Unreal Movie Review: “The Wolverine”

Wolverine has been through the ringer over the years, both physically, as he battles mutant after mutant sustaining more mortal injuries than can accurately be counted, and also as a character, essentially starring in now five different X-Men films of varying degrees of quality.

The original X-Men and its sequel aren’t usually going to top anyone’s all-time favorite superhero flicks list, but they’re considered solid entries nonetheless, and at the very least, were exceptionally well cast, Hugh Jackman’s Logan included. Then came Brett Ratner’s X-Men 3 which shattered the trend and temporarily killed the franchise. Eventually, X-Men would resurface a few years later in the form of a Wolverine “Origins” solo feature.

The result was one of the most terrible superhero movies of the modern era outside the obvious choices of Catwoman and Elektra. The film was cluttered with obscure mutants, marred by horrible CGI (including, inexplicably, Wolverine’s claws), and was more or less a muddled mess. Prospects were not high for a second solo feature for the character, even if it did promise to “return to his roots,” whatever that was supposed to mean.

“I’m gettin’ too old for this shit.”

Since then, The Wolverine has been a rollercoaster of expectations. From the initial disappointment when the film was announced, hopes rose when it was revealed that the story would be loosely based on the limited run comic story found in Wolverine, which had the mutant going to Japan and fighting samurai and ninjas. Spirits were further lifted when former Jackman collaborator Darren Aronofsky signed on board for what would assuredly now be a beautifully shot, thinking man’s superhero feature. Hopes came crashing back down to earth when Aronofsky walked, and 3:10 to Yuma’s James Mangold took over instead. Then it was anyone’s guess what was about to happen.

The end result is probably one of the most average superhero blockbusters to be released in the past decade. That’s not a compliment or an insult, it is what it is, simply “alright.” There’s nothing laughably bad like we found in Origins, yet there is likely little that will stay with anyone once they leave the theater. The film just…exists.

Following the events of X-Men 3, as we’ve moved out of prequel territory, Logan (Jackman) is camped out in the woods somewhere, befriending bears and sparring with hunters. He’s tracked down by Yukio, (Rila Fukushima) a young Japanese woman, who claims that she’s been sent to find the Wolverine so her dying master can thank him. She works for a Mr. Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a man whom Logan shielded from the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki 70 years earlier. Since then, Yashida has risen to become the most powerful businessman in Japan (what, like he was going grow up and become a janitor?), and wants to see Logan as a dying request before he succumbs to cancer.

Fancy dress Wolverine is the best Wolverine.

Logan arrives, and discovers the visit isn’t so simple after all. Yashida tells Logan he has a gift for him, he can make him mortal by transferring his healing abilities to another person, hopefully him, so he can escape death a second time. Logan can age normally, living a normal life, and Yashida can live forever. Not a bad deal for the forever tormented Logan, but he refuses the offer, initially caught off guard. By the time he comes to his senses, Yashida has passed, and all hell breaks lose.

Yashida’s granddaughter and heir, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), is targeted for assassination by the Yakuza. Suspects include her father, the slighted Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) who never had a warm relationship with Yashida, and Mariko’s fiancee Nobura (Brian Tee), Japan’s Minister of Justice. Also lurking in the shadows are Harada (Will Yun Lee), Mariko’s chlidhood love and Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), a blonde doctor who was reportedly caring for Yashida in his final moments, but has ulterior motives. You’d kind of have to be shady with a name like “Viper.” Mariko needs protecting, and Logan’s the only mutant for the job, it seems.

The film does a lot of things right, and is a dramatically better movie that Origins by following a few simple rules. Namely, don’t jam your “solo feature” so full of other mutants that it becomes overstuffed and cluttered. Thankfully, there are only two other mutants present in the film, and barely at that. Yukio has the ability to see when people are going to die, an ability which literally has zero impact on the plot, other than incorrectly predicting a few character deaths. Then there’s Viper, who actually has a pretty interesting power that allows her all sorts of chemical based abilities like a poison tongue and acid spit. It is, however, rather weird that she’s cast as a tall, blonde Russian supermodel who looks oddly out of place on film. Perhaps it’s an industry rule that every summer blockbuster needs one attractive white girl.

“HISSSSSSSSS, I’m a snake!”

Throughout the film, Logan is constantly plagued with the loss of his own powers, which are gradually being sapped from him by forces unknown. Though he can still get shot and not even be knocked off his feet, it will really hurt and he’ll have to extract the bullets and stitch up the wounds rather than the process being automatic. It makes him more vulnerable, as an indestructible lead isn’t usually terribly compelling (ask Superman), but it doesn’t really bring him to any profound realizations either.

This is meant to be a personal journey for Logan as he battles the demons of being forced to put down Jean Grey (who shows up in spectre form often in the film). The movie starts out with him wanting to stop killing people, and ends with him realizing that he probably has to still keep killing people, which I’m hesitant to say is real “character progression.”

The story is fine, with constantly shifting villains that will have you guessing, but the final reveal is meant to be a shocking twist that is perhaps a 2 out of 10 on the shocking twist scale at best. The action scenes are also acceptable, though Wolverine will never truly live up to his character’s savage potential trapped in a PG-13 rating. Still, everything is much better organized than past films, and so The Wolverine continues to look good by comparison. But just because you’re not bad, that doesn’t make you good. 

This is a movie that feels like it wasted its potential. Mangold has literally no visual style whatsover in the film that makes an impact. Shot in Japan, a film like this should be beautiful, and a story like this should be epic. I think Aronofsky would have made that film, but Mangold did not. He made just another blockbuster, and that’s a shame.

3 out of 5 stars