Movies: The Wolverine

Score:  **** (A-)

Long Story Short:  The Wolverine returns to the screen in, well, The Wolverine, hoping to make amends for his abysmal origins film.  Boy, does he succeed.  Jackman is as good as - perhaps better than - ever in reprising his lead role, and the plot mercifully tones down the stakes and explosions to further explore Wolverine's surprisingly intricate character.  The Japanese setting and characters add a fresh, interesting but not distracting element.  All in all, the best superhero movie of the year so far.


I'm now back on my regular movie review schedule, writing my blog the week after a film's release in theaters.  We're already in August now, usually the month for summer's movie leftovers.  There are a few films I'm actually really looking forward to seeing (Elysium, Kick-Ass 2), and depending on what else I find out there and early reviews, hopefully one or two more.  I must say that I was not especially looking forward to The Wolverine when I first heard about it.  Mostly this was because Wolverine's other solo outing, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was terrible.  But the few previews I saw of it made it look a bit different, and I was ready to head back to the theaters after a light filmgoing July this year; plus, it was getting decent reviews on RT.  The Wolverine was directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma) and stars Hugh Jackman.

The Wolverine starts out in 1940s Japan, where Logan (aka "Wolverine"; Jackman) is a prisoner (of war, presumably).  It happens to be August 9, 1945 in Nagasaki, to be specific, and in the chaos Logan manages to escape and save one man's life.  Flash forward to the present (some indeterminate time after X-Men 3), and Logan is living out in the mountains, haunted by years of violence and a broken heart.  When he returns to civilization briefly, he is tracked by a Japanese agent, Yukio (Fukushima) who convinces him to revisit the man he saved years ago at Nagasaki:  Yashida.  Yashida, an old man who has built a huge tech corporation, is surrounded by family and close to death.  He offers Logan intriguing but seemingly desperate repayment, and Logan refuses him.

The next day, Yashida is dead.  Logan quickly discovers that Yashida's company and family has become a target of vicious and powerful Yakuza criminal outfits.  Despite his reluctance to resume the "Wolverine" persona, Logan is pulled into the chaos as he attempts to protect Yashida's family.  Little does he know that Yashida was not the only one in Japan with an interest in him...

The cast is full of mostly unfamiliar faces - for a Western audience, at least - but they make for a nicely varied, intriguing set of characters.  Hugh Jackman is of course the star, reprising his role as the Wolverine.  Ever since the first movie, Jackman has been a huge reason for success of the X-Men movie franchise, and it's no different in this film.  He plays Logan/Wolverine as a man always somewhere between guarded and cynical, but with a good sense of humor.  And Jackman is such a charismatic actor that he radiates the "good guy" sense beneath the defensiveness, making it easy to root for him.  There was huge pressure on him to carry this film, bringing greater depth to his already well-developed character, and Jackman does a great job.  If he hadn't already, Jackman as Wolverine certainly joins Downey, Jr. (Iron Man), Maguire (Spider-Man) and Bale (Batman) in a group that completely owns their famous superhero roles.

Supporting Jackman is an interesting set of characters, almost all of them Japanese.  His butt-kicking partner, Yukio, played by Rila Fukushima, is a level-headed, mysterious presence.  Her character could have used a little more background - and screen time, for that matter - as her fit in the proceedings is complex.  Fukushima strikes a nice balance of not acting over the top, stealing attention from Jackman, while also not disappearing (either of which could easily have happened).  Tao Okamoto impressed me the most.  She plays the "damsel in distress" - here, Yashida's granddaughter - that is so often poorly written and acted.  But the script really makes the part an actual character rather than a plot point, and Okamoto does a great job keeping a consistent tone, with necessary and realistic growth.  Svetlana Khodchenkova also does a villain, equally impressive as a seductress and a convincing menace.  There are certainly other characters; while I won't describe them individually, suffice it to say that while they have somewhat stereotyped roles, the actors and script make them more interesting than that.

More than a decade into the "Era of the Superhero" (copyright! Just kidding), it is very tricky for a single film to stand out in a sea of similar choices and gold standards.  That's OK; The Wolverine goes a different direction than its brethren.  Whereas most comic book films go for huge stakes, often the fate of the world, The Wolverine goes for the personal.  Well, Wolverine does beat up quite a few people, but not to stop the usual "save the city from blowing up" plot.  And whereas most comic book films take place in a familiar city (or parallel version), The Wolverine takes place almost entirely in Japan.  The combination of a more intimate plot with a new location gives The Wolverine a unique and satisfying atmosphere.  Of course, there is plenty of action, too.  Some of it - particularly near the end - blurs a little too much with other comic book films.  But most of it is entertaining - particularly a scene on a bullet train - and makes very effective use of the lead brawler, Wolverine.  It's a little disappointing that Logan doesn't use his sarcastic sense of humor as much as usual here, but it really wouldn't have fit with the tone of the film, anyway.  A final note:  while I don't recall any main themes that are really great, the superhero soundtrack is appropriately (but not overtly) tweaked to support the geographical setting nicely.

***

Out of three superhero films that I've seen this year, The Wolverine is my favorite and highest rated.  It wasn't difficult to soar past the disappointing Superman reboot, but it also bests the newest Iron Man installment, too.  Iron Man 3 also tried to go in new directions, too, and succeeded in several ways.  But in the end, it just couldn't help being as big and flashy as ever, and those were the parts that dragged it down the most.  The Wolverine, on the other hand, is a very well controlled film.  Even in the climax, the intensity of action ratchets up but the stakes still aren't really that high (and I'm kinda numb to the really high stakes at this point).  The Wolverine uses its outstanding leading man as the focal point for all aspects of the film - personal and technical - and Jackman and the script come through big time.  The setting of Japan and a completely new set of characters, none of whose faces are particularly familiar, lends the film an intriguing new atmosphere and tone.  The pacing is very good at just over two hours; any longer and it could've dragged, but it needed the length to let the story develop properly.  This isn't a Dark Knight epic, nor a flashy Avengers sequel - but don't let this pass you by.  If you only see one superhero film from this summer (perhaps year - we'll see), make it this one.