Kernel Rating (out of 5):
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 126 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 13+. Wolverine’s main power is that he can heal extraordinarily fast, so the movie milks that: he’s stabbed, sliced open, speared, and otherwise harmed a fair amount of times, but only one instance is fairly graphic, and although it’s bloody, it’s not grotesque or particularly affecting. Otherwise, some cursing (mainly the s-word a few times and the f-word once), some implied sexual content (Wolverine often imagines himself waking up in bed next to a female character, who is usually in a cleavage-baring white nightgown; there’s also an implied sex scene with the characters waking up in bed together, some kissing, and a pair having to spend the night in a brothel to hide from baddies), and a fair amount of hand-to-hand combat.
‘The Wolverine’ is the last of this summer’s comic-book blockbusters, and it doesn’t really transcend the middle of the pack. But it’s more somber tone and well-planned fight scenes are a vast improvement on its predecessor, 2009’s terrible ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine.’
By Roxana Hadadi
If we’re being perfectly honest, basically anything could be better than 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which got so many things wrong with X-Men mythology, and its titular character in general, that it’s no surprise fans basically disavowed it. But the sequel “The Wolverine” is a more serious, somber thing, and its moodiness works quite well. Plus, ninja fight scenes? Who doesn’t love ninja fight scenes!