James Mangold’s The Wolverine [3D] (2013) Movie Review

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Brian Tee, Famke Janssen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rila Fukushima, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee

Director: James Mangold

Watched at Prasadz (3D), Hyderabad

The Wolverine picks up not long after 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, where, Logan (Hugh Jackman) is hiding out in the Canadian woods, having nightmares about how he murdered his old love, Jean Gray (Famke Janssen) and only returning to civilization when he has to. However, Logan is soon approached by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), the adopted daughter of Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a man that Logan saved during WWII. Yashida wants to repay Logan for saving him before he dies so he offers to get rid of his immortality. He also appoints Logan as the protector of his daughter, Mariko (Tao Okamato). Soon Logan’s flesh becomes weak and he goes on the run, stopping at nothing to protect Mariko and find out what happened to his body.

Coming to performances, Hugh Jackman was born to do the role of Wolverine. In this film Hugh undergoes various emotions like suffering  soldier who went through various combats, Killing the only woman he ever loved and yet Hugh Jackman is still a Badass with an emotional core. Svetlana Khodchenkova is pain. she is appointed biochemist to acquire powers of Wolverine, but every single shot relating to her could have easily overleaped. Rila Fukushima, as a mutant Yukio was wasted with underdeveloped characterization. Tao Okamoto is fine as Yashida’s grand daughter. Hiroyuki Sanada has nice screen presence. 

The Wolverine is very slow paced flick. Script by Mark Bomback and Scott Frank fails to engage the audience till the end. Movie attempts to add dark psychology (like Batman series) to Wolverine. Wolverine struggling with having nothing to live for and my Immortality is a curse are verbally told through Yashida and Jean Gray’s spirit. That’s the major problem the important point of the movie is just TOLD not SHOWN. Music by Marco Beltrami is fine. Cinematography by Ross Emery neat, his shots in action sequences are first class.

Director James Mangold did not shoot the film in 3D, and with the quick paced action scenes that are likely to blur on the big screen, it’s best to see the film in regular 2D. 

The starting two fights were interestly shot. But Mangold takes out healing ability that interesting point of the film. The fight where Wolverine battles some bad guys on top of a bullet train is the top class act of this Wolverine. And with this being a film set in Japan, there’s a lot of martial arts and samurai swords flying all over the place. And then the final act shows up to prove everyone wrong.  Just like they did to the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, the long-term image of the villain, Silver Samurai is turned into a joke and it just adds to the complete collapse of the an already pretty dullard film.

The Wolverine starts out excellent but falters towards the end. The Wolverine takes place almost entirely in Japan. That means Ninjas and Swords. Retractable claws versus Swords. If that doesn’t give you nerd horripilations then this is not the movie for you. 

Make sure to stay after the credits for a particularly interesting scene leading into X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s worth watch!!