Review of The Wolverine (2013)

Saw The Wolverine last night, and l have to say l was impressed. We all know not all X Men movies are great take X Men Origins: Wolverine, the writing was sloppy, there were plot holes everywhere and the directing seemed to be a mess at times, Hugh Jackman worked with what he had and you still believed him to be Wolverine but that’s where it stopped.

The Wolverine has been brought out as one of the big blockbusters of the year and it delivers that on quite a few levels. There is action, drama, character development and a good storyline and this is where it shines. Most blockbuster movies sometimes concentrate too much on the action or the main character. It’s clear in The Wolverine that the writers, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank, thought their story through, referred back to the comic as much as possible and in the end presented a good story. I’m not saying it’s a carbon copy of the comic; there are a few changes for the movie in some places allowing it to flow on from X Men the last Stand. There are some minor plot holes but nothing big enough to make you question the movie. (Full disclosure: l have not read the comic - l have looked up the differences between the comic/movie and now feel the need to read it.)

I like James Mangold’s style of directing (Walk the Line and Girl Interrupted are both great works of his) and according to him, this film is a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand ("Jean Grey is gone and most of the X-Men are disbanded, so there's a tremendous sense of isolation for Wolverine"). But with extended flashbacks, done extremely well, together James and Jack have worked to show how tormented the Wolverine really is over Jean and how isolated he has become. There is also a flashback of Wolverine saving Japanese soldier Yashida's life when the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and this is the main backdrop for the story. Fast forward many, many years and now Yashida’s an old man on his death bed and, using Wolverine, wants to become immortal.

Thus Wolverine gets sucked in to Yashida’s family and our story really begins. There were two other directors attached to Wolverine (Guillermo del Toro and Darren Aronofsky) but lm happy the job went to James he showed a good balance between action and story not leaving anything half done.

Most actors played their parts well. Hugh Jackman is, of course, perfect as Wolverine and his dedication is obvious (anyone who dehydrates themselves for 36 hours before a shirtless shot so he looks more defined is either purely dedicated or a little crazy- haven’t decided which). This is the 6th time he has played this character and l feel this is his best performance yet putting all his effort into portraying a somewhat broken man.

Rila Fukushima plays Yukio and we get a small back story on who she is and why she’s there. I liked her character - she had presence when she was in a shot and for someone’s first big screen appearance she is arguably the breakout star of the film.

Tao Okamoto plays Mariko, Yashida's granddaughter and Wolverine’s love interest, which l felt was one of the weakest parts of the movie, while l understood the love interest, to me it felt more like Wolverine’s need to protect Mariko. Tao plays her part but doesn’t stand out as one of the main characters that she is meant to be.

Russian actress Svetlana Khodchenkova plays Yashida's doctor, Viper and to me this is the films weakest character. I have heard two things about this actress 1. Her voice was dubbed for the movie and 2. It wasn’t and she has a flawless American accent. I’m not sure which is correct and honestly I’m not that bothered. I found her annoying and with a tendency to over act. Viper was a very one dimensional character & l’m still not sure what her drive was or why she was so angry. We get no background on her so l’m assuming she was in the movie as an extra villain and a bit of eye candy. If they had given her a small back story l would have found her character more believable.

All in all The Wolverine is worth seeing on the big screen from some of the kickass sword fighting scenes to the background of Japan (okay so it’s technically Parramatta in some parts but hey, it doesn’t look like it) which we don’t see very often on the big screen (if you like the Japanese backdrop try Push, it’s worth a watch). The music is by Marco Beltrami (also known for, I Robot, Hellboy, Warm Bodies and Die Hard 5) so flows perfectly with the tone of the movie, its subtle when needed but builds in anticipation. Take note to stay after the credits the scene shown is probably one of best this year and leaves you wanting more. I have heard rumours of an 18+ release on the blue ray edition, this would be interesting to see as l was surprised it was given a PG13 rating to begin with.