Now that we’re six films into the X-Men series, it’s about time we got one that can stand on its own. It’s not that viewers should skip all the other X-Men films—but seriously, skip Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, the truly wretched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Bryan Singer’s original X-Men—but Hugh Jackman is captivating enough and the story appropriately straddles silly and thrilling well enough to make The Wolverine a hell of a ride.
Is it all that original? Will it please fan boys? Why is it set almost entirely in Japan? The answers to those questions are “not really,” “I don’t know,” and “to capture the overseas earnings 20th Century Fox so desperately craves.”
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to what makes Logan/Wolverine (Jackman) the perfect subject for a superhero movie. He hates himself, which is a great start. He’s a mutant, and mutants are outcasts that jus’ plain folks fear, a well-established trope in the other X-Men movies that mercifully takes a backseat here.
Worse, Wolverine is an outcast among mutants. As far as we know—and I’m going strictly on the movies, not the books—he can live forever, never really ages, and never gets close to people. Everyone else gets older and dies.
Speaking of the dead, Famke Janssen pops up in various dream sequences as Jean Grey, Wolverine’s one true love and the most recent source of his everlasting pain (he killed her at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand—spoiler alert). It’s nice to see Janssen, but her scenes are almost laugh-out-loud awkward. Fortunately, they come and go pretty quickly.
The story—not that it matters—has Logan holed up in the woods somewhere, living between some rocks, downing booze, and trying to forget he’s Wolverine. He’s such a regular fixture in the forest that he’s made friends with a grizzly bear (it’s not as dumb as it sounds).
One day, hunters poison the bear. Wolverine acts out in retaliation. A Japanese woman, Yukio (Rila Fukushima), trailing him and coming to his aid when he confronts the hunters, convinces Logan to come to Tokyo to say goodbye to a man he saved in Nagasaki in World War II.
The old man, Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), now a successful businessman with an enormous conglomerate, wants Wolverine’s immortality. Wolverine says no. Not surprisingly, everything then turns to shit.
What’s fun about The Wolverine is the way it alters genre conventions. For example, Logan needs Yukio’s protection much more than she’ll ever need his. And Yashida’s granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), around whom a major plot point revolves, seems like something of a wimp, but she’ll occasionally throw a knife into someone’s face. There are no damsels in distress here. Another nice surprise is just how little mutant powers play into The Wolverine’s story from scene to scene, even if the plot involves mutants.
All in all, The Wolverine is goofy fun, complete with a ridiculous series of stunts on top of a bullet train. It’s a good way to spend an evening in the air conditioning. Stay for the credits.
The Wolverine PG-13, 126 minutes, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Playing this week:
20 Feet From Stardom
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
After Earth
Carmike Cinema 6
The Bling Ring
Carmike Cinema 6
The Conjuring
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Croods
Carmike Cinema 6
Despicable Me 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Epic
Carmike Cinema 6
Fast and Furious 6
Carmike Cinema 6
Fruitvale Station
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Girl Most Likely
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
The Great Gatsby
Carmike Cinema 6
Grown Ups 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Hangover Part III
Carmike Cinema 6
The Heat
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
I’m So Excited!
Vinegar Hill Theatre
The Internship
Carmike Cinema 6
The Lone Ranger
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Monsters University
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Mud
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Pacific Rim
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Purge
Carmike Cinema 6
R.I.P.D.
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Red 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
This Is the End
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
The To Do List
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Turbo
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Way, Way Back
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Movie houses:
Carmike Cinema 6
973-4294
Regal Downtown Mall
Cinema 6
979-7669
Regal Stonefield 14
and IMAX
244-3213
Vinegar Hill Theatre
977-4911