The Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukashima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, and Famke Janssen, is essentially the sequel to X-men Last Stand but only focused on Wolverine. Trying to deal with the loss of Jean Grey at his own hands, Logan tries to find purpose in his life while traveling to Japan to say goodbye to an old friend.
There is a central theme throughout the film of Logan trying not to be the animal he thinks he is. His gruff nature is only accentuated by the strict nature of Japanese culture.
The film is much better than X-men Last Stand which only seemed to want to throw as many mutants into the fray as they could. It is far better than X-men Origins: Wolverine, which we won't talk about. The Wolverine is more about character than about mutant abilities. In fact, the film for the most part has two or three people who have mutant abilities.
The writing in the film is very good with plenty of one-liners that come unexpectedly. Along with the writing, the action is done very well. Jackie Chan style action looks overly choreographed and fake. The Wolverine has some stylized action, but it is not like the opponent is waiting for their cue to attack.
There were only a few problems I had with the film, but they were minor. They almost "nuked the fridge" by outrunning a nuclear bomb's shockwave, but it was not as bad as that. They also portrayed the Japanese Katana to hold up against Wolverine's claws, which I understand why they did it, but it was very unrealistic.
The acting in the film from both English and Japanese actors was done well. Although I could understand some of the Japanese spoken when there wasn't subtitles, it would have been nice to have more subtitles in some scenes.
If X-men Days of Future Past is anything like The Wolverine, I will be very happy. The extended cut has more language and violence than you would typically find in an X-men film, but because it is Wolverine, it works.
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