Movie Review: The Wolverine (2013)
The Wolverine is more of a bridge between X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past than a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). The film tries really hard to give Wolverine depth, but the attempt falls flat. The Wolverine is bookend by action with a long, dull middle that is unnecessary.
The Wolverine begins with Logan (Hugh Jackman) doing his loner thing in the mountains, complete with long hair and beard. He is still racked with guilt over the events in X-Men: The Last Stand, which is seven years old. This film depends a lot on the audience remembering what happened between him and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Jean appears to Logan many times as a vision/dream/hallucination. Logan’s mind also goes to his time as a prisoner in Japan during World War II. As the U.S. gets ready to bomb Japan, those in charge of the prison camp let the prisoners go. The leaders committed seppuku, but before the one who released Logan could, Logan grabs him and takes him to Logan’s cell. The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and Logan shields his former warden, who is shocked to see a man with burnt skin heal completely. In the present, the man Logan saved, Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), has sent Yukio (Rila Fukushima) to bring Logan to Japan. A reluctant Logan agrees.
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) gets ready to fight one of his many enemies.
Yashida wants to give Logan the gift of mortality. Yashida assumes Logan wants a family and to grow old and die after being alive for so long, having to watch those he has loved age and die. Logan refuses. After Logan declines Yashida’s offer, the plot becomes convoluted and filled with too many antagonists. Yashida’s granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), is targeted by the Yakuza, so Logan, whose sense of justice is being rekindled, decides to swoop in and save her. Logan has trouble accomplishing his task because the night before Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) somehow suppresses Logan’s healing ability, so he feels pain for the first time. In the film, Logan deals with not having his healing factor, protects Mariko, and battles the Yakuza (and those who hired them), the Black Clan, Viper, and the Silver Samurai. The crowded roster is just one of many of the film’s problems.
After Logan gets Mariko to Nagasaki, the story comes to a stop so Logan and Mariko can get romantic. However, Logan’s visions of Jean contradict his romantic progress with Mariko, making it difficult to believe. Logan’s interactions with Jean clearly convey Logan’s love for Jean and his guilt over what he did to her. Watching him suddenly fall for another woman feels hollow and forced. The time in Nagasaki is so pointless that the bulk of it could be edited it out without missing any major parts of the film.
Wolverine helps Mariko (Tao Okamoto) get to safety.
Wolverine is a violent character, and the film wants us to believe Logan is ruthless and is in danger when he is shot and can’t heal, but the lack of blood hurts the film’s plausibility factor. For most of his life, Logan has been able to heal, so being shot should be more traumatic than it is portrayed. However, he is able to easily fight guys on top of a bullet train traveling around 300 mph. Logan should be in agonizing pain, weak, so it is hard to believe he could fight as well as he does inside and outside of the train. Also, blood should be pouring out of his hands. Wolverine’s claws are a part of him, are bone, a fact shown when he was imprisoned in Japan. With his healing factor, the claws coming out of his hand isn’t a problem because the holes in his skin heal. Without his healing ability, Logan should react to the intense and terrible pain extending his claws causes, but there is no mention or reaction. This contradiction fails to tie what happened before to the action that follows.
The Wolverine serves one purpose: to give Logan a reason to get back into the fray. Unfortunately, the film is crammed with too many villains, is inconstant with the facts about Logan, and has a second act that is forgettable. The best part happens during the credits, a moment not worth sitting through this mess of a film. The Wolverine proves films with just Wolverine aren’t needed. Wolverine flying solo in a comic book works, but it doesn’t in film.
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