The Wolverine himself, Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman, said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “we could have done better” with the first X-Men spinoff, 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. I actually liked that film, but many comic book fans were hoping for more. Unfortunately, “The Wolverine” gives you less than what you’re looking for in a big-budget “X-Men” action film.
This story begins at the end of WWII during the bombing of Nagasaki. Logan (Wolverine) is being held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese. A soldier frees him, thinking they’re both going to die as the Americans are about to drop the atomic bomb. But Logan saves the man by shielding him with his body (since he can’t die). We shift to present day, and that man is now a Japanese business mogul named Yashida, who is dying and wants to thank Logan for saving his life so many years ago. But it turns out he wants much more than that.
Yashida wants to put Logan out of his misery by making him mortal and allowing him to experience a normal death at the end of his natural life. Logan says “thanks, but no thanks”, but an assassination attempt on Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko draws Logan into this family’s issues and before you know it Logan is back to his Wolverine ways. And the rest of the film is simply Wolverine trying to protect Mariko from those who want to kill her, with a little romance thrown in.
I was counting on “The Wolverine” to have a much stronger story, which is why it’s a bit of a disappointment. There’s lots of slashing, flashbacking (particularly to Jean Grey, The Wolverine’s former girlfriend who he was forced to kill as few “X-Men” movies ago), and some good action scenes, led by a fight on a bullet train that serves as one of the better action sequences of the summer. However, the best scene in “The Wolverine” comes midway through the closing credits, which doesn’t say a lot for the film itself.
Recently, we’ve seen storylines in both the Iron Man and James Bond series involving the hero starting to get older and weaker. In a way, this is The Wolverine version of that theme, as villains take away his powers of immortality, and he then gets them back, several times throughout the movie. “The Wolverine” suffers from being too slow and simple. And just when you think the film might be saved by a big finish, Jackman’s suddenly got to fight a giant robot. It’s “Real Steel” all over again.
Jackman does a quality job in the action scenes, but The Wolverine character is way too serious to deliver one-liners, so the screenwriters shouldn’t even try. And after hearing him sing in “Les Miserables”, listening to Jackman talk in that slightly sinister tone for two hours took some getting used to. Director James Mangold (“Knight and Day”, “Walk the Line”) stages a nice looking film. But you’ve got to have more bite in the
script in order for your audience to stay thoroughly engaged. Instead we get a repeat of the same scene structure over and over.
“The Wolverine” is rated PG-13 for the action/violence and some language. It’s appropriate for teens and up. It’s not what most fans were expecting heading into next May’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, which will bring all the characters from both series together for what will, hopefully, be a much more exciting spectacle.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “The Wolverine” gets a C+.