Movie Review: The Wolverine

The claws are back! Snickty-snickt-snickt!

Jacked Hughman returns as the most popular and enduring of all the X-Men making his 6^th appearance as the claw toting, cigar loving, beer swilling berserker in this years mutant blockbuster, The Wolverine.

Touted as a sequel of sorts (chronologically, at least) to the original X-Men trilogy, (you can forget 2009’s prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine – can I?) it begins with us meeting a self-exiled Logan nursing his wounds (not all wounds are visible, guys) in the Canadian wilds and takes us on a journey of self-sacrifice and re-discovering to the very heart of Tokyo. #therewillbeninjas.

With the inspired hiring of director James Mangold, who co-wrote and directed 2005’s Walk The Line, (another mutant story starring Jaoquin Pheonix – oh no he di’int!) the studios have opted for a more stripped down narrative to 2009’s prequel that had more characters and cameos than you could shake a shiny, adamantium claw at.

We get to slow down for a moment and see what makes the Wolverine tick. And boy does he tick! Thrust into unfamiliar territory and increasingly dangerous situations, Wolvy must fight, claw, tooth and claw to survive or fight for injustice or a girl or something. Who cares! It’s Wolverine! But this time – he can’t heal. Criss-cross!

There’s Yakuzas, Ninjas, Bullet Trains, a chick who spits venom, (leave it alone guys) and a slick-ass Samurai — each of who just help to piss off the Wolverine just that little bit more. And isn’t that really what we all came to see, anyway?

Hugh Jackman can do no wrong. Fresh off an Oscar nomination as a singing Frenchman to Weapon X himself! That’s called range, people. He brings a likeability and gruffness to the character that’s hard to beat and proves yet again why he’s such a bankable star. He gets some solid support in Tao Okamoto (Mariko) and Rila Fukushima (Yukio) but other than that, the rest of the cast are happy to fade into the background. Well, it’s not called, ‘The Wolverine and the other guys’, is it?

A lot of media outlets are touting this as the film that the fans have been waiting for. I don’t think that’s the case. I believe this film gets achingly close and even manages to deliver some truly memorable and satisfying moments – I’m looking at you 200mph bullet train. (That’s 320km/h, yo!) But when the movie does slow down and the claws slide away, then it tends to stumble and lag to a point where you’re hoping that the Yakuza will burst through the door to take the damsel away.

Maybe it’s not somewhere we can go with the affable Hugh or even with an M15 rating, but for some reason, we’re yet to see the unbridled, un-caged and “in your faceness” (what? Tis so a word!) of the Wolverine that is so liberating and likeable about the character.

Worth the price of admission with enough Wolvy moments to keep die-hard fans happy and narrative that stands alone so ya can take ya mum.

There’s a post credits scene that’s worth sticking around for. It should elicit some genuine chills for those familiar with the comics and with all of the speculation swirling around 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, it’s promising to be a very exciting time, indeed.

This may not be the Wolverine film that the fans have been waiting for, but it sure as hell will do until that film gets here.

I give it 7.5 Snickt’s out of 10.