The Wolverine
Year: 2013
Rating: PG-13
Length: 126 minutes / 2.10 hours
It’s nice to know that of all the X-Men characters to get a spinoff trilogy, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was able to improve from one movie to the next. Of course, it’s easy to surpass the peculiar X-Men Origins (2009) with a movie that explores what happens when Wolverine loses one of the core parts of his identity as a mutant. It also helped that this film (and its sequel, Logan (2017)) were directed by James Mangold—a solid director with a variety of different genres under his belt.
I’m glad this little piece of Marvel recognizes there are other locations in the world other than New York City and San Francisco. Having the Japanese setting combined with a nuclear backstory (which also ties into the mutant nature of Wolverine) felt like a breath of fresh air for these superhero films. Because having Wolverine fight guys wielding katanas seems like a natural thing to happen in Japan (and it’s fun to watch). The action overall is quite impressive, including a big set piece that takes place on a bullet train.
One thing that forms Wolverine’s identity is his mutant ability to regenerate. When The Wolverine (2013) focused on taking away that power, it raised the stakes in a way that the other films hadn’t. Now the immortal Wolverine could be killed. The problem, though, was that this concept never got very far in this film. It was a neat “what if” that felt like it was forgotten by the third act just to shoehorn in a “big bad” villain for Wolverine to fight. Still, it wasn’t any worse than having a botched Deadpool adaptation for your movie’s big reveal/finale.
A great Wolverine idea that doesn’t quite stick the landing, I give The Wolverine 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
