The Wolverine (2013) Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada Movie Review

The Wolverine (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Tao Okamoto and Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine (2013)

Wolverine's Nearly an Ex Man

Many years after saving his life during WWII when the atomic bomb was dropped, Logan (Hugh Jackman) finds himself being tracked down by Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who works for the now ridiculously wealthy Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi). With Yashida reportedly on his death bed he wishes to see Logan one more time and so Logan heads to Japan with the plucky Yukio. But quickly Logan discovers his being there is part of a bigger plan as not only does Yashida wish to tap in to his ability to heal but Logan finds himself becoming protector to Yashida's grand daughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) as it seems various gangs are after her. But is all as it seems and can Logan ever forgive himself for what happened to Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) as she still haunts his dreams and emotions.

For me "The Wolverine" should be a make or break movie which takes the popular character of Logan/Wolverine and makes him a true stand alone character. And in fairness it technically does that with a storyline which combines the personal with some action and adventure. As such part of the story is the continuing evolvement of Logan as here we have him trying to turn his back on his alter ego of Wolverine and living life as a mountain man, away from society with just a bear as a companion and his dreams of Jean Grey. It technically grounds the movie in the X-Men world which has been established but is never the sole focus of the movie.

That means that Logan's escapades in Japan become the focus as once again his special talents are in demand and he turns protector. So technically it delivers the familiarity of what we know about Logan because for all his supposed grumpiness he is a protector who will do the right thing. And as for those he has to fight to protect a young woman well we are in Japan so we have a lot of martial arts action going on which gives the movie a high energy feel. Throw in some out of the world special effects and a train top fight which you will either love or hate and you are rarely a few minutes from the next moment of attention grabbing fun.

The thing is that whilst technically "The Wolverine" delivers everything you want from the movie with of course numerous shots of Hugh Jackman with his shirt off it didn't blow me away. And here is the thing; whilst I am sure there will be another "Wolverine" movie as the character and Jackman are hugely bankable I think it won't be so popular because "The Wolverine" for all the flashy special effects is an ordinary movie.

What this all boils down to is that "The Wolverine" is undoubtedly an entertaining movie but it is also an ordinary one which if they carry on creating such ordinary movies the character will end up an exploited cash cow rather than an icon as he is at the moment.


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