The Wolverine
{3.5/5} “Just think of me as your bodyguard.” — a small Japanese woman, to Wolverine
Logan has left the Wolverine behind and vowed to never hurt anyone again. But when he comes across hunters who shot a bear and left it in pain, he’s ready for a fight. He’s interrupted by a mysterious Japanese woman who has an ancient sword. Logan has seen the sword before — it belongs to Yashida, a man whose life he saved when the Americans dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. Yashida is dying, and wants to say goodbye to Logan. So he goes to Japan, where he gets involved in the attempted kidnapping of Yashida’s granddaughter.
The Wolverine was released earlier this year. It might still be playing in a city near you. It’s a spinoff from the X-Men series of movies.
The story takes place after X-Men: The Last Stand. Logan is dealing with the fact that people around him have died, particularly Jean Grey, but he himself is immortal.
It’s a tad confusing in spots, in terms of who’s working for whom. I didn’t feel very connected to what was happening.
I don’t think the movie lived up to its potential. There are a couple of specific aspects I had problems with, one in the middle* and one at the end.**
Comparing it with other X-Men movies, it’s not as good as X-Men United or First Class but it’s not as bad as The Last Stand. It’s about as good as the original X-Men.
I didn’t notice the music much in this one.
Hugh Jackman (The Prestige) is great as Logan/Wolverine as always. Famke Janssen (X2: X-Men United) reprises her role of Jean Grey in Logan’s dreams.
Tao Okamoto (her first movie) plays Mariko, Yashida’s granddaughter. Rila Fukushima (her first movie) plays Yukio, who was raised as a sister for Mariko.
The movie was directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line).
There’s a fairly surprising scene in the middle of the credits that is probably a setup for the next X-Men movie.
Spoiler alert
*There’s a romance between Logan and Mariko. But at this point Mariko has said she’s in love with another man and Logan knows that.
**Yashida turns out to be the bad guy. I would have preferred he remain a good guy — one of the other characters, like Viper, could have been the main bad guy.