Review of The Wolverine (2013) by Clint K — 24 May 2016

The Wolverine is two thirds of a great movie. These first two acts are ultimately what X-Men Origins: Wolverine should have been. No shoehorned characters, no rushed plot points: just Wolverine struggling within a very personal story following the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. The film takes its time in setting up the characters and story that test Wolverine as a character, and the spiritual nature of the Japan setting makes for a refreshing locale. Also refreshing is the real lack of a "the world hangs in the balance" conflict that seems to plague more and more superhero films each year: instead, the film poses some very interesting ideas about mortality and life vs death. It's the third act where things start to fall apart, however: all of these slow-moving, thought-provoking ideas are mostly dropped in favor of a visual effects spectacle of a climax. It's not poorly filmed or anything, but considering the rest of the film, it's certainly underwhelming.

Hugh Jackman once again delivers a solid performance as Wolverine; considering the deeply personal script, this is probably his strongest outing as the character. Newcomers Rila Fukushima and Tao Okamoto (both models turned actresses) are surprisingly great as well, and hold their own alongside Jackman. Behind the camera, director James Mangold handles all of the action scenes competently, delivering numerous slick action sequences without having to resort to the messy quick-cut editing that plagued X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The neon lit streets of Tokyo and the rural countryside allow for beautiful cinematography as well. It would've been nice to see how Darren Aronofsky, who was once attached to the project, would've handled such a personal superhero story, but as it stands, The Wolverine is a pretty good entry in the X-Men franchise.