FILM: THE WOLVERINE

Superhero films are all the rage these days and, after a rather shifty start with the original Spiderman trilogy with Tobey Maguire and then a series of lacklustre releases, it seemed that itwas all a flash in the pan. Even the great Superman only made a small dint in our interest as he returned after the Christopher Reeve hey-day. Batman, which was the most eciting release before that in the 90's was even struggling with the follow ups - and apart from a PVC clad Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, the others were going down hill. Let's not mention Batman and Robin eh?.

But that all changed with the X Men franchise, and then Iron Man and now it's non stop for the Marvel juggernaut (no pun intended).  It seems that Marvel are rather fabulous at casting right now - Downey Jr as Iron Man is perfect, and Thor and Ruffalo as the Hulk/Banner was amazing casting. And so too is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. No one else could do that the way he does.

This film is again based around Wolverine's adventures and takes place in present day just after X Men 3. Wolverine was in a bit of bother back in World war 2 but saves one of his captor's lives when a bomb goes off - but you've probably seen that bit in the trailer. The upshot of it all is that the dude who he saved wnats to thank Wolverine for what he has done all those years ago and give him the gift of mortality - which Wolverine takes as him wanting to kill him.

However, Wolverine declines that exclusive offer, and, as Mr Japanese fella bites it, Wolverine finds himself embroiled in a situation involving the Japanese dude's family and some sinister mutanty scientist woman with bad breath. The upshot of it all is an action packed, martial arts samurai style movie with plenty of action and a decent paced storyline.  Jackman is awesome as Wolverine but I still think he is not a strong enough charater to stand on his own as say Iron man. Still it's not a bad movie and at least a city stays intact for a change.!

BOTTOM LINE: Better than the first one, but a nice starter before the main course that is X-Men: DAys of Future Past.

RATING: 7/10 (stay for end credits - there's a little something extra for the crowd)