Review Roundup: Hugh Jackman Stars in THE WOLVERINE

Hugh Jackman stars as the iconic X-Men character THE WOLVERINE, in the new action thriller opening in theaters today. The cast also includes Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima and Brian Tee.

Based on the celebrated comic book arc, this epic action-adventure takes Wolverine to modern day Japan. Out of his depth in an Unknown world, he will face a host of unexpected and deadly opponents in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for The First Time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality.

Let's see what the critics had to say:

Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post: A refreshing summer cocktail of action-movie staples, "The Wolverine" combines the bracingly adult flavor of everyone's favorite mutant antihero - tortured, boozy X-Man Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine - with the fizzy effervescence of several mixers from the cabinet of Japanese genre cinema: noirish yakuza crime drama, samurai derring-do and ninja acrobatics.

A.O. Scott, The New York Times: "The Wolverine," ... is also something of an anomaly in the current, unstoppable wave of comic-book-based movies. It has all the requisite special effects and big-ticket action sequences - including a fight on a moving train and a climactic punch-out between the hero and a villain in an oversize metal suit - but it also has an unusually intimate, small-scale feel.

Mick LaSalle, The San Francisco Chronicle: Within five minutes, it's apparent that the audience, and "The Wolverine," are in good hands. The movie, a sequel to 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," begins with three gripping sequences, including a vivid one in which our hero survives the atomic bomb blast at Nagasaki.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: This is a big, loud, commercial picture which does not appear to have been written so much as audience-tested, global-market-researched, greenscreened and CGI-ed to within an inch of its life.

Marshall Fine, The Huffington Post: Director James Mangold, working from a script by Mark Bomback and Scott Frank, has made an extremely entertaining comic-book movie -- though a comic-book movie nonetheless. Which means that it is long on action and short on tension, filled with the antics of the engagingly gruff, anger-management-challenged mutant named Logan, played by Hugh Jackman.

Joe, Neumaier, The New York Daily News: Unfortunately, the rest of the film becomes standard slice-and-dice, all the way to the ridiculous ending involving a baddie in adamantium armor. Director James Mangold ("Heavy," "Walk the Line") deals with human-scale emotions, and as much as he and the screenwriters try, there's a constant battle between Jackman's wounded, mutton-chopped masculinity and the requisite silliness of a superhero flick. They never gel.

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