Very solid film, but never truly excels. They did a lot right with this movie and very little wrong. Hugh Jackman is flawless as Wolverine. He has everything down as this character by this point. I thought all the other heroes were well-played, even though they lack any super powers. Rila Fukushima has the right amount of attitude and style to bring Yukio to life and made her a credible “bodyguard” for Logan. Tao Okomoto is very likable as Mariko and her relationship with Wolverine seem organic and flow nice with the story. The villains of the film are its weakest point. Viper is not very interesting, and never seems to have any true motivation. It was already bad enough that they altered the character so extremely from the source material. The way they handled The Silver Samurai was just strange and led to an unsatisfying plot twist. The story itself was good and generally kept things moving. A few of the action sequences felt a little flat, but the Japan setting helped give everything a unique feel. I also thought they did a great job of making this a stand-alone film, while still making enough references to connect everything together. There is a scene a few minutes into the credits and it’s worth staying for as it gives a hint of things to come.
*** out of *****