The Wolverine Review

I reviewed X-Men; Days of Future Past last week so I thought I’d follow up with The Wolverine.

 The Wolverine is the 6^th X-Men movie, and Logan’s second stand-alone feature. Long before The Avengers, The X-Men movies has offered an ensemble team of superheroes to varying degrees of critical and commercial success, starting with Bryan Singers X-Men in 2000. You have Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey, and Iceman to name a few, but really it’s all about Magneto, Professor X and Wolverine.

 Wolverine one of the most compelling super heroes on screen; a soldier who forgot his identity, a man who is cursed with eternal life and a badass with an indestructible adamantium skeleton and twelve inch retractable claws. Like if Jason Bourne was a vampire and a victim of military experiments. Wolverine has seen so much; The American Civil War, World War One and Two, Nagasaki and Vietnam. Wolverine’s story trumps any other superhero. He’s not an orphan (Batman, Spiderman, Superman), and he doesn’t struggle to hide his identity from the world (Batman, Spiderman, Superman). His pain comes from his power; he is cursed with eternal life, which is so much more interesting than having no parents. Wolverine’s condition asks questions about the importance of death, how it gives meaning to life; the thing we fear most pushes us to live.

These themes are explored in The Wolverine, directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma), theatrically released last year, and currently showing on Sky Movies. So at the start we see a younger Logan held captive at a POW camp in Nagasaki, just before the atomic bomb is dropped. He saves one of the guards, Ken Yamamura’s Yashida, who becomes indebted to him for the rest of his life. Fast forward to present day and Logan is now a hermit, living beardy on a mountain, alone.  He is found by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a kick-ass mutant who sees people’s deaths, and an associate of the now dying Yashida. She tells him to return to Japan to honour his promise of seeing the dying Yashida before he dies. He reluctantly agrees, and on arrival in Tokyo becomes entangled in a web of conspiracy; facing The Yakuza, a venomous mutant scientist who tries to take away his power  and a giant adamantium samurai robot. All while falling in love with Yashida’s daughter Mariko, as he protects her from The Yakuza.

So Logan loses his power in this movie, becoming mortal, which is a great trick. With most protagonists despite being mortal you know they’ll be ok; James Bond for example is never going to die. However something outside of traditional Hollywood narrative ensures Wolverine’s survival; his healing powers stop him from dying. Take them away and suddenly anything could happen. Every bullet and blade is now dangerous, and there’s real fear when for the first time we see Logan limping from bullet wounds and bleeding for hours. His power also brings weird movie believability to the action. Most heroes simply don’t get shot or stabbed, and if they do it’s always in the shoulder or leg, maybe they’re unconscious for a bit but they’ll wake up just in time. Wolverine however, is always getting sliced open, and despite healing almost instantly, it’s more believable than when henchmen can’t shoot a target a few metres away, or when average Joe takes on massive scary monsters (e.g. Sam vs Shelob in Return of The King).

One let down is a fight scene atop a 300pmh bullet train. None of it looks real, and any tension is dissolved by the obvious green screen. Trains are great in films; they move really, really fast and have real potential for claustrophobia, but the CGI just doesn’t work; maybe it would’ve looked better twenty years ago with practical effects. The scene is completely unnecessary but too ugly to get away with it.

Despite its flaws, there’s a lot to enjoy with The Wolverine. Hugh Jackman is just the right amount of gruff, just on the edge or caricature. The film is lifted every time his sidekick Yukio is on screen; clad in platforms and stripy tights, wielding a samurai sword, her humour and charm lift her above nerd wank fodder. The action in this is better than most superhero films; Wolverine’s powers necessitate hand-to-hand combat, which is much more exciting than robots shooting lasers from huge distances (which is the biggest problem with X-Men; Days of Future Past). The locations are great, and although the cinematography is pretty standard blockbuster stuff, the Tokyo scenery and lighting give the look a cool blue finish, and pretty backgrounds.

Apart from some rubbish CGI The Wolverine is fun, although lacking a decent baddy. It’s pretty much what you’d expect if you’ve seen the trailers, but less dull than you might think.