Review: The Wolverine

Haunted by his past, but must save the future. In his second solo outing, Wolverine goes to Japan, where a man offers to take his immortality away from him. But when it actually happens, Wolverine must push through his new found pain, as well as old, and protect what he cares about. Cool premise, right? Didn't know what to think of this when I saw the previews, but now that I've seen the movie, I've made up my mind.

First of all, as with any X-Men movie, Hugh Jackman is awesome. I mean, he IS Wolverine, and I don't think anyone doubts that. Going into this movie, one of my biggest fears is that the chemistry wouldn't be right. One of my favorite parts about the X-Men movies was seeing Wolverine interact with the others. It was very entertaining, and it's one of my favorite team atmospheres to date. I was afraid that without that, the movie would suffer. But it really didn't. While the chemistry wasn't the same (and no where near as good) it was still a pleasure to watch. The characters are cool, and there's plenty of good dialogue.

Now, about those characters. Hugh Jackman was amazing, of course. But the supporting cast was great as well. Tao Okamoto played Mariko, the girl Wolverine must protect, and she was pretty cool. I mean, she was no break out actor, but she was decent enough, and fit the role nicely. But my favorite new character was Yukio played by Rila Fukushima. She was a great actress, and her character was just cool. I actually kinda wish we could have got a bit more of her character, but it's really just a nitpick. I think she was my favorite new character. And the dialogue between her and Jackman was actually pretty fantastic. Whenever they were on screen together, I had to smile.

The writing was... well, the writing was there. I mean, it wasn't bad at all, but it was nothing special. The dialogue was pretty good, and the story was intriguing, so you really can't ask for much more. Not to mention the movie was actually really funny st times. Although, I'm still kind of confused on how he stopped healing, but was still able to use his claws. Then there's the fact that the adamantium didn't kill him, which it should have. Those are just minor things, but I'm still curious.

But I have to give props to the story. The whole idea that Wolverine is still Wolverine, even without his powers was really cool. I honestly couldn't think of a better story to tell, in a solo project.

The directing was very good. I don't think we really got anything new with it, but it was still nice overall. I
really liked most of the action sequences. My biggest problem with them was the stupid jitter cam. That was kinda ridiculous in the first few action sequences, but the rest of them were very well directed.

I can't really stress enough the image Hugh Jackman put on the screen. He was BORN to play Wolverine, and it really shows in this movie. He was badass at times, he was really funny at times. I mean seriously, this movie made me laugh out loud a lot. I thought that was pretty cool considering the movies overall dark tone. If a movie can keep that tone and still make me laugh, then I know something was done right.

Kinda the main villain up until the very end of the movie is Viper, played by Svetlana Khodchenkova. Seriously, it's names like that that make me glad I don't do video reviews. Anyway, I think the actress (because that's easier to type) did a decent enough job with the role she was given, but the character of Viper was just annoying. She was hot, but she was annoying. She talked like a teenage girl, and I felt like the writers just turned off their brains when they were writing her lines. Like, everyone's dialogue was good, except for hers. I honestly rolled my eyes every time she showed up after the first half hour.

Also, Famke Janssen is in this movie. I was excited at first, but I was just disappointed. She appears to
Wolverine in his dreams, and visions, and she shows up regularly throughout the movie. That being said, I love the character of Jean Grey in the first two movies. She's a hero, and she deserves to be. So the fact that they basically showed her as an antagonist in the movie really bothered me. She blames him for being dead and gone. And while I understand that she wasn't real, only a figment of his imagination, but it still bothered me. It worked well for the movie, in that she basically represented his inner demons, but I still think her character deserves more than what she got in the last two movies.

All in all, this is a very good movie. It's probably my fourth favorite, behind X2, First Class, and X-Men. But considering that I loved all three of those movies, it would be extremely hard to beat them. I'm going to give it a 4/5, because it's a good time with a great story, great characters, great action, and fun dialogue. But it gets weighed down by several small things, and several things that I just found "okay." If you're an X-Men fan, you'll like it. And if you're an action movie fan, you'll like it too. So I encourage you to go out and see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

Final Score: 4/5


So what's your favorite X-Men movie? Let me know in the comments. See ya next time!