While the ‘X-Men’ franchise has certainly been very
popular ever since Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created this team of mutant
superheroes back in 1963, one member of the team has arguably stood out more
than the rest; Logan AKA Wolverine, the animal-like mutant with the adamantium
skeleton. The character has played a major part in pretty much every adaptation
of the franchise, from TV series to video games. In the ‘X-Men’ film series,
Wolverine (excellently portrayed by Hugh Jackman) has been in every major
live-action X-Men film since 2000, including the original trilogy, the ‘reboot’
‘X-Men: First Class’, and even a spinoff/prequel, ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’.
However, that last film didn’t really turn out so well but now Jackman returns
for another solo film, ‘The Wolverine’, which looks much more promising. The
story takes inspiration from the 1982 limited series ‘Wolverine’, written by
Chris Claremont and illustrated by Frank Miller. As for the director, James
Mangold (who directed the 2007 remake of ‘3:10 to Yuma’) takes over for
original choice Darren Aronofsky, who ended up leaving the project in
pre-production. The end result is a major improvement over the last ‘Wolverine’
film that does do justice to the character.
The film takes place after the events of ‘X-Men: The
Last Stand’ as, following the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and the
disbandment of the X-Men, Logan AKA Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has been spending
most of his time alone in the Canadian wilderness haunted by his past. One day,
he is approached by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), an employee of Ichiro Yashida
(Haruhiko Yamanouchi), the dying head of a Japanese technology corporation who
Logan had saved during the Nagasaki bombings of WWII. Logan heads to Tokyo to
meet with Yashida, who offers him the chance to rid himself of his immortality
so that he can finally have ‘an honorable death’. Logan refuses but the next
day, after Yashida dies; he finds that, for some reason, his healing powers
aren’t working. As Logan now tries to protect Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko
(Tao Okamoto) from assassins, he has to come face to face with his inner demons
as he struggles to survive without the help of his healing powers.
While I don’t want to compare this film to ‘X-Men
Origins Wolverine’ too much, ‘The Wolverine’ does improve on almost every major
problem that film had; the action scenes and effects are much better. Mangold
does a great job at shooting these scenes and heck, for a PG-13 rated film,
this film isn’t afraid to get a little more intense in some areas. As for the
effects, to put it bluntly, all I can say is that Wolverine’s claws don’t look
as crappy as they did in ‘Origins’. But perhaps the biggest improvement over ‘Origins’
is that this film knows where its focus should be; on the character of
Wolverine. ‘Origins’, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a prequel
detailing Wolverine’s back-story, had other mutants as well, and most of them
were pretty much just shoehorned into the film. This time around, while there
still are a couple of extra mutants in the film as well, it’s all about Wolverine
and how he struggles with the demons of his past, including the fact that he
was forced to kill the love of his life, Jean, in the previous film.
The fact that this film is set in Japan also sets up
a pretty good ‘fish out of water’ story because Wolverine is out of his element
here and is also in a bigger dilemma considering that his healing ability isn’t
working like it did before. As far as superhero films go, this film has a lot
more down time which is a nice alternative to what we’re used to seeing in
superhero films. Granted, the final act in the film does slip into traditional
superhero fare (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; it’s just that this is a
change of pace from the first two-thirds of the film), but the film is still
very exciting from beginning to end. Not only does this film’s script do
justice to the character of Wolverine, but this is also arguably Hugh Jackman’s
best performance in the role, thanks to both his experience in the role and the
material he’s given. He carries the film on his own, although the rest of the
cast (mainly filled with actors/actresses you’ve probably never heard of) is
solid as well.
As far as Wolverine’s solo films have turned out, ‘The
Wolverine’ is easily superior to the previous attempt at giving the character
his own film. This is thanks to better action scenes, better visual effects,
and most importantly, stronger writing. The film knows where to keep its focus;
on Wolverine and while there are a couple of additional mutants in this film (this
is still an ‘X-Men’ film, after all), they don’t overshadow Wolverine and his
story. Compared to other superhero films, there are a lot more ‘peaceful’
moments in this film but don’t worry, there are still some incredible action
scenes and for a PG-13 film, this film isn’t afraid to push the limits of the
rating. This is certainly a must-see for any fan of Wolverine, as this film does
do the character and the story it’s based on justice. Plus, be sure to stick
around for a post-credits scene that will set up next year’s ‘Days of Future
Past’, the next major film for the ‘Children of the Atom’.
Rating: 4/5
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