The Wolverine Review

Director: James Mangold

Writers: Mark Bomback, Scott Frank

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada

Hugh Jackman has brought Wolverine to life on the big screen 5 times. It's always difficult to keep any character fresh and interesting for that long and comic book films don't have the best track record. In fact Jackman's last X-film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was easily the worst of the bunch. James Mangold's The Wolverine aims to be a smaller , more introspective Wolverine tale. Fans of the Wolverine comics know that there's more to Logan than razor sharp claws and ridiculous hair. I think James Mangold does his best to deliver.

I'll cut to the chase    I enjoyed this movie a lot. There's a lot to like here. The story is smaller, more personal, and more focused than ever before. With comic book and superhero films becoming so common in theaters it's easy to get superhero fatigue. There are only so many explosions and doomsday plots a person can take. It's refreshing then that The Wolverine isn't concerned with the fate of the world or even the fate of a country. The stakes here are smaller, but, as I said before, much more personal. Logan is living in self-imposed exile dealing with events of previous films when he is drawn to Japan to visit an old friend. Logan saved Yashida's life during the bombing of Nagasaki in WWII. Yashida went on to become a wealthy man and now, on his deathbed, he offers Logan to take his powers and end his suffering. Logan refuses and, after Yashida's death, is drawn into a struggle for power over Yashida's empire and commits to protecting Yashida's granddaughter Mariko from a host of threats.

The Wolverine presents a trend that I hope continues by having a story that would be at home in a non-superhero film and focusing on character over plot. This is a story about a man filled with pain and regret who has shut himself off from the world. He meets a young woman and protecting her gives him something to fight for again. It just so happens that this man has a metal skeleton, a regenerative healing factor, and 3 metal claws that release from between his knuckles. As character study the film works well for most of its run time. The script is tight and works because the film knows exactly what it's trying to do. James Mangold is one of a few directors who can jump from genre to genre like some kind of film chameleon. He makes the transition to this film very easily, imbuing the film with a great atmosphere. His direction of the film is deliberate and he keeps the action from being unintelligible. The bullet train sequence is actually pretty inventive, mixing intense action with some genuinely funny moments. The other stand out sequence is a quasi samurai battle between Logan and Shingen that has the two trading blows under the light of the moon. The Japanese setting along with the general tone bring to mind old samurai epics and even spaghetti westerns.

The cast is solid. I can't complain about Hugh Jackman. This guy IS Wolverine. Jackman has always had great screen presence. Here he gets more to dig into and he's great. Tao Okamoto does a fine job as Mariko given that this is her first film role. She doesn't have much meat to her character but she does good work with what she has and it's nice to see her mix it up a little in the action as well. The other first timer is Rila Fukushima, who brings Yukio to life. I thought she was awesome. Yukio is a bad ass swordsman and mutant with the ability to foresee people's deaths. She gets great action beats and has great chemistry with Jackman's Logan. She's the one who brings him out of hiding and to Japan and the two develop a great friendship. It's pretty much a buddy-cop relationship and I enjoyed it a lot. Rounding out the cast are more great Japanese actors. Hiroyuki Sanada brings a fierce intensity to Lord Shingen and Hal Yamanouchi is great as Yashida.

That brings me to what I didn't enjoy about this film. Like I mentioned before, the film feels confident and assured for most of its run time. Then, the third act rolls around and belly flops right into generic comic book movie territory. There's a big "twist", a master plan, and even a giant robot. I understand trying to escalate the action, but this an impulse that should have been reigned in. The last 15 minutes feel like a different Wolverine movie, one that has much more in common with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Also on loan from a different film is Svetlana Khodchenkova's Viper. She's decidedly more over the top than any other character in the film. Even Will Yun Lee's Harada, with his parkour moves and topical archery skills, at least feels at home in this land of ninja and samurai. Her character is pretty much just around to service the plot. A little poison here, a weird parasite there, and she's pretty much done. I get that she was supposed to be some kind of femme fatale for Wolverine to fight against but she really isn't given much to do.

At the end of the day, even with the problems I think are present in the third act, this is a really enjoyable film. It has great atmosphere and solid direction. Hugh Jackman headlines a strong cast that brings cool characters to life. The action delivers plenty of Wolverine beserker rage and isn't cut to ribbons. In a summer where almost all films are betting on bigger being better, The Wolverine doubles down on a smaller character driven tale. When the film stays focused, it's one of the best films of the summer.

Oh yeah. Stay for the credits.