The Wolverine

We join Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in a hole in a Japanese POW camp just across from Nagasaki during the endgame of World War II. He saves one of his captors from the ensuing nuclear holocaust and 50 years later is summoned to the man’s deathbed with the hope that his mutant regenerative abilities might extend the guy’s life. Of course, it doesn’t work that way, and so the old dude exits, leaving all his wealth to granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). This is the point where any promise dies on the vine. Mariko’s only narrative function is to look pretty and give Wolverine someone to protect from the Japanese underworld. So we end up with Wolverine doing that stabby/slashy thing with his metal claws to ninjas and gangsters over and over and over and … It starts getting old fast. There is a lively set-piece involving Tokyo’s bullet train that’s fun, but that’s it. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.