Comic book movies have become a mainstay as the action movies that rule the summer the past few years. Not all of those iterations have had the same heart or story as their comic book counterparts though, often causing them to flat-line in the box office and disappoint fans.

“The Wolverine” is the latest release in two years that attempts to return to the glory of the first two X-Men films. The abysmal “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” films took the franchise down the wrong path.

The success of “X-Men: First Class” brought a new hope to the franchise, a hope that “The Wolverine” can participate in before the two movies come together in 2014 for “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

Hugh Jackman plays the tough but loving hero Wolverine, aka Logan, as he struggles with the challenges of mortality after his regenerative abilities are taken from him. Logan spends most of the film fighting to protect the granddaughter, Mariko Yashida (Tao Okamoto), of wealthiest man in Japan Ichiro Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) from the Yakuza clan.

Through the course of the movie, Wolverine works to protect Mariko, discover who hired the Yakuza to kill her, and find out how to regain his powers of regeneration.

Fans of other X-Men films and the Wolverine character should be happy with Jackman’s performance. He plays the gruffness better than before by maintaining Wolverine’s tough and snarky attitude, despite the new experience of being put in life and death situations.

The movie did have a couple of missteps with a predictable story and the powers of the villainous character Viper. A woman with the powers of a snake, Viper could spew her acidic venom on people like the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise and shed her skin when needed.

She could inexplicably blow air from her lungs on the acid to make it dissipate though. That was really awkward and didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

In the usual Marvel fashion, perhaps the greatest scene in the movie doesn’t happen until the credits. Many will either see it coming from a mile away or be awe-struck by what they see on the screen, but either way they will leave thirsty for more.

If you’re looking for an action movie you will not be disappointed with this offering. With ninjas, a big man with scary claws fighting for the side of good and one particularly well-done fight scene on top of a bullet train traveling at more than 300 mph, there is a lot to offer.