After the terrible XMen Origins: Wolverine, a lot was on the line for The Wolverine. Origins followed the equally terrible XMen 3: The Last Stand which meant the entire franchise seemed to be teetering on the edge of being left behind for newer and greater Marvel characters. Thankfully, this solo run for Logan turned out to be a much more focused and enjoyable movie.
Wolverine shares a similar problem as Superman. He’s basically invincible as his bones are near unbreakable and his healing powers are so powerful. He can basically eat bullets and flesh wounds stitch themselves together in a matter of seconds. So what can you really threaten him with?
The Wolverine looks back to Logan’s past and shows that he has far more mental scars than physical ones. After the events of The Last Stand he isolates himself in the woods as avoiding people seems like the best course to take. He’s pulled back when a man named Yashida, who he helped survive a devastating event decades earlier asks to see him one last time. When Logan makes the trip to Japan, he’s told that he can be made mortal through the tech advances that Yashida’s company has made through extensive research. Logan passes on the offer but when Yashida dies that night, it triggers a power grab among the Yakuza and Yashida’s daughter, Mariko, whom he left his company to. Logan is trapped in the middle as his mutant powers are crippled by a mysterious woman named Viper while he tries to protect Mariko and unravel the mysteries that Yashida left behind.
It’s an interesting tale with real character development for Logan in gorgeous locals. The action scenes showcase their comic book roots with big one man vs an army fights, high speed train battles and epic final “boss” fights. There’s some cool fight choreography, the SFX are well done, but the final act is really tiring. It’s a predictable twist with execution that you will either love or hate and to me it was disappointing after such a strong first two acts. There are so many comic book movies now that it all kind of blurs together now. Hugh Jackman still gives us the best real world Logan we can probably hope to ever see, but I’m not sure if that’s good enough anymore. There’s a lot riding on this years XMen movie from Bryan Singer. Will people care for the next step in this universe with all the other Marvel movies coming down the pipe? The Wolverine is a competent movie and a step in the right direction, but if you skip it, you really aren’t missing anything.