn't great) so why the producers thought another film was necessary with an even more unconvincing story and even weaker character arcs I really don't know.

 This film just helps to highlight that fact that the character is getting old for audiences and isn't really strong enough to merit a film of its own, let alone two. There's no denying Hugh Jackman is great as Wolverine but he needs to let it go, or at the very least just appear in the ensemble movies like everyone else. The story is weak, the characters are boring and the Japanese element just makes the whole film all the more frustrating.

 As an action movie it is not horrific. The sequences are decent with some being almost impressive. As well as this, the special effects are often very good with one particular scene standing out (it involves Wolverine reaching into his own chest and removing a bug that has been placed there by the bad guys). Having said that, none of this makes up for the complete lack of intelligence when it comes to the story. Parts are boring and pointless, others are nonsensical and idiotic (again, I understand that it is a movie with an based on fantasy but I still believe there needs to be some element of realism in there).

 Overall, this is probably the weakest film to have risen from the X-Men series. It's slow, weak and pointless and not worth seeing especially if you are a fan of the original films.