The Wolverine Movie Review
The Wolverine storyline was undoubtedly the most successful of the X-Men plots, except for maybe Deadpool. Logan gets three movies all to himself as well as his appearance in a few of the other movies. This doesn’t really upset me because I enjoy these movies immensely. For some reason Logan interests me the most. I think his backstory is definitely one of the more interesting of the mutants.
The Wolverine begins with Logan’s (Hugh Jackman) survival of the atomic bomb in Japan. He winds up saving a Japanese soldier by the name of Yashida (Ken Yamamura). Flash forward to the present day and Logan is summoned by a now old and dying Yashida to say goodbye. Logan arrives to say his farewell and meets Yashida’s son Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) and granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto).
Yashida made a good life for himself as the head of a massive corporation in Japan. His death brings into question his will and who will gain control of the company. There is a lot of familial drama going on and Logan of course winds up right in the middle. It’s revealed that Mariko will inherit the company and so of course is being hunted by several parties who have guns and bows and arrows. There is also a woman named Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) who is thrown into the mix. There’s a particularly nasty scene where she literally sheds her skin. It was gross.
Logan winds up in the familiar protective role, trying to keep Mariko away from the men who are chasing her down and shoving her into cars. There is an ulterior motive to Logan’s involvement, that involves Viper, but I won’t spoil that for anyone. The plot is a bit dense and there are many players who wind up having little to no consequence in the end. This seems to be a typical feature of the X-Men movies.
The Wolverine has a few action-packed fight sequences including one on top of a bullet train that I seriously doubt was very realistic even if it was entertaining. My favorite fight sequence is a moonlit one featuring Logan and Shingen. The choreography was very well done and you could see how much Jackman as well as the film crew and film style had been improved over the last few movies.
This movie is interesting because Logan is basically reincarnated as The Wolverine and accepts his role and his fate as a mutant. There is also some level of closure for him as his visions of Jean and the truth about what happened to her seem to find a way to reconcile in Logan’s mind. Logan is a tortured soul, but he is bound by some innate moral compass to do the right thing. The Wolverine puts him back on the map and primed to reunite with the rest of the X-Men in the next installment of the franchise.
Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. Logan is one of your favorite X-Men
2. You like action
3. You want to see a fight on top of a train moving at 300 mph
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