Ruth Jeffery previews The Wolverine film which is out in UK cinemas today and sees the return of everyone’s favorite adamantium based man-wolf.
Big sideburns, a scowl that could turn milk sour and knives which pop out of his knuckles? That’s right, Hugh Jackman is once again sexing up our screens in his seventh outing as Wolverine. And if his manly action isn’t enough, the trailers show some pretty cool Japanese sword-fighting as well.
‘The Wolverine’ is directed by James Mangold, he of Girl, Interrupted and Walk the Line fame. By all accounts he has created a dark X-Men film, with the main character tortured by demons both past and present.
Logan, as Wolverine is also known, is wandering the earth moaning about the loss of fiery tempered Jean Grey (who died at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand) when he is summoned by a dying Japanese soldier he saved many years previous. He travels to Japan to be thanked. Drama then ensues as Wolverine becomes embroiled with Viper, a snake-like mutant, and a plan to steal his healing powers.
With this being the characters’ seventh film, it could be argued that audiences will tire of the bad-tempered mutant. But Jackman told Empire magazine: “Everything Jim and I wanted to do for this movie was to make sure that this was something completely fresh, completely different.”
Some early reviews have called the film ‘cartoonish’, but its 70% on rotten tomatoes out of 41 reviews is a sign that Mangold and Jackman have done something right. However it is most likely that, as is usual in the X-Men films, lots of fighting and dramatics will break out for no apparent reason. Wolverine, the anti-hero’s hero, will triumph and in four years will return for another cinematic splurge. And the protagonist getting a hair out of place is less likely than Katie Price becoming a nun.
Not cynical or anything…
But, seriously, who doesn’t want to see the ultimate superhero sex-symbol getting his claws into his psychological issues?
‘The Wolverine’ is in UK cinemas from July 25th and you can watch the trailer below: