Back in 2000, Bryan Singer directed the first "X-Men" movie, which marked the start of the Marvel comic movie age (following the next year with Spider-Man). The film not only marked a new beginning for comic book movies, but it also launched the career of its leading actor, Hugh Jackman. And for thirteen years, Jackman has faithfully portrayed the character who is now arguably the most recognizable super-hero in Hollywood--the fierce, clawed mutant Logan, but you probably know him better by his other name...Wolverine.
Yes there has already been a solo Wolverine film that was released four years ago, but we all know how that turned out (and if you don't know then consider yourself lucky). But this time director James Mangold (Walk The Line, 3:10 To Yuma) has teamed up with Jackman to bring us a new story based on the very popular 1982 limited series comic.
In this film, which takes place some time after the events of "X-Men: The Last Stand," Logan has abandoned his role as the heroic X-Man and sworn off of violence forever (which is a long time considering he is immortal). This "vow" is in response to the final events of the 3rd X-Men film when he was forced to kill the love of is life Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who still haunts him in his sleep. Well as one might expect, this "swearing off violence" doesn't exactly pan out when a group of hunters come into a Canadian forest where Logan is living and use illegal means to kill a bear.
But before he gets the chance to finish his revenge on these hunters, he is found by a lady named Yukio (Rila Fukushima). Yukio has tracked him down to bring him to Japan, where her boss wants to thank Logan for saving his life back in WWII. Of course this is not all the dying man wants from Logan, he also wants for him to pass on his immortality to the man because he does not want to die. When Logan refuses, the man warns Logan that his daughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto) needs to be protected from people who want her dead.
And those people show up the next day at the man's funeral, and Logan takes it upon himself to protect her. There is only one problem, somehow his ability to heal has been hindered and for once in his life Logan can be killed if he isn't careful. What follows is an engaging story full of suspense, romance, and lots of claw stabbing (and ninjas).
A line that was included in most of the advertising for "The Wolverine" said that this film was, "The Wolverine movie you have been waiting for." And the film makers were dead on with that statement. For the first time in the "X-Men" series, we really get a deep look into the heart and soul of Logan. The problems that he struggles with--the burden of having to live forever, the sadness of watching anyone you love eventually dying as you never age, and now the fear of death surrounding him--these issues are brought to the front of the viewers attention and used to drive the narrative. And we also get a lot more of what comic fans love about Wolverine: his sarcasm, blunt remarks, and classic one-liners.
But the credit of the success of this intricate character development has to be given to the incredible work of Hugh Jackman. His sixth time portraying the character, Jackman has never done a "bad" job of playing Wolverine (not even in the painful "X-Men Origins"), but the script and storyline of this film has allowed him to dive even deeper into the character. When he needs to thoughtful, he is, when he needs to be conflicted, he is, and when he needs to look incredibly angry as he slices and dices the bad guys...he does! The X-Men films would not be the same without Jackman as Wolverine.
Now earlier I mentioned the engaging story of the film. To elaborate on that point, "The Wolverine" gets big bonus points for doing something that most sequels (let alone the fifth sequel) fail to do. Instead of speeding things up with action and big set pieces, this time things are slowed down, more-so than your average comic-book film. There is a lot of time given to the characters and the story in this film. The director took a risk with boring audiences with the amount of "down time" between action scenes. But it pays off and the film manages to really engage the audience (and then a big battle comes at the end).
And don't worry action junkies, this is a Wolverine film after all, so there is action to be found. And when there is, it is terrific and thrilling, especially an amazing sequence that takes place on top of a bullet train. The fight scenes aren't just mindless and explosive like they were in "Man of Steel", they move the story along like everything else in the movie, and the balance between action and drama is perfect.
This movie is called "THE Wolverine" for a reason. It is about THE character. It's not about the action, the explosions, or the ways to top other super-hero films, it is about THE character. "The Wolverine" doesn't try to be the next Avengers, and it doesn't try to have the action included in Man of Steel. Instead, its goal is the goal that every movie should have...to tell a great story. And it succeeds on all fronts, drama and action in all, which is why "The Wolverine" ends up being the most well-crafted super-hero film of the year (so far). I give it three and a half stars out of four.
"The Wolverine" has a running time of 126 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sic-fi action and violence, some sexuality and language.
