Fanboy Reviews: The Wolverine – 4 out of 5 Snikts


Last night I, along with my wife and a decent-sized group of nerds and fanboys, piled into my local movie theater to see the long-awaited sequel to 2009’s uninspired X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Buoyed by a great trailer, recent reviews, the source material (the Logan/Mariko love story was made for a movie adaptation) and of course seeing Hugh Jackman reprise the titular role of everyone’s favorite Canadian Superhero, I went into the movie with high hopes. Now, for your reading pleasure I will go over the finer points of one of the many (seriously there are like 20 superhero movies coming out this year) highly-anticipated comic book movies of 2013. Also, I promise I will keep the spoilers to a minimum.

SNIKT – Great Casting

Aside from Hugh Jackman, who everyone already knows can perfectly (aside from height) fill the role of Logan/Wolverine, there were several great performances in this movie. Famke Janssen knocks it out of the park with her reprisal of Jean “Phoenix” Grey and Svetlana Khodchenkova (best known for her role in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Solder Spy, you know the one where Commissioner Gordon and Bane were spies?) absolutely “slithers” as the venomous seductress Viper. First-timer Tao Okamoto played the part of Logan’s love interest quite well, not to mention that she’s the spitting image of the Mariko from the comics.  With the majority of the actors being Japanese I didn’t recognize most of them, but there is little to complain about.

SNIKT 2 – Plenty of Action

When you make a superhero movie over-the-top action is inherently implied (someone needs to explain this to Christopher Nolan) and a movie about Marvel’s resident raging berserker is no exception. In that areathe Wolverinedoes not disappoint, with plenty of claws vs. katanas fight scenes and an ass-kicking bullet train sequence. Though the movie did miss out on the iconic samurai-style fight from the comics, that’s just me being a nitpicker. If you go into this movie expecting ninjas, surprised looks when Logan’s wounds heal right back up, and lots of people being run through with adamantium claws, you will thouroughly pleased.

 

SNIKT 3 – The Villians

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your preferences), this movie wasn’t turned into a character cramfest like past X-Men movies. You won’t see 20 mutants stuffed in just for the hell of it, actually there are only about 4 mutants in the entire movie, but sometimes the motto “less is more” can be great words to live by. The film’s main villian is the snakelike Viper (seen above) who is loosely based on the Marvel spymistress of the same name. Joining her to rain on Logan’s parade are the Japansese mafia, the Yakuza, and the Black Clan of ninjas from the original 1982 Wolverine solo series. As seen in the trailer, longtime Wolvie nemesis Silver Samurai does pop up in the film, but I’ll let you see that one unfold for yourself. Let’s just say his appearance is “smashing.”

SNIKT 4 – The Story

Loosely-based on the classic Frank Miller/Chris Claremont 1982 Wolverine series in which Logan goes to Japan to avenge a friend who was killed at hands of the Yakuza. Along the way he falls in love with the demure Mariko, who is the daughter of a Yakuza crime lord. With the help of old flame Yukio, Wolvie takes the fight to the deadly ninja clan culminating in an epic showdown with Mariko’s betrothed, the Silver Samurai. Though most of the major plot points have been changed (the ninja clan and Yakuza are separate orgnizations, Yukio is a forecasting mutant, etc.) but the bare bones of this fine story can be clearly seen in the film. Just like next year’s hotly anticipated X-Men: Days of Future Past, the decision to base the movie on the classic story arch was a good one.

SNIKT -1 (as in Minus One!) – Plotholes & Predictability

Without spoiling too much, there were a few things that kind of bugged me about this movie. Most of the big plot twists were predictable, at least to me, and I called the big surprise at the end about 30 mintues into it. Now, granted I have been reading comics and watching movies for over 2 decades and have become rather adept at picking up on subtle plot devices and predicting endings. Someone not as jaded as I might not have this complaint. The few gaping holes in the plot might prove more bothersome. Though the appearance of Jean Grey kind of confirms that the movie takes place after X-Men the Last Stand, it tends to completely ignore any of what happend in the last standalone Wolverine movie (which isn’t exactly a bad thing, but a plothole is a plothole). The biggest and most-annoying plothole is a big part of the ending and I won’t spoil that much of this movie for anyone. Let’s just say that James Mangold has no idea how mutant physiology would work.

 

Conclusion

So, with great casting, great performances, and awesome action, the Wolverine will surely please casual viewers and fanboys alike. Though there are a few minor annoyances that bog the film down, all-in-all it is not only a superb action movie, but it is a great representation of one the most popular heroes of all time.

 

4/5