Prologue:
With "The Wolverine" in theaters, what better time is there to look back on Hugh Jackman's portrayal of the character? He gave life to his first appearance as Wolverine in 2000's "X-Men." Now, he's on his sixth appearance in a movie as Logan. Hugh Jackman's outing as the clawed superhero is a better improvement over its predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine but doesn't have the charm of neither Bryan Singer's X-Men and X2 nor Mathew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class.
Plot Analysis:
The film unfolds from the after events of X-Men: The Last Stand – a wandering Logan living amidst a quiet life in the wild, tormented by hallucinations of loss of his lost love Jean Grey, giving him nightmares and questioning his existence but also of his time as a prisoner in Nagasaki during World War II. Logan meets a redhead woman, Yukio, who takes him to Japan to meet her boss, Yashida, a Japanese tech giant who is lying on his deathbed (a tech wonder) wishes to say thanks to Logan for saving him from the Fat man nuclear bomb during him time as a soldier in Nagasaki.
Yashida offers Logan to make him mortal, to feel what it's like to grow old, lead a normal life and a theoretically meaningful death. Logan refuses his offer and finds himself in the middle of family politics, protecting Yashida's granddaughter Mariko from a black ninja clan group 'Yakuza', followed by a few random action sequences, multiple disembowelment, and a ninja attack in the night, a funny feud on the roof of a bullet train speeding at 300 mph (seriously?). So far quiet good but the bland love story between Mariko and Logan - give me a break!
Viper, a mutant biologist injects a parasite to Logan, making him vulnerable to bullet shots and gives a taste of what it's like to feel pain, bleed, lose his healing ability and weaken his strength. Logan later operates himself and gets rid of Viper's parasite restoring his healing power. Casting of Viper was such a waste; guess the Director was confused whether or not to portray Viper who appears in only four scenes.
The casting of the ninja head Harada was just OK, it could've been better. The story concludes to the climax with a fight between Logan and the Silver Samurai, a giant robot built with adamantium, revealed to be Yashida who faked his death and extracts Logan's ability to heal and leaves Logan with bone claws, who eventually defeats Yashida. The fight feels silly but passable; at least it didn't end up in ripping apart places. Logan's exposure to nuclear radiation and the instant healing in CGI is good.
And wait for the post-credits scene, two years later at an airport Logan sees an ad about TRASK industries, he is encountered by Magneto (Ian Mckellen) now with his restored power, who warns him about a powerful force threatening to end mutant kind and to his shock sees Prof. X (Patrick Stewart) alive. This leaves the audience with few questions, Prof. X's survival? and Magneto's power restoration? With Peter Dinklage's (GOT fame) casting as Bolivar Trask into Singer's X- Men: Days of the Future Past, one can expect a decent flick in 2014.
Conclusion:
An eccentric storyline set in Japan, presence of only two mutants, makes Mangold's Wolverine a distinctive flick from those typical X-Men movies, sets itself as a standalone movie. A mild script, oddly shot action sequences, sloppy screenplay, it's just good enough but not great. You don't need to have seen the previous five films in which Hugh has starred as the brawny mutant, Logan. It's pretty tough to point out a fierce quote of the Wolverine's as they were from the previous movies, this one shall do "You wanted me to say goodbye to you personally? Well Sayonara!" Hugh looks more fearsome than ever and delivers good performance with ease. Be sure that you don't miss him. Go for 2D not 3D.
A generous 6 out of 10.
With "The Wolverine" in theaters, what better time is there to look back on Hugh Jackman's portrayal of the character? He gave life to his first appearance as Wolverine in 2000's "X-Men." Now, he's on his sixth appearance in a movie as Logan. Hugh Jackman's outing as the clawed superhero is a better improvement over its predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine but doesn't have the charm of neither Bryan Singer's X-Men and X2 nor Mathew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class.
Plot Analysis:
The film unfolds from the after events of X-Men: The Last Stand – a wandering Logan living amidst a quiet life in the wild, tormented by hallucinations of loss of his lost love Jean Grey, giving him nightmares and questioning his existence but also of his time as a prisoner in Nagasaki during World War II. Logan meets a redhead woman, Yukio, who takes him to Japan to meet her boss, Yashida, a Japanese tech giant who is lying on his deathbed (a tech wonder) wishes to say thanks to Logan for saving him from the Fat man nuclear bomb during him time as a soldier in Nagasaki.
Yashida offers Logan to make him mortal, to feel what it's like to grow old, lead a normal life and a theoretically meaningful death. Logan refuses his offer and finds himself in the middle of family politics, protecting Yashida's granddaughter Mariko from a black ninja clan group 'Yakuza', followed by a few random action sequences, multiple disembowelment, and a ninja attack in the night, a funny feud on the roof of a bullet train speeding at 300 mph (seriously?). So far quiet good but the bland love story between Mariko and Logan - give me a break!
Viper, a mutant biologist injects a parasite to Logan, making him vulnerable to bullet shots and gives a taste of what it's like to feel pain, bleed, lose his healing ability and weaken his strength. Logan later operates himself and gets rid of Viper's parasite restoring his healing power. Casting of Viper was such a waste; guess the Director was confused whether or not to portray Viper who appears in only four scenes.
The casting of the ninja head Harada was just OK, it could've been better. The story concludes to the climax with a fight between Logan and the Silver Samurai, a giant robot built with adamantium, revealed to be Yashida who faked his death and extracts Logan's ability to heal and leaves Logan with bone claws, who eventually defeats Yashida. The fight feels silly but passable; at least it didn't end up in ripping apart places. Logan's exposure to nuclear radiation and the instant healing in CGI is good.
And wait for the post-credits scene, two years later at an airport Logan sees an ad about TRASK industries, he is encountered by Magneto (Ian Mckellen) now with his restored power, who warns him about a powerful force threatening to end mutant kind and to his shock sees Prof. X (Patrick Stewart) alive. This leaves the audience with few questions, Prof. X's survival? and Magneto's power restoration? With Peter Dinklage's (GOT fame) casting as Bolivar Trask into Singer's X- Men: Days of the Future Past, one can expect a decent flick in 2014.
Conclusion:
An eccentric storyline set in Japan, presence of only two mutants, makes Mangold's Wolverine a distinctive flick from those typical X-Men movies, sets itself as a standalone movie. A mild script, oddly shot action sequences, sloppy screenplay, it's just good enough but not great. You don't need to have seen the previous five films in which Hugh has starred as the brawny mutant, Logan. It's pretty tough to point out a fierce quote of the Wolverine's as they were from the previous movies, this one shall do "You wanted me to say goodbye to you personally? Well Sayonara!" Hugh looks more fearsome than ever and delivers good performance with ease. Be sure that you don't miss him. Go for 2D not 3D.
A generous 6 out of 10.