Review of The Wolverine (2013) by Jeffrey N — 08 Oct 2014

Christopher Nolan has clearly started to impact the way superhero movies are made, especially with its dark characters. After an underrated, but still rather weak, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," a movie version-done-right for Logan was an absolute demand of comic fans. While I love Frank Miller, and using his limited series as a basis for some of the film was definitely the right way to go, I was never much of a fan of the Japanese storyline. I was worried that "The Wolverine" might go too obscure and lose much of its audience. To be honest, the final product may, in fact, push away some generic fans of the mutant, but for comic fans like me, not to mention quality film fans like me, have reason to celebrate this new film.

The storytelling and pacing of "The Wolverine" are what highlight this film the most for me. I saw Christopher Nolan's stamp on many elements of the film. It was practically told in the vein of an independent film. Even the action scenes were not over-the-top action-y. They were choreographed, but more of a simple stylization, not an actual choreographed fight, ala Daredevil/Elektra or Daredevil/Kingpin(both of which ruined an otherwise ok film). The shots were unique. The relationships were allowed to unfold. Aside from a pretty weak representation of Viper (whose voice, I'm convinced, was overdubbed by someone else), the film was near perfect. It had depth, authentic portrayals and character development. It may not have been as good as "Batman Begins," but it was much more worthy of a film for a character of Wolverine's caliber than much of anything else he's been in.