Hollywood, you break my heart

Hollywood, why must you frequently break my heart when it comes to superhero movies? For much of "The Wolverine", the movie is a smart, well-crafted not particularly ridiculous thriller. With elements of "The Outlaw Josey Wales", various Japanese samurai films, and a variation on the damsel in distress theme, it seems more of an adult entertainment than the oft-ridiculous superhero fare. Plus, it's set in Japan which is pretty cool.

Then...two things happen in the third act to upset the apple cart...[HERE BE SPOILERS!!!] First, there is an overabundance of villains -- Yakuza, a crazy mutant named Viper, another character who is a frenemy of one of the main characters, an old man that was supposed to be dead. It's just too much. "The Wolverine" is far from the only film to be guilty of this sort of thing; Hollywood seems to think that people like their villains like they like their food at Mickey D's -- more = better. Not so. If you don't want a convoluted mess of a plot, pick one villain, MAYBE two. That's it. No more.

Second, the finale of the film is set in (one of) the villain's mountainside enemy lair with a lab and a giant robot. Why does there frequently have to be a showdown in a lab? Why does it typically have to be in a seemingly out of the way location that isn't really that difficult to find? The giant robot was potentially thrilling at first, but then this grumpy old men is inside of it and he saps Wolverine's (sorry, THE Wolverine) immortality and immediately becomes young again ... while in the robot ... while he fights The Wolverine. What was initially a smart entertainment had to be smushed into a typical BS superhero finale.  Granted, it isn't nearly as bad as that abortion of an ending in Iron Man 3, but it was almost more disappointing considering what came before. Hollywood, you're a bitch, yet I just keep coming back for more. When will I ever learn?  B-