Review: The Wolverine (vague spoilers)

The Wolverine (2D / Vague-spoilers. Maybe.)
Cert: 12A / 129 mins / Dir. James Mangold



And here we are, with the sequel to Gavin Hood's much maligned 2009 outing vying for our attention (read: money) in the midst of popcorn season. As it turns out, it's more of a sequel to X3, although there are enough callbacks to the Origins movie to assure us that it hasn't been written out of the continuity.

For the most part, The Wolverine features a cast and characters we haven't had the pleasure of meeting before, and while this is refreshing, it means there's a lot to cram in and anyone who's not a central character is sketched, at best. The story bounds along from scene-to-scene, with a bare minimum of exposition and even less breather time. It seems to me that by having Logan limping around dabbing at his grazes for a large percentage of the film, and by giving him a mystery to solve, a female sidekick and some sardonic verbal comebacks, there's been an attempt to make Wolverine more like Indiana Jones; and six movies down the line is not the time to be attempting that. Although despite the notable lack of blood*¹, he at least gets his claws dirty when it matters.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed The Wolverine a great deal, but the unfolding-mystery, nomadic-warrior, and super-hero influences are all pulling in different directions. The film I watched tonight never got any better than "good", even though I wanted to like it more (that said, the fight on the top of the train is absolutely outstanding). Hang around during the first batch of credits for the airport security-scanner scene. After that, you can go because there's nothing at the very end.

At least there don't appear to be any of the internal-continuity issues that the series has suffered from so far*², and if nothing else it answered one of my questions about the bone-claws.

Some background reading and another viewing required, I think…

Pretty much.



Not as much as I'd have liked.



At this point, I really don't know.



For me, it's a cinema-movie.



No.



Yes, and soon.



Not sure. I thought I might have heard it at two separate points.

Since the Xavier/Magneto 'origins' film became First Class, which other X-Men would you like to see given their own movie?

*¹ I don't expect a gorefest in a 12A, but it really is a remarkably "clean" film considering all the blades it features.
*² Although that could be purely because it takes place on the other side of the world with characters we haven't seen before.

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