When Hugh Jackman was first cast as the adamantium-clawed mutant Logan/Wolverine some 13 years ago in Bryan Singer’s X-Men, he was a virtual unknown. In fact, he was actually the second choice to play the iconic mutant, and only got the job when the first guy pulled out to go make Mission Impossible II. But since then, Jackman has made the character his, and the character has, in turn, elevated Jackman into the upper echelons of the comic book movie hierarchy. To say Hugh Jackman is an actor playing Wolverine is a misnomer. Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine.
Luckily for us, that continues to hold true in the newest X-Universe film, The Wolverine. Written by Chris McQuarrie, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank and directed by James Mangold (the 3:10 to Yuma remake, Walk the Line), The Wolverine takes place months after the events of the bombastically terrible X3: X-Men United.
Logan lives alone in the Yukon, haunted by his act of killing the Phoenix-Force possessed Jean Grey at the end of the last X film. He tries to live a normal existence in the wild, far away from anyone that he can possibly hurt. Unbeknownst to Logan, he is being followed by a mysterious Japanese girl mutant named Yukio (Rila Fukushima), who has been sent to collect him and take Logan to Japan by her employer, Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi). Yashida is dying and wants to repay Logan for saving his life in Nagasaki at the end of World War II when the second atomic bomb fell.
Yashida offers Logan a chance to die, an act his healing factor all but prevents, which would free him from the constant haunting of his past choices. Yashida has figured out a way to extract the healing factor and wants to use it to prolong his own life. Logan also meets Yashida’s son, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). Logan refuses to help the old man, and then he gets embroiled in the Yashida family drama, which revolves around the Yakuza crime gangs, a Black Ninja Clan (but mysteriously not The Hand, a Marvel Comics mainstay), and the intrigue surrounding the lines of succession once the old man is gone.
This is where The Wolverine really picks up and becomes something much more than any of its predecessors. The film shifts from a mutant-against-the-world story to one of the great 1970s Asian crime dramas that found success in cult followings and late night TV airings. Mangold pushes the film into this new direction perfectly by marrying Japanese traditions with cold hard gang violence. There are assassinations with swords, arrows, and of course, claws, and gunfights and chases in the crowded streets of Tokyo, complete with garishly lit pachinko parlors and seedy “love hotels.”
There is even an incredible fight scene on top of a 300 mph bullet train that really takes the film as a whole to an entirely different level. Brilliantly staged and choreographed, the fight is breathtaking and exhilarating. The train-top fight scene marks the highpoint in the entire film, and unfortunately, it does all go down hill from there. Jackman and company are able to keep the story moving at a decent pace, and there are a few other great scenes, one in which involves a sword fight in an examination room at the end of the second act, but as we get into the third act, The Wolverine begins to stumble quite a bit.
By the time we hit the climax, The Wolverine feels too much like 2009’s Wolverine: Origins, and not the good parts of that film. All of that brilliant throwback ’70s crime exposition, and nods to the seminal 1982 Chris Claremont/Frank Miller Wolverine comic book miniseries that Mangold had created so superbly evaporates and things get a little silly. It’s sad really, as the film was really burning on all cylinders up to that point.
The one saving point to the end of the film is in the end credits stinger, which serves as a jumping point for next summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. The stinger almost makes up for the silly climax. Almost.
The Wolverine looks great, with Mangold and cinematographer Ross Emery recreating the look of an entire genre of crime films, but avoid the 3D conversion on this one. Not only is it a bad conversion, it does absolutely zero for the film as a whole. I can’t even recommend the 3D for depth of field. It is completely worthless here.
The performances are all well done, with Jackman having put in the extra time in the gym and it shows. He has never looked this buff, with veins bulging and muscles contouring in all the right places. He has never looked this much like the comic book Wolverine in the previous five times he’s played him. This is also Jackman’s best performance to date as the brooding, sometimes violent canuck. And as previously mentioned, he owns this character lock, stock and barrel.
Lastly, it does beg to mention that Famke Janssen returns to reprise her Jean Grey character. This is not a cameo, and she has quite a bit of role as a nightly dream visitor for Logan. My problem with her role is that A) she’s always on screen wearing a sexy nightgown, something Logan has never seen her in, and B) She is treated as if she and Logan had a long, mutually beneficial love affair, which they did not. So when she tells him she loves him or vice versa, it fails to connect. And some of Logan’s choices in The Wolverine are based on her nightly visits, and it really helps to bring the film as a whole down a few notches because of the disconnection. Janssen’s role could have been left out entirely and it would have actually made The Wolverine a bit better, and that is a major sign that something is wrong.
The Wolverine is a fun, action packed movie that works more as an X-Men 3.5 (this scale based on 2011’s X-Men: First Class acting as X-Men 0), and is a perfect set up to next summer’s much anticipated Days of Future Past. It’s a crime drama first, and a Marvel mutant film second, and for Logan/Wolverine, this works out fine. The third act fails to close the film on a high note and the climax is silly, but all in all, this is still a great Marvel movie and an excellent warm up to next summer.
The Wolverine is rated PG-13 and opens in theaters everywhere on July 26, 2013.
