The Wolverine Review
Director : James Mangold
Cast Headliner: Hugh Jackman
Original Release Date: July 26th, 2013
Seen: Early August 2013
Within the X-Men franchise, there is no one
who can compete with Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman. He’s a comic book fan
and audience favorite, and one of the main centers of focus in the series. It makes since that he would get a spinoff of
his own, and in 2009 there was in “X-Men: Origins Wolverine”. That was a
controversial film, between its mediocrity and plot flaws and ruining the adaptation
of some comic characters. Luckily, this film “The Wolverine”, is a vast
improvement and one of the best of the series.
This actually (and for the best) takes places after the
third X-men film, which makes it all new material for the timeline. Wolverine aka
Logan is back to his old wandering ways in Canada, and is still stricken with
grief and haunted by visions of his former lover Jean Grey/Phoenix (Famke
Janssen back in a surprising amount of new material). It is definitely nice to
see these two old cast members again, and interesting to see how it has this affects
his psyche. He is soon found by a mysterious Japanese
warrior and mutant named Yukio( Rila Fukushima). She is employed by a Mr.Yashida(Hiroyuki
Sanada) , who wants to thank Wolverine ,in person in Tokyo, for saving his life
during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in World War 2. Logan begrudgingly follows, and he is greeted
with a twisted world of danger.
The greatest aspect of this film is that it is set in
Japan. Previous installments have sort of blended together, with similar locales
and characters. Aside from Wolverine, everyone else in the film is a new
character. An effort is really made to create an authentic atmosphere, with
Asian cast members and beautiful cinematography.
The careful directing hand of James Mangold is evident
here, with some great angles and intense camera in fight scenes. A problem
which plagued “Origins” was bad quality CGI and effects compared to films in
its era, but here everything is top notch.
From the atomic bomb drop in Nagasaki to the Silver Samurai mech suit in
the end, everything is very believable. Never before has Wolverine’s claws
shone with so much sheen.
Besides the many
great and unique fight scenes (Logan vs Yakuza! Logan vs Ninjas!), there’s heart
at this story. Wolverine has to deal with where his life is going, and what it
means to be immortal. Some astonishingly good dialogue is here, and also some
decent romance with Mariko Yashida(Tao Okamoto) of whom the antagonists are targeting. Yukio
deserves special mention as her role of wisecracking sidekick. So far this all may make it seem like a Yakuza
or martial arts film, but it doesn’t forget that it’s a part of the X-Men
franchise.
Wolverine is awesome and nearly unstoppable in his claw slashing
and healing abilities, but he has a match in Viper played Sveltana
Khodchenkova. This villain is not only
the other white cast member but also has formidable combat abilities. I would
say that besides the fights against the Yakuza, the final sequence involving
her, Logan, the “Silver Samurai”, and others is cool and classic X-Men in vibe.
The Wolverine is both an excellent classic X-Men movie,
and also a successful experiment. Looked at as a X-Men movie, it’s a look at
what happens with Logan’s (and in a slight way, Jean’s) life after the finale
that was X3. Yet also, it deals barely with mutants and super powers and
instead is a tale of Japanese crime drama. The classic sequel film which spices
things up by making things nuanced. This makes it a great watch, and a sign of
good things to come. 8.15 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment