Our rating: 3 out of 5

Rated: PG13

reviewed by Charity Bishop

The bootleg of this film that showed up on the internet in the weeks prior to its cinematic release sent executives scrambling for answers and resulted in a reported 4 million downloads, but didn't seem to hurt the film's opening weekend. While this production is not as good as the original franchise, the opinion of critics that it is a waste of celluloid seems a bit harsh. It's actually a highly enjoyable movie.

It seems nothing can come between Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Lief Schreiber), whose brotherly bond was built upon since their traumatic childhood. Born with the same genetic defect and mutation that allows them to produce lethal claws from their fists and makes them seemingly immortal, they remain close through a hundred years and multiple world wars. Sentenced to death for the decapitation of a superior officer in Vietnam, their sentence is carried out by ten armed men -- and they emerge unscathed. This draws the attention of Striker (Huston), a scientist who works with special government agencies to recruit and train mutants with extraordinary powers. The brothers are content to among others with similar powers until Striker reveals his malicious side and orders Victor to go on a killing spree in order to elicit information. Horrified, Logan turns his back and walks away from that life forever.

A number of years later, he is hiding in the north as a logger and living with a beautiful woman named Kayla (Lynn Collins). Her brutal death at the hand of his vindictive brother sends Logan back to Striker for a solution, but after being pumped full of an incredible new form of iron that makes him virtually indestructible, Logan learns of Striker's role in his loss and sets out to not only confront his brother, but bring down those behind the capture and imprisonment of mutants. While Wolverine is not my favorite character in the comic book series, he is one of the more interesting ones and this film does him justice. I appreciate the fact that the cast wanted to have a lower rating in order to attract teenage audiences and the content here is not as brutal as I anticipated. The violence is standard for the genre but not particularly gory. Various characters are shot (sometimes at point blank range) and others are stabbed and slashed at. There are explosions, car accidents, and a helicopter that plummets to the ground.

Language is infrequent but there are five or so abuses of God's name coupled with a profanity, and two harsh abuses of deity. There is no sexual content but Kayla does straddle Logan during a conversation and climbs into bed with him after he has had a nightmare. More problematic are several brief shots of Logan's backside as he escapes the laboratory, and then the camera spots him leaping off a cliff (at a sideways view) and then streaking (ha ha) into a barn. I could have done without that but considering how much worse it could have been, am willing to put up with it. The biggest problem with the movie seems to be that it is inconsistent with earlier installments. These changes are not always obvious but one of them is a bit eyebrow-raising because it calls into question just when Professor Xavier became wheelchair bound. (In this film, he's on his feet for his one scene, and in the third production he was wheelchair bound many years earlier, when meeting a child version of Jean.)