REVIEW: The Wolverine

PLOT: Summoned to Japan by an old acquaintance, Wolverine becomes embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons.

REVIEW: Another Wolverine movie is now in the books, and I think the numbers are going to show it as a success. It may not be as big of a moneymaker as one of the Marvel Studios films, but it surely has some firepower with Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine for the sixth time. It's amazing to think that one actor has played Wolverine over the last 13 years, something that is rarely done when it comes to super hero film. Think about the many different incarnations of Batman, Hulk, or even The Punisher. But with Wolverine we've had the privilege of seeing this characters transform over the years but not at all with the way he looks, it's all in the character. Jackman outside of his Wolverine roles is not the kind of guy you'd think would play a gruff, tough son of a gun, as he's really well known for his looks and ability to sing and dance. Ever since 2000's X-Men however, this guy has been knocking the character out of the park, and for comic book fans like myself this is one of the few things we can be proud of with our movies. No one has played a character from the comics quite as well as he has, and even in The Wolverine he still amazes as the adamantium hero.

The film starts by explaining one of Wolverine's many journeys throughout time, where he was imprisoned in Japan at the time of the bombing in Nagasaki during World War II. He saves the life of a man who was sure to die, and thus kicks off the tale of The Wolverine. I really liked the basic story of the film, and it's supposedly based off of the book Wolverine by Chris Claremont and legendary comic writer Frank Miller. Miller, took Wolverine to Japan in setting up his own run of comics and is now regarded as one of the best, if not the best, Wolverine comics created. I have yet to read the book, though I severely want to, so I'm not entirely sure how close the movie follows the book but I could imagine that a good amount of it is present. The film then continues on into the present, where Logan is now a nomad running from his past and the loves of his life. A character who has struggled with losing loved ones since the beginning, he has hit an all-time low and has the grizzly beard, and even a grizzly bear to match. In interviews Jackman has said how the character of Wolverine is so tormented at this point by his past that continues to haunt him. Things like having to kill Jean Grey back in X-Men: The Last Stand among many others have turned Logan into a sobbing and vengeful hero. I love the places that Jackman has taken this character to, and it's a testament to his acting ability that he's been able to create such a dimensional character that most of us only knew as the claw-slashing, bub-saying bad ass.

If there's one thing that Wolverine is susceptible to though, as Jackman has also stated in current interviews, it is women. Yet again in The Wolverine, Logan is confronted with not just one woman but a multitude of women ranging from innocent to insane. The first woman he meets is Yukio played by Rila Fukushima, who I have to say has quite a strangely shaped face but at the same time almost looks like she walked straight out of the comics as far as face shapes go. I have to say, Yukio was quite bad ass as well, and I loved that she regarded herself as an equal to Logan but at the same time knew her place below the animal. I really had hoped that it was Logan and Yukio that got close because they seemed to fit well at first, but it ended up that Logan was entirely more interested in Mariko and her troubles. Obviously, he chooses the girl with the most problems, as again Wolverine's weakness seems to be women, and often times troubled with their own issues that Logan makes his own. Mariko was played by Tao Okamoto and did a pretty good job as well at playing the role of an innocent, much like Fukushima, other than Mariko wasn't entirely bad ass but she had her moments.

The other woman in the film however was the character of Viper, played by Svetlana Khodchenkova who at first didn't cause too much of a distraction. Her role was minor at first, and very small but important to the film. So I was able to deal with the fact that I couldn't stand her mouth/cheek/lip piercing that she had that looked like a Cindy Crawford mole. It was really bothersome to me because I hate the piercings like that in real life, but also that it added absolutely nothing to the character. To me, if your name is Viper, wouldn't you want some hardcore snakebite piercings to match your personality and name. So that kind of put me on watch for her in the rest of the movie, and then once her final transformation was made and her role in the film was revealed, it all fell to pieces. I can't say that she single-handedly tears the movie apart, as the end is just a mess of villains and story lines all crashing together, but she has a pretty big hand in it. All I'll say is that if your acting, or character, at any point reminds me of Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy from the infamous Batman & Robin, we have a problem. That is exactly what Khodchenkova did, and I don't know if it was poor acting or just poor choice of words or bad writing or what, but I never want to be reminded of that movie, especially if I'm thoroughly enjoying the film up to that point.

All the way up until the final scenes where the story comes to a head, I was amazed at how much better The Wolverine was than its predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I was even thinking to myself about an hour and a half into the film that this was coming close to rivaling X2 in its greatness. The story was so great, and seeing Hugh Jackman flesh out his role even further as the most famous X-Man that ever lived was just awesome. Everything about this movie was so cool, and it had the feel of a kung fu film but at the same time never abandoned its comic book roots. But like I said, then the end happened. The fact that even after the nerd community's ranting and arguing over the end of the first film, they were able to recreate that same misery again in The Wolverine. It was so disappointing for me after having such high thoughts to myself after having been wowed what I'd seen so far, that something could deflate that so quickly. There was just a mess of villains and the fact that they had to make everything so grand and epicly scaled in the end like a popcorn blockbuster just saddened me. It was the same case with the film before, they made Deadpool into a psychotic and ultimately powered villain because Wolverine would obviously triumph over anything less than godly, right? Such is the case again, where the awesome charcater of Silver Samurai is reduced to a giant robot made of adamantium that heats his sword up like a Transformer's laser blaster to do extra damage.  It's just pointless when the whole movie lived and breathed on subtlety and character study, then to take the final act to straight corn was just disappointing.

I was most looking forward to seeing Silver Samurai in this film ever since I heard that The Wolverine was going to take place during his time in Japan. I loved the character as a kid and thought he was so cool, and the fact that again like Deadpool, they ruin such a beloved character to me just sucked. In retrospect, I've had a few days to think about it, and it works for the film I suppose, but I still really wish we could have seen the Silver Samurai as he was presented in the comics. Viper was extremely corny at the end too, once she becomes full-fledged Viper. It'd be so much different too if only one of these things that comes to a conclusion at the end was ruined, but again like the first film it was everything just reduced to crap by the end of the film. I'm sure there's many who would disagree with me on the ending, and I'm sure upon a secondary viewing I won't be nearly as upset with it, but to me it just completely took away from the amazing film that was presented before it. Overall I was happy with The Wolverine though, and I still liked X-Men Origins: Wolverine a lot too outside of the obviously complaints that everyone else had. I still had a great time at the theater, and it's always so great to see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine because he's 100% perfect for the role. I just really wish in return for the sabotage of the Silver Samurai, Gambit could have returned or maybe even Deadpool with an open mouth and costume, sans laser eyes. Also, don't forget to stay after the credits, because the bonus scene was a pretty big redemption after the woeful ending to the film and now I'm terribly excited to see Jackman as Wolverine again and having the rest of the X-Men back in town in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

ACTING : ( 7 / 10 )

STORY : ( 8 / 10 )

EXECUTION : ( 6 / 10 )

POSTER : ( 10 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 8 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 8 / 10 )