The Wolverine - Review

Intro

My family and I went to see The Wolverine last night. Due to the concessions taking a really long time and us having to drive from Katy Mills Mall to Edwards Marq'E, we missed the first few minutes of the movie. However, that did not strip me of any enjoyment of the movie. My spoiler-free review is this:

It's awesome. It's exactly what I wanted in a Wolverine movie. It's action-packed, has a suitable amount of emotion, and an interesting plot.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen The Wolverine, please leave the blog and come back later. Also, if you have not seen X-Men, X2: X-Men United, or X-Men: The Last Stand, please leave the blog and return later. The Wolverine is set after these movies take place. There will be spoilers in my review because I don't feel I can properly discuss a movie without discussing all of it. There might also be some spoilers for various comics.

The Wolverine - Review

In my spoiler-free review, I might have mentioned that I really enjoyed this movie. I actually think that might be an understatement. The Wolverine ticked all the little boxes I have for comic book movies. I loved the characters. I loved the setting. I loved the story progression. I loved that there were surprises. I loved the emotional moments. I loved the action. I wish I had the money to go see The Wolverine over and over. I have a feeling this will be one of those movies I go to over and over once I get it on DVD.

I say all of this because I don't want there to be any illusions that this will be a less-than-glowing review. I've heard from several people that the critics were less-than-impressed with The Wolverine. I personally haven't read any reviews. I'm also not going to rant about how ridiculous movie critics are, because that's neither here nor there. All I know is: I'm a fan and this movie might as well have been made for me.

The first and most expansive thing I want to talk about is the inclusion of Famke Janssen as Jean Grey. I was initially really surprised to see her. I initially said "What the fuck? Aren't you dead?" to myself, out loud. However, I ended up really liking her inclusion. I also have two theories about what Jean is in terms of this movie.

First Theory: Jean Grey is Logan's subconscious. This works because she voices thoughts to Logan that he probably wouldn't think about if they were coming from anyone else. Our subconscious tends to do that to us. It also works because Jean shows up when Logan is perhaps thinking about things and needing either reassurance or a sounding board. Jean shows up in Logan's dreams and when he's lost a lot of blood and is hallucinating her. She also shows up wearing white lingerie. This is incredibly true to Logan in the comics. I'm thinking specifically of Phoenix: Endsong here, when Logan sees The Phoenix and remarks on how she's naked, thinking she's an illusion. Logan's subconscious would also know that Logan wants to die and is therefore coaxing him to actually do so, whereas Logan's conscious mind is railing against that. The same applies to his "hero" thing.

Second Theory: Logan is seeing a manifestation of The Phoenix. In movie-verse cannon, The Phoenix is Jean Grey's subconscious that was locked away by Professor Xavier and then set free in X-Men: The Last Stand. This theory came to me because I found it plausible that, given Jean and The Phoenix's powers, The Phoenix could have latched herself onto Logan's mind when he killed her. She spends a good chunk of her screen-time coaxing Logan to die. That fit with the vengeful aspect of The Phoenix's character.

Either way, that particular question is left up to the audience. I prefer to think it was Logan's subconscious manifesting an image of Jean rather than The Phoenix. I was also really struck by the whiteness of the room there at the end. It reminded me of the White Room at the end of Phoenix: Endsong, which then lends some credence to my Phoenix theory... but meh.

Next on my list of things to talk about is The Silver Samurai. I spent a good chunk of the movie wondering who would end up wearing the armor. I'm pretty sure both Shingen and Harada have taken up The Silver Samurai mantle in the comics, but I wasn't sure so... I was really surprised when the suit turned out to be a) a glorified Iron Man suit and b) the elder Yashida ended up being inside it. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that, but it was interesting. I'm also not really sure how the suit drilling into Wolverine's claws transferred his powers from Logan to Yashida, but I'm willing to overlook that because it was weirdly cool.

The weird power-transfer also allowed Mariko to show her badass-ness. I really, really liked Mariko in this movie. I thought she was brilliantly portrayed and acted. It was really easy to see why Logan would fall in love with her.

I also really enjoyed the modern day re-imagining of Yukio. Yukio was a character I didn't really have much experience with in the comics. I know who she is, but other than that it was rather blurry. I liked that Yukio was able to pull off both the badass and emotional scenes believably. She fast became my second favorite character in The Wolverine next to Logan.

Finally, we come to the "villains" of the piece. I don't really have much to say about the Yakuza. They were rather generic. I did think the fight on the top of the train was ridiculous, but the aftermath was funny. I didn't really like Noburo at all. He was really disposable and I'm glad Logan went and chucked him off the balcony. I thought Shingen was an asshole. I'm glad he ended up dead, thought the fight scenes between him and Yukio and then him and Logan were fun.

I thought it was interesting that Harada ended up having an entire clan of ninja at his command. I would have liked to have more character development with him, but that would have completely killed the movie. I'm also not sure where I stand with Viper. Her powers were interesting, though I fail to see how being a snake makes you immune to all toxins/poisons. The scenes where she pulls off her skin were gross. That kind of thing makes me itchy and generally grossed-out so... yeah... I thought Viper was suitably evil. Not too over the top and not too disposable.

As for the storyline, it was suitably interesting. I liked seeing Logan not able to heal as fast as normal, though that didn't seem to slow him down much. Also not sure about the little robot on his heart thing... that made next to no sense to me. As far as I know, Logan's powers aren't seated in his heart. It was an interesting concept. I also liked that he's essentially relegated to bone claws now instead of the Adamantium.

Speaking of which, the end-credits scene was awesome. I'm really excited for X-Men: Days of Future Past and that little scene made me even more excited. I actually did my excited/happy dance in my seat and my little sister thought I might be having a seizure, if that tells you anything.

But anyway... overall, I very much enjoyed The Wolverine. It made me excited and happy. Fuck the critics, they know nothing.

Love ya, Jessie.