Let me get this out of the way, The Wolverine is not your typical Marvel mutant movie. If you’re hoping to see a smorgasbord of mutants show up to help the ol’ Canucklehead through the streets of Japan, where most of this film takes place, you’ll be extremely disappointed. I, on the other hand, wasn’t. After X3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I had had enough. I needed a fresh start. First Class was a big step towards wiping the later X-films from my memory, and thankfully The Wolverine swoops in to finish the job one year before Brian Singer returns to the series as the director of Days of Future Past. That isn’t to say The Wolverine is without flaws, but as a whole, it’s another step in the right direction to fixing the X-Men movie franchise. Director James Mangold did a good job as a last-minute substitution onto the project when Darren Aronofsky dropped out.
While confronting the bear’s killer, Wolverine also meets Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who has been sent by the ailing soldier that Wolverine saved back in the Great War. As it turns out, he’s now one of the wealthiest people in Japan and wants to thank Wolverine, as well as say goodbye. Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) has ulterior motives for this visit. Aware of Wolverine’s healing abilities, Yashida wants to offer Wolverine the gift of mortality. He also wants the mutant to protect his granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). While Wolverine doesn’t accept the gift, something happens that effectively renders his healing abilities incapacitated.
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Yashida ends up dying unfortunately. Instead of a traditional Japanese funeral ceremony, it’s interrupted by Yakuza who attempt to kidnap Mariko. Even without his healing power, Wolverine is able to get Mariko to a train and away from harm, at least momentarily. The action scenes begin to escalate from there with the addition of ninjas and Wolverine coping with his inability to heal when he’s shot. Up to this point, the movie was kind of a slow burn, but the payoff is worth it, especially during the train action sequence. That scene is just one in particular where Jackman further solidifies his place as Wolverine. From there, director James Mangold uses some of the comic source material from the Claremont/Miller run with Wolverine falling for Mariko.
Hugh Jackman in “The Wolverine.” © 2013 – Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
I mentioned earlier that The Wolverine doesn’t feel like a superhero movie. Instead of a film with similar action tropes as its predecessors, The Wolverine feels more like a blend of a Spaghetti Western and a Akira Kurosawa samurai flick. Let me be clear, The Wolverine is nowhere near the quality of those films, but when I sat down to think about the movie, I kept coming up with Sergio Leone/Kurosawa comparisons.
The one aspect of the movie that I just couldn’t get into is this film’s villains. It’s exciting to have a strong female antagonist, but the writing and motive for the character almost made Uma Thurman’s portrayal of Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin look Oscar worthy in comparison. Sadly, as much as I don’t want to say it, I think the movie would have better if the screenwriters found a way to write her off and focus on what people really care about when they pay to see a movie like this: Hugh Jackson as Wolverine. And, boy does he deliver. This is Jackman’s best turn as Wolverine, and because of that, I was able to overlook most of the film’s flaws. One final call out: do not waste your money on 3D, as all of the effects were added post-production, so they’re underwhelming at best.
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