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#367 - The Wolverine
James Mangold, 2013
Wolverine, who is living in seclusion following the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, is invited to go to Japan and say farewell to an old acquaintance.
Ever since I started the One Movie a Day Review Thread, I have gotten a sizeable number of posts asking me not just why I apparently dislike so many well-regarded films but also why I go out of my way to watch films that don't even look that good in the first place. I guess it's because, despite the raging cynicism that permeates this thread, I do occasionally have hope that there will be some fun to be found even in the unlikeliest of places. I have also been largely unreceptive to most comic-book/superhero movies, especially the last couple of X-Men movies that I've reviewed here. One of those films was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, an attempt to give Hugh Jackman's steel-clawed anti-hero a standalone feature of his own that somehow managed to be an even greater mess of a film than X-Men: The Last Stand. 2013's The Wolverine marks the second attempt at giving Wolverine a solo round, and while it's an improvement on those last two films that I mentioned, that doesn't say much.
The Wolverine takes place in Japan for much of its running time and only features a couple of mutants aside from its eponymous protagonist, which does suggest that the film is trying to distance itself from the rest of the franchise. This becomes readily apparent when the scenes that actually do acknowledge the continuity (often through Wolverine's visions where he is haunted by a deceased loved one) come across as clunky at best. Instead, the film is mostly content to just give Wolverine a spin-off adventure with a whole new cast of characters and a plot involving an elderly industrialist and an assassination plot against his granddaughter. From there, it turns into an escort mission for the reluctant hero as he fights against Yakuza here, ninjas there, and the occasional mutant adversary. There are some decent moments here and there - the fight that takes place on the roof of a bullet train is at least exciting enough to make up for its implausibility - but it's sadly a bit underweight without much dramatic heft. Aside from Wolverine getting besieged by guilt-tripping hallucinations and also getting hit with something that neuters his healing powers, there's also a somewhat interesting conflict driven by patriarchal villains and their attempts to solidify their empire by any means necessary. Of course, this is all buried under a film that isn't so much a superhero movie as it is a cat-and-mouse conspiracy thriller that just so happens to feature a hairy immortal with steel claws, but not quite as interesting as that sounds.
James Mangold, 2013
Wolverine, who is living in seclusion following the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, is invited to go to Japan and say farewell to an old acquaintance.
Ever since I started the One Movie a Day Review Thread, I have gotten a sizeable number of posts asking me not just why I apparently dislike so many well-regarded films but also why I go out of my way to watch films that don't even look that good in the first place. I guess it's because, despite the raging cynicism that permeates this thread, I do occasionally have hope that there will be some fun to be found even in the unlikeliest of places. I have also been largely unreceptive to most comic-book/superhero movies, especially the last couple of X-Men movies that I've reviewed here. One of those films was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, an attempt to give Hugh Jackman's steel-clawed anti-hero a standalone feature of his own that somehow managed to be an even greater mess of a film than X-Men: The Last Stand. 2013's The Wolverine marks the second attempt at giving Wolverine a solo round, and while it's an improvement on those last two films that I mentioned, that doesn't say much.
The Wolverine takes place in Japan for much of its running time and only features a couple of mutants aside from its eponymous protagonist, which does suggest that the film is trying to distance itself from the rest of the franchise. This becomes readily apparent when the scenes that actually do acknowledge the continuity (often through Wolverine's visions where he is haunted by a deceased loved one) come across as clunky at best. Instead, the film is mostly content to just give Wolverine a spin-off adventure with a whole new cast of characters and a plot involving an elderly industrialist and an assassination plot against his granddaughter. From there, it turns into an escort mission for the reluctant hero as he fights against Yakuza here, ninjas there, and the occasional mutant adversary. There are some decent moments here and there - the fight that takes place on the roof of a bullet train is at least exciting enough to make up for its implausibility - but it's sadly a bit underweight without much dramatic heft. Aside from Wolverine getting besieged by guilt-tripping hallucinations and also getting hit with something that neuters his healing powers, there's also a somewhat interesting conflict driven by patriarchal villains and their attempts to solidify their empire by any means necessary. Of course, this is all buried under a film that isn't so much a superhero movie as it is a cat-and-mouse conspiracy thriller that just so happens to feature a hairy immortal with steel claws, but not quite as interesting as that sounds.