The Super Network

There is no doubt that X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE left a pretty sour taste in the mouths of fans of the character, series and generally those who enjoy cinema. When a second WOLVERINE film was announced, many of us remained sceptical but had a gleam of hope as Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct. However that wasn’t meant to be, and eventually the film gained a new director with James Mangold. So the question left, is THE WOLVERINE a good film? Yes, yes it is. It had wiped the memory of ORIGINS right away.

The film takes place after the events of X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, and Logan (Hugh Jackman) is a broken man after the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Living alone, without a care, he’s a man with nothing left to live for. Until that is he’s approached by a young woman Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who asks him to come and see her master, a man he once saved Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi). Reluctantly Logan agrees, and they head to Japan, where Logan is reunited with Yashida who has a proposition for Logan. He offers to make him mortal, Logan isn’t entirely sure about this, however a mysterious Doctor nicknamed Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) takes his power away and suddenly Logan is thrown into a mission to protect Yashida’s daughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) against the Yakuza. But all is not what it seems ….

This film has a focus and an on-going theme, it really explores life and death. Logan is immortal, and how does one with that go on when there is nothing to live for? He’s tricked himself into wanting that mortality, yet he wont give it up, and eventually finds something that keeps him going. By this time, Logan is a fully fleshed out character, he’s been the driving force behind four X-Men films. Hugh Jackman has had this role with him for over 10 years, he knows him better than anyone. Exploring this character in this way was a natural progression, he knew that and he certainly pushed for that. The film works extremely well because it has these underlying themes, and it gives us more than just an action film (something ORIGINS was sorely lacking).

The motivations for Logan are quite clear, he’s alone and basically torturing himself over what happened. Yet he still can’t completely get rid of the man he has become, and we see this when he’s bothered by the actions of a group of hunters. It is clear he wants something in his life, and this is why he accepts the Japan invitation. Through flashbacks we see how he saved Yashida, and why he’d make that trip to see this man. The relationships Logan forms with Yukio and Mariko are interesting and certainly give the character something to keep him going. Perhaps they weren’t as strong as they could have been, especially with Mariko but it made sense.

The performances are all very solid here, with Hugh Jackman naturally stealing the show. He’s once again fantastic as Wolverine and Logan, I separate the two because I see Logan as more his human side and Wolverine his warrior side. He brings so much depth and emotion to the role, there is no way we aren’t completely in his corner. This is one of my favourite Logan performances from Jackman, he’s really hit a stride and now there is no one else I could see in the role. Rila Fukushima absolutely stole my heart, not only did she bring forth a strong character, but she had so much heart too. She was very natural in the role, and her chemistry was quite strong with Jackman. Tao Okamoto was quite good, her chemistry with Jackman wasn’t as strong but she did put in a solid performance. Svetlana Khodchenkova kept herself from being overly campy with the character and she sold everything so well with her face and her body movements. Hal Yamanouchi and Ken Yamamura did a very fine job as old and young Yashida, they definitely felt like the same person. Will Yun Lee as Harada was solid in his small role, and Famke Janssen did great with her cameo role.

James Mangold was the right choice to take the helm for this, he’s delivered a very fine film. One that really focuses on the character and the themes of the film. He’s managed to take on an established character and not only have the understanding but to keep it all very fresh. THE WOLVERINE is an extremely entertaining film, one that is enjoyable and ticks the right boxes. It does have its flaws (it goes off the deep end a little towards the end, the love story is rushed), however these don’t affect the overall film that much.

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