This was better than I expected (a massive improvement over the Origins movie, needless to say). Hugh Jackman's trademark brooding and almost inhuman physique are on display as usual, but I really liked the Japanese setting and the way the film unfolded. It felt much less like a superhero movie so I appreciated James Mangold's efforts to make it all stand out. B

I think Mangold has continued his trend for his last few films, really above average first 75 minutes brought down by less than imaginative final 40 minutes.

The Wolverine has had a “Eh, been there” feeling to it throughout its marketing. Not a surprise with five X-Men films before it, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The Wolverine is a big improvement over the first go at a solo Wolverine film, but if that hot mess is represented by a flailing strikeout, The Wolverine is no more than a safely on base single.

Compared to Origins, The Wolverine smartly has a greater interest in Logan the character. But it only dips its toe into the Batman Begins pool of dramatic character-burning, not fully embracing it. Its true essence is still a lighter, popcorn summer film. Which is fine because James Mangold competently directs the action and fight scenes, highlighted by a speeding train sequence. His film is well plotted and paced. But like his career as a whole, it all just feels too standard and by the book, to really stand out among peers.

Character development is a weakness of the film. Logan’s journey is not as meaningful as the film intends. When he embraces the Wolverine name again, it lacks power because it felt like he never quit being Wolverine. He finds someone to fight for in Mariko, but it never felt in doubt he’d save innocents if he needed to. As for his foxy Japanese female peers, Mariko and Yukio are fine, but damsel in distress and spunky action partner placeholders more than anything. Not memorable in the long run.

The villains also underwhelm. The Viper villain aside from unoriginality, isn’t compelling because it’s unclear what she’s getting out of this. Even if it’s just evil chaos, tell it to us. The other villains are standard, dull megalomaniacs. The Wolverine is a film that get its energy from action scenes, not from its characters, dialog or relationships.

The Wolverine is fine filmmaking on a scene to scene basis and Hugh Jackman remains a charasmatic lead. But it’s one of the handful of summer blockbusters every year that’s easily digested, then forgotten about.

I thought most/all of the action scenes were awesome. And the scene with him reaching into his body and the ensuing fight was awesome.

A solid B.

Good film , I really enjoyed it but there were some stupidity on it, to start with there were some lame characters, specially Viper, she was wasted, she seemed to be forced to appear on screen, there was no reason to have put her in the movie, I kinda hated her performance.

First and third act were OK for me, but got bored in the middle of it; Logan and Mariko scenes were cheesy with redundant dialogue.

Lack of mutants in the film was probably the fact I really missed.

B

PS: And agree, the post-credits scene is probably the best post credit scene ever.
I assume Yukio wasn't with Logan in the airport because events on Days of Future Past will be taken place 2 years after The Wolverine, won't they?

"What kind of monster are you?"
"The Wolverine."

Even if the character of Angry Samurai C.E.O. Father is fairly bland, he was worth it for this moment, which I feel plays perfectly. Spine-tingling and epic.

And that fight was awesome. That whole sequence. I really enjoyed that part.

Also, for me, the after credit scene felt like watching X-Men 2, that just gave a pleasant air of excitement and nostalgia at the same time

Is there any chance Singer directed the final scene?

Yeah, It isn't Mangold stuff and Fox must have ordered to attach that scene.
In the end it just fit properly because of the excitment it is causing

That I agree with. Enjoyed her presence a lot.

Question:

as Wolverine loses his healing powers in the film - should his knuckles be bleeding each time after his claws come out during that time period? Because they clearly pierce his skin and in the first X-Men he says that it hurts each time they come out.

In the post-credits scene she wasn't with Logan in the airport and it clearly said "Two Years Later"

Yeah, that was a huge mistake, any sequence of the film showed his knuckles bleeding after the use of his claws.
There were some noticeable mistakes if you ask me.

He didn't lose his healing powers, otherwise he would have been dead from the 40 bullets that hit him. I agree though, that would have been cool to have him scream in pain every time they came out.

I wonder how much they cut to get the PG-13 rating. I hope there is an unrated version out there.

I think that is just another inconcistency. They never said anything like "I am still healing, but just kinda less". Even so, there should have been blood and there should have been wounds on is knuckles with giant-ass knives coming out of them repeatedly.

Mangold tweeted that he directed it.

This movie is a ridiculous overdose of Japan. It might as well have benn called Wolverine in Japan. Next up: Wolverine in Arabia, followed by Wolverine in Brazil.

First of all - what's the problem with that? The exotic location was finally something different and I don't need a glbe-trotting Wolverine, where he visists all continents in 2 hours.

Second - that was the whole point. It is an adaptation of the "Wolverine in Japan" storyline from the comics.

So, I suppose Iron Man 3 is a ridiculous overdose of the USA. Same for The Avengers. And, well, 95% of other blockbusters out there.

Yeah but the USA is the center of the world, so it's not the same thing.

It is the same thing. The Japanese setting was cool.

This was solid. Paring everything back was smart; there was no big threat, no end-of-the-world BS that every superhero movie likes to throw at us. Wolverine just got caught up in a family dispute in Japan, and there were clear, simple emotional stakes, rather than plotty ones. Pretty nifty, I thought, and credit for going against the conventional wisdom that sequels need to be bigger because, well, teenagers and toys.

I mean, a lot of it is pretty stupid, too, but for a movie on a boring Sunday afternoon I was pleasantly surprised. Especially after the first five minutes, when I really thought I was screwed. This thing opens with a dream within a dream within a dream, then Wolverine goes and avenges a dead bear. UGH.

Ok so it's a bit better than Origins, but honestly that's not saying much because that movie sucked balls.

Still this movie has ALOT of problems and c'mon that third act is just lame. The chick who played Viper was terrible and Silver Samurai was a poor excuse for a boss baddie. None of that shit made much sense to me and the stakes didn't feel very high at all.

The only few positives I can say about this movie is that Japan is definitely a unique location and I appreciated that they actually went for something different this time. The action scenes at least in the first half are pretty solid as well, but there's not nearly enough of them and then all of sudden the movie stops in the middle and gets VERY boring again. I didn't care that much about his romance with Mariko, but the chick who played here was a decent actress and kind of cute too.

It's also disappointing that there wasn't more ninja action/scenes in the movie. I mean they show up towards the end and easily take out a few random people and that's about it. The scene where Logan finally confronts the clan was really underwhelming IMO.

Also, the first 10 minutes were ROUGH man. The whole thing with him trying to avenge that awful, dopey looking CGI bear was ridiculous. I seriously thought this movie was going to be shit after that, but at least it got somewhat better.

The Wolverine is a great X-Men movie!

An excellent, thoughtful story with the always great Hugh Jackman ably supported by a solid cast.

This is the second best of the X-Men movies, tied with X1 and just behind X3.

It was so enjoyable to see such a good summer superhero movie!


38 out of 5.


{The opening scene made surprising use of one of the only two shameful occasions when WMD's were used to destroy cities and kill a quarter million civilian women and children - - though the sequence was effective in terms of the movie, the reminder of this low point in human history and it's vile perpetrators was nonetheless sickening.}

just ok. i liked its intimate, low-stakes nature, but the plot is so drawn out and convoluted that it's kind of a wash - and viper was really stupid (what were her powers anyway? toad crossed with poison ivy?).