The Wolverine

Out of all the X-Men movies made by 20th Century Fox, The Wolverine released in 2013 feels like the least memorable of the bunch. Although it did decently at the box office and didn’t receive any harsh critical pushback like other X-Men properties, no one ever really talks about this movie, which feels especially strange since the other two Wolverine-centric films it’s sandwiched between (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Logan) are extremely notorious and arguably sponged up all discussion points surrounding the iconic mutant hero, but given how ‘’middle of the road’’ this film is, it’s no surprise that it managed to slip through the cracks.

After the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, Logan (played again by Hugh Jackman) has gone into isolation while being tormented by mental hallucinations of Jean Gray (played again by Famke Janssen), who he was forced to kill in order to save the world. Ready to exist as a hermit for the rest of his immortal life, he is approached by Yukio (played by Rila Fukushima), a mutant with precognitive abilities who asks him to come to Tokyo to visit the death bed of Ichirō Yashida (played by Haruhiko Yamanouchi), a man in charge of the powerful technology company, Yashida Industries, whom Logan saved as a young man during the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. Upon arriving, Yashida offers Logan the chance to give up his regenerative healing in order to die peacefully, but he doesn’t get the chance to think it over as Ichirō passes away and several targets are put on the back of Yashida’s granddaughter, Mariko (played by Tao Okamoto). Learning that his healing powers have been forcibly removed by a mutant named Viper (played by Svetlana Khodchenkova) and that multiple people are trying to kill Mariko, including her own father, Shingen (played by Hiroyuki Sanada), Logan is forced to get his claws bloody again in order to save another lost soul.

The Wolverine is a perfectly tolerable picture, but even by the standard’s set up in the Fox universe, this film proves to be very underwhelming, dull, unengaging, sloppy and overall, very unnecessary.

Based on the first run of the limited 1982 Wolverine comic run written by famous comic book writers, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, the story feels like it has all the right ingredients to not only function well but also provide a fresh perspective on a recycled brand. While X-Men was still a very successful franchise that continually brought in money, they’d made enough films at this point that it would’ve been time to spice things up, and transitioning from the high-octane, flashy, crowd-pleasing nature of the previous films, to something more low-key, thoughtful, character-driven and heavier on dramatic themes, could’ve helped bring a more grounded, human quality to these theatrical mutant stories. It feels fitting then that they got director, James Mangold, to helm this picture, as some of his past work was more down-to-earth and psychologically driven, with his later work on Logan proving that he knew how to take this character and bring new dimensions to him. You’d figure this would be a slam dunk decision, but things don’t entirely come together, as in spite of these good set ups and a pretty good narrative hook of Logan dealing with his trauma and contemplating ending his immortal life, the film is difficult to get sucked into and feels very underwhelming.

It’s paced fairly well, the direction is solid, and there are a few good scenes both from a dramatic and even action standpoint, but the film has very little identity, and despite trying to tell a deeper, more emotional narrative, it doesn’t contain the material to back it up. The drama feels very one-note and cliched, the characters aren’t very deep or complex despite some of the subjects the film tackles, and the scripting by Mark Bomback and Scott Frank is very poor. With an original script written by Christopher McQuarrie before Bomback was hired to rewrite, nothing about this screenplay engrosses on a level that feels befitting of X-Men, with everything being breezed through without much engagement or stakes. The drama isn’t really felt, the franchise wasn’t very good at establishing character to begin with, so it isn’t really able to feel conclusive with any of its arcs, and while the film manages to at least stay stable throughout, the climax becomes a little too akin to a traditional comic book movie and feels a little silly in comparison to the slower, more patient approach previously showcased

A major problem that’s plagued this entire Fox X-Men series is predominantly felt in this feature, and it’s tragically the choice for a lead character. Wolverine was never intended to be the main player in the X-Men line-up, usually reserved as a secondary player who could look cool, have the gruff demeanor and tragic mysterious past, and slice people up with his really striking and memorable set of powers. He wasn’t really meant to be a character that would lead several different kinds of stories, yet his popularity led Fox to place him into the role of main character for their entire film run, subsequently taking time away from the other X-Men and making the entire team feel poorly utilized. What this film reveals however is that Wolverine as a character, is kind of boring in this film franchise and can’t survive on his usual tricks alone if things aren’t taken to a new level or if he doesn’t have someone to interact off of. Jackman is still great and actually does a really good job playing the role as disheveled and lost (with a directionless stare and feral look that is pretty effective even if it’s only used in the opening), but now that this is his fifth movie in the spotlight and his arc has remained the exact same throughout each previous film, the novelty has worn off.

The concept of him being compared to a rōnin and Jean Gray haunting his dreams are good in theory but aren’t executed in a way that bring out their true potential (Jean’s stuff would’ve been good if she was an actual character in these movies rather than just an object of affection for others). The rest of the cast are sadly not that good either and can’t provide any assistance in upgrading this pretty shallow roster. People like Brian Tee, Will Yun Lee and especially Hiroyuki Sanada are struck playing very bland roles that really waste their abilities, Tao Okamoto is perfectly fine as the love interest, but has no personality to work with and zero chemistry with Hugh Jackman, so her role feels very limp, Svetlana Khodchenkova is fine enough as Viper, but feels more like a James Bond villain than a comic book villain, and Haruhiko Yamanouchi is a pretty good actor, but is given so little screentime that he isn’t given enough time to shine, it’s a real waste. The only one who leaves any impression is Rila Fukushima as Yukio, as she has a cool look, does some fun action stuff, is allowed at least a hint of platonic chemistry with Jackman, and is given a small amount of backstory to work with.

Comic book stories that have a more subdued nature and don’t have that much action usually have to rely on the writing, the characters or the artwork to keep readers invested, and since the writing and characters are nothing special in this film, it would be nice to have some pretty visuals to help distract viewers, and the movie kind of does. Since it’s thankfully not helmed by someone like Bryan Singer, who made the world of X-Men bland and soulless through a washed-out color palette and production design, the film is definitely much livelier and more colorful, with the added benefit of it being set in Japan allowing for an entirely different iconography not commonly seen in these movies, but while it clearly has a lot of Japanese influence, is based on a comic arc that heavily featured Japanese components, and has a majority Japanese cast, the film weirdly doesn’t feel like it gets a lot out of being set there. This probably comes from the fact that it’s not filmed or delivered in a way that makes it feel distinct from any other location they could’ve filmed in, feeling like a very safe, predictable and mainstream delivery that doesn’t offer any unique flavor or qualities, and therefore when the Japanese iconography is implemented, it feels like it ticks all the expected boxes of what you’d get in a typical Hollywood movie set in Japan, but just feels like cake decoration rather than proper ingredients.

The film is decently shot by Ross Emery but isn’t very cinematic and considering the kind of dramatic angles and visuals that could come from this kind of story (which probably were illustrated on the comic pages), it’s a bit of a shame to see it wasted. The action for the most part is nothing special and the climax in particular feels very lame and standard for a comic book flick, but with the rest of the movie, it mainly just comes down to a lot of shaky cam, rushed editing by Michael McCusker, and an overall blandness factor that really carries over into the rest of the movie. The only two moments that stand out are one involving Wolverine fighting on top of a bullet train (which includes a few fun moments) and a clash during the middle of the film that opens with a tense encounter involving a heart monitor and ends with a samurai-esque standoff that includes some great lighting, colors and even shots that mirror a samurai film, they do work out in the end.

The Wolverine is definitely not the worst X-Men movie (a previous solo Wolverine film already owns that title), and it’s hard to really even call it bad, but it’s a movie that doesn’t do a lot to stand out. X-Men above all else should be loud and proud, bombastic in its themes and content, and shine brightly thanks to its strong characters, gripping drama, and relevant commentary, and while the Fox movies didn’t always get this right, they at least got a little closer than this movie. Ironically, Logan would prove later on that a more singular, darker, character-driven movie could work, be distinct and provide something satisfying (even with a lot of the same people), but it seems like it just didn’t register yet, and the initial results were mainly just lukewarm. Not the worst and has a few nice moments, but as a package, the story isn’t engaging, the characters are boring, the action is inconsistent, the visuals aren’t as good as they could be (nor are the effects for that matter), and it doesn’t really offer much worth remembering. Definitely not awful but might be best to stick to the pages for this one.