-minor spoilers but nothing you wouldn’t see in the trailer

I think the fact that I had forgotten about this movie till it was out speaks to the quality of the last few X-Men films. Not so much X-Men: First Class, which was overall pretty great, more-so X-Men Origins: Wolverine and before that X-Men: The Last Stand. Those were not good movies. They weren’t TERRIBLE but…well, ok they kinda were, especially considering how great the first two movies in the franchise were. First Class had given me hope that an X-Men movie could be good again, but even still I went into The Wolverine a little apprehensive. I’m glad to report, however, it doesn’t suck! In fact it’s pretty great!

The Wolverine, smartly, ignores the entirety of the train wreck that was Origins and picks up some time after The Last Stand. Our hairy Canadian hero (still played by the absurdly ripped Hugh Jackman) is living up in the mountains in seclusion trying to deal with the fact that he was forced to kill Jean Grey, the woman he loved. She frequents his dreams (and nightmares) and as a means of penance he’s sworn to never hurt anybody again. Being that he is Wolverine, a character not known for restraint, it’s not long before he’s breaking that vow in a bar fight, but before he can go too far he’s interrupted by a mysterious and dangerous Japanese woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima).

Yukio works for a powerful man named Yashida back in Japan who owes Logan for saving his life during the bombing of Nagasaki in WWII and, as he is on his deathbed, he wants to repay the debt he owes. Yashida claims to have a way to remove Logan’s ability to heal, in other words, make him mortal. Now, this probably sounds like a raw deal to you or me, but Logan is at this point around 120 years old (due to his healing ability) and as he’s seen many of his friends and loved ones die, some by his own hand, the thought of living forever with that guilt isn’t exactly appealing.

This is a large part of what The Wolverine focuses on, and it’s what makes the movie so interesting. It’s much more of a character study of who Logan is, how he deals with what he’s done and had to live with and even how he deals with being mortal. Previous films have definitely touched on it, he’s always been a central character, but The Wolverine shows a surprising amount of restraint, dialling back a lot of the action to deal with Logan’s struggle with his inner demons as well as his budding relationship with Mariko, Yashidas grand-daughter.

That’s not to say it’s any slouch when it comes to action, we’re still dealing with a dude what has foot long knives that pop out of his fists. When those are your main methods of negotiating with bad guys, things tend to get a little nuts. There’s a few great action set pieces, in particular one set on a bullet train that you really need to see on a big screen. That being said, I actually found the quieter moments to be the most interesting. Don’t get me wrong, Wolverine vs. Yakuza and ninjas is super entertaining, but the moments where the film has time to breath and focus on Logan are where it really stands out. In fact, 2/3 of this film I would put on par with the first two X-Men movies easily.

However…the ending…the ending is a bit of a mess. It’s not awful by any means but you can see the plot twists coming from miles away and the film suffers due to not having any really interesting villains. Mariko’s father, Shingen played by veteran Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada (you’d probably recognize him from the Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai) is actually pretty great, and is in one of the better fight scenes in the movie, but the main villain and his accomplice are not so hot. I wont say WHO the main villain is (although if you’ve spent any time looking into this movie at all pre-relase, you probably know already) but the way the character is handled is pretty disappointing, and his henchman is kinda dull. The way the climax is paced and presented and predictable twists unfortunately sour what would otherwise be a fantastic movie. It doesn’t ruin it by any means, but instead of The Wolverine being one of my favourite super-hero movies, it ended up just being a good one.

Overall, the ending aside, I really liked The Wolverine, it’s a great return to form for the character. Also I’m a sucker for anything related to Japan. So that helped. If you’re a fan of the character, or the series you absolutely should check it out. It, along with First Class, has restored my faith in the franchise and has me super excited for the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past.

4/5

Also, without giving anything away, stay for the mid-credits clip at the end. Seriously, even if The Wolverine had been a colossal stinker, it would have made it TOTALLY worth paying the money to see it. I got goosebumps.

reposted from my blog