The Wolverine (2013) Review

"What kind of monster are you?"
-Shingen Yashida



Some time after the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) lives as a hermit until he is found by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), who brings him to Japan to speak to her master, Ichirō Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi).  Wolverine saved Ichirō's life during World War II and he offers to return the favor by taking away Wolverine's immortality.  He refuses and quickly finds himself embroiled in massive feud across Japan and he doesn't know who he can trust.


What Works:

Hugh Jackman has always been and will always be perfect as Wolverine.  He understands this character so well and is always fun to watch.

While this is definitely a smaller scale X-Men movie, we still get some solid action sequences.  I really like the fight at Ichirō's funeral and the bullet train fight is freaking awesome and my favorite sequence of the movie.

For a large chunk of the film, Wolverine's healing power is greatly diminished which is actually really interesting.  It's awesome to see this guy continue to beast his way through the story even without his powers.  It's a great premise and executed well.

Finally, we get some solid performances from the supporting characters as well.  Tao Okamato is great as Wolverine's love interest, Mariko.  Fukushima brings Yukio to life like an anime character and is a complete badass.  And Hiroyuki Sanada is awesomely despicable and slimy as Mariko's father.  


What Sucks:

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not a huge fan of the story overall.  I don't really get why we needed this movie.  It's just Wolverine going to Japan.  It never really grabbed me from a storytelling perspective and it's not overly interesting.

The bad guy, the Silver Samurai is also not very interesting.  His motivation makes sense, but we didn't get enough development for him as a character and I wish we had gotten more.  I think that could have made the story more interesting.

Finally, the 3rd act final battle doesn't really fit with the rest of the film.  It feels like a completely different movie and much more generic in terms of superhero movies.  Wolverine is just fighting a dude in a giant metal suit in some facility.  We've seen this before and it's not anything special this time around.


Verdict:

The Wolverine is a fine movie with solid performances all around, some good action, and an interesting element in Wolverine losing his powers.  I don't think the story is super engaging, the villain is underwhelming, and the final battle is generic, but, for the most part, I'd say this movie has got it going on.

 7/10: Good 

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