Plot
At the crux of WWII, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) finds himself a POW in Nagasaki, Japan and saves his morally conflicted officer from being leveled along with the city. Back in the present day, crushed following the events of X-Men: Last Stand, he has exiled himself in the wilds of Canada. However, when he’s tracked down by the man he saved all those years ago – the billionaire tech giant Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) – and whisked off to Japan to say goodbye, he finds himself embroiled in a family warfare that will push him harder than he’s ever been pushed before.
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| Imagine that this a sequel to Les Misérables and laugh. |
Review
The current dynasty of Marvel comic book movies owes a healthy debt to the X-Menfilms of the Noughties. Along with Spiderman, it was the mutant crew that first led the foray onto our cinema screens and if it wasn’t for their success who knows where those Avengers fellas might be. It’s a shame then that since the phenomenal X2 (2003), the series hit a damning low (outside of First Class) capitulated by the capricious, rancid, cheesy mess of X-Men Origins.
But now Hugh Jackman is back, donning the metal claws and meaty chops of Wolverine for the sixth time, in James Mangold’s The Wolverine.
And rest assured: it’s better than Origins. But then so is being sodomised in the ear-hole.
Jackman’s Wolverine has never gotten the treatment he deserves so it’s a relief to say that The Wolverine goes someway to rectifying this issue. While it may feel several shades different to an X-Menfilm (the mutant presence is oddly…muted), the Logan of Wolverine is the all snarling, all scowling, ultra-aggressive, woefully messed-up anti-hero that comic book and movie fans alike have been clamouring for.
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| She's a baddie incase you couldn't guess. Face tearing...s'weird. |
On occasion at least. The rest of the time he’s a mopey, self-pitying, grating presence, wallowing in his own stern faced misery extrapolated upon by the numerous pace-breaking and almost entirely disingenuous flash-sideways (?) to the ambiguously extant Jean Grey (Famke Jansson). Yeah, we get it, Wolverine can’t die. And yeah, we get it, that’s got to kinda suck when you see everyone that you know and care about die around you. It’s an interesting moral conflict with enough meat on its bones to drive a film…but it’s flogged like the deadest cow, almost comical in its lack of subtlety.
Fortunately then the action is furious and frenetic, rapidly changing pace, setting, target…everything. While the CGI may stink to high-heaven – the $100 million budget apparently invested entirely in white vests – Wolverine is littered with stand-out action set-pieces including a brutal duel on top of a speeding bullet train that’s as exciting as it is inadvertently hilarious. Ninjas and Yakuza goons come and go, swing and shoot, cry and die with wanton bloodless abandon as Logan murders his way from North to South. His motives may be questionable (note: entirely vague), something to do with…something about honour and…something, but at least the journey is exciting and loud enough to keep things interesting.
It ultimately all feels more than a little pointless however. Yeah, ol’ Logan learns a few lessons while marauding throughout rural Japan, but the entire production feels far more akin to a tangential sub-plot than a central narrative.
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| 'Let's dance,' says the tango master. |
‘Directionless’ is a surprisingly apt description for a film that, ostensibly at least, quite simply moves from North to South. Several characters seem to forget quite where their loyalties lie or even what their point is – Harada (Will Yun Lee) especially: an epic ninja warrior who just…wait, who does he work for again? Dialogue is oftentimes hammy and the plot twists itself in knots with mounting intrigues that ultimately make little sense when all added together for a climax that’s as disappointing as it is bizzarely predictable.
Wolverine lives and dies on the strength of its action scenes and rare witty exchanges, so for the 30/40-minute stretch in the middle where literally nothing happens outside of a contrived romantic entanglement, it becomes an intensely labourious watch. While Wolverine’s treatment of Japanese culture is paper-thin bordering on insensitive at times – Logan’s experience is like a checklist of foolish gaijin mess-ups, the gaijin fool – at least the country and its cinematographic framing is quality, a frequently beautiful distraction during the production’s less ragey moments.
Talking about ragey moments – and nuclear opening not withstanding – it’s a pleasant relief to see a summer blockbuster that doesn’t treat cities and the general essence of humanity with the same care that a child invests in its Legos. This particular film is about Wolverine and sticks very closely behind his shoulder throughout. Battles are intense and focused, particularly following Logan’s much-touted ‘weakening’, and you’ll never feel closer to Hugh Jackman’s scowly face. Literally.
And just a heads-up: there is a scene after the credits. And depending on your attachment to the mutant crew, it could be the most exciting scene of the film.
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| On set of Take That's next music video. |
Verdict
The Wolverine seems like it was never quite finished; a film that needed an extra lick of paint each step of the way to production. As it stands, it’s not quite a superhero film, not quite an X-Men film and not quite a thoroughbred action film: the bastard child of a summer choking on the intensity of grandiose action. Overall, a thoroughly decent, vein-popping watch for series’ fans and summer burnouts alike.
3/5
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