Comic book-inspired movies like this often leave me cold, but I must admit that I warmed up quickly to The Wolverine.  I cannot judge how faithfully or well it sticks to the literary backstory already produced, as I don’t read the comics.  Strictly as a movie, however, director James Mangold and writers Mark Bomback and Scott Frank have created an exciting, engrossing motion picture.

Hugh Jackman returns (for the sixth time) to play Logan, the mutant with incredible healing powers and adamantium blades he can expose or retract at will.  He is coaxed from the wilds of Alaska to the bustle of Japan to visit a man whose life he saved at Nagasaki in 1945 . . . but things are never quite what they seem.  The story takes various twists and turns but always returns to the moral that human nature is simply not trustworthy when ultimate power is involved.  Logan should have stayed in the woods.

Mangold threads his tapestry with fine detail and large scale action sequences; the frenetic sequence on top of a bullet train is astonishing, but only lasts a few minutes of the movie and is not staged as a climax.  Themes of mortality and immortality are always present, sweeping through everything, while the value of intimacy and trust are made paramount.  Logan’s journey isn’t always sensible, especially once he nears the factory where he will face his jealous adversary, but it is always interesting, and often arresting.

Were all comic book movies made with this much expertise and focus I would enjoy them a great deal more than I do.  I’ve generally liked the X-Men movies, especially X-Men: The Last Stand, and this one stands with the best of them — although it is markedly different in tone and structure than the ensemble-oriented entries.  I look forward to other Wolverine adventures.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  26 September 2013.