Hugh Jackman has starred in a wide variety of movies over the past few years, namely the grand and epic drama “Les Miserables”.  Now  comes the sixth “X-Men” movie in which he stars  as the beloved mutant Wolverine.  Following the horrendous “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “The Wolverine” has finally arrived and it’s a surprisingly effective film.

Logan (Hugh Jackman) is alone in the world, with his love, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), dead. Separated from the other X-Men, he roams the world alone now. However, Logan soon travels to Japan to see an old ally, Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), who has called him to offer a favor; he can remove Logan’s ability to never age, finally allowing the mutant to live a normal life. A backdrop of betrayal and conspiracy soon envelops Logan, as he realizes this could be the ultimate fight for his immortality, his existence, and for helping to define his purpose on this world.

Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo; these people have perfectly captured the comic book counterparts they portrayed in their movies and of course Hugh Jackman is among such a elegant class. In fact, one need only look at this movie for evidence of why he’s the best possible person to play Wolverine, depicting the characters inner struggles and fighting moments equally powerful and finally giving the character of Wolverine some depth. This legendary superhero is finally revealed to have some humanity behind those silver claws, and what’s shown is remarkably compelling.

The script contains many interesting characters, who all neatly wind up having varying degrees of importance to the story. For most of the movie, there’s a refreshingly high amount of character moments and scenes, which help strengthen both the film’s protagonists and the settings of the plot itself, lending it all a grand sense of depth that’s a definite improvement over the last “Wolverine” movie. It’s an unusual thing for most major summer blockbusters to have such complexity and thoughtfulness, but it gives “The Wolverine” a sense of wonder that I didn’t expect.

For about 75 percent of “The Wolverine”’s running time, it plays more like a great drama containing some great action sequences (my favorite takes place on a bullet train, a scene that contains some of the summer’s best choreography).  But towards the end things pick up with some big action sequences leading up to the finale. What we get is a disjointed climax that contains a giant robot, an over-the-top mutant named Viper and a character twist that I really wish the film didn’t make, since it feels too predictable for what had been previously a brilliant movie. It remains a strong movie, but this all feels anticlimactic considering how superb and unique the film had been before.

An overdone finale notwithstanding, “The Wolverine” is great summer fun, filled with great characters, heightened emotional stakes and some well done action that is above most of it’s “X-Men” brethren.  One of the summer’s bigger surprises, “The Wolverine” mixes in influences of both Sergio Leone and Stan Lee to create a well done film.