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The Wolverine (08.2013)

It’s been a while since I last posted, but I recently began to work for a company called Third Wheel Entertainment, which is a fabulous start-up entertainment company based in Chicago. Make sure to check out our website, http://thirdwheelentertainment.tumblr.com/.

Here it is! My review for The Wolverine.

The-Wolverine-Hugh-Jackman-as-Wolverine-in-Japan-Courtesy-of-20th-Century-Fox

The Wolverine (2013)

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (6/10)

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who thinks that the X-Men and Wolverineseries are running too old and too long. Yes, there have been many comics written about the ousted, supernatural mutants fighting to save the world, but one too many do not often please. The comic lovers seem to love the constant fruition of Wolverine adaptations, but to the non-comic lovers, it’s coming to be a little bit too much.

Director James Mangold’s The Wolverine (2013) is a PG-13 rated movie based on the 1982 comic book series Wolverine. It means to catch up to the current film world’s trend of the superb robotic monster fights, and yet it struggles in between that and its old-fashioned 1980’s imagination. In this recent adaptation, Wolverine fights his inner struggles against bestial violence, and along the way meets a beautiful Japanese woman named Mariko. He fights and fights against the Yakuzas, a fellow mutant, and an almighty robot—all to protect this highly endangered woman that he comes to love.

The action in the movie, for one part, is beautifully done. In one particular scene, Wolverine fights off Yakuza gang members to protect his love-interest on top of a Japanese bullet train. A top-of-the-train action scene sounds ordinary and classic for any of our 21st century high-budget action movies, but this one’s special because a bullet train is as much as three times faster than a regular train. The chase-fight scene and its unbelievable speed are exhilarating to watch. It’s one of the best action sequences of this summer’s blockbuster scene, if not the entire realm of blockbuster.

And yet, this bullet train scene is the only highlight of it all. The other action scenes are clumsy with needless upside-down flips of ninja-samurais, only to render the whole thing silly. Yukio, the trusted friend of Mariko and guardian of Wolverine, is a fantastic samurai and strong woman who defeats a supernatural mutant all by herself. Yet, after a minor hit by a non-supernatural samurai, she disappears from screen until Wolverine defeats him alone. Wolverine comes back to get her and see if she’s okay, and of course, she’s uninjured and perfectly fine. So why couldn’t she go help Wolverine while he was struggling in his lonely fight? I can only assume it’s a goof that I can’t let go ignored.

Here’s one reason why the comic-lovers may have loved this movie, while I, a non-comic lover, didn’t. The plot that was based on the original comic was, to me, unnecessarily twisted. One betrays one after the other after another—to the extent that it became a little ridiculous. Furthermore, what happened to the initial fight against brutality that Wolverine struggled to maintain in his lonely mountain range? Is the point of the movie to embrace who you are, even if you are a natural and brutal killer? Does Wolverine discover the meaning of life, and thus find reason to live? But what exactly is that motive—love? Peace and serenity of humans and earth? I still have many questions unanswered.

I am usually an opponent of anything violent, and in The Wolverine, I wondered whether it should have been rated R instead. It is often unfortunate that many filmmakers forgo the completeness of a film for economic profits, and this movie was one example of such sacrifice. With many grotesque ideas and images throughout the movie, I believe it would have better sufficed to directly orient the movie to the mature adult viewers.

All in all, after the negative points I made about The Wolverine, I don’t think that the movie was entirely a bad one. Though it was not as refined as I hoped it to be, it had the action scenes that anyone would likely enjoy. So, to those looking for the best superhero movie of their life—I recommend not to waste your time with this one. But to anyone who is looking for a fun night out, go ahead and watch this movie.

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