Given the trajectory of the X-Men franchise following Brett Ratner’s salting of the mutant earth in X-Men: Last Stand, it seems clear that Marvel and Fox weren’t entirely sure what to do with their marquee property.
Ratner killed major characters as if his salary increased every time a hero bit the dust; stripped mutants of powers with abandon; used bits of famous storylines to mediocre effect; and generally laid waste to the universe Bryan Singer had created so carefully in two prior films. As a result, Marvel and Fox were forced to look into the past.
First came the bloated and unwieldy X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That sub-par effort was followed by the far superior X-Men: First Class, a movie that reinvented Professor X’s merry band of mutants.
The Wolverine brings the series back to the present. It’s the first time we’ve seen any of the characters struggle with the apocalyptic events that took place at the end of Last Stand. Logan (Hugh Jackman) is living the hermit’s life, tormented by nightmares of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), the love he was forced to kill.
Struggling with his vow of nonviolence—The Wolverine, he tells a friend, is dead—Logan is found by Japanese swordswoman Yukio (Rila Fukushima). She has tracked him down on behalf of Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a dying businessman whose life Logan saved years before and who now has an odd request for our hero.
Logan’s mutant power, you may recall, allows him to heal quickly. This ability, combined with his indestructible adamantium skeleton, has left him for all intents and purposes immortal. He does not age and he cannot be hurt. Yashida offers to relieve our depressed protagonist of this burden and to take on his mutant power.
Logan turns him down, has a weird dream involving Yashida’s mysterious oncologist (Svetlana Khodchenkova), Yashida dies, and the trouble begins. The Yakuza is out to grab Yashida’s granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), and make their move at the businessman’s funeral. Logan vows to protect her—a promise complicated by the fact that his mutant healing factor has somehow been weakened.
No longer an invulnerable killing machine—and having turned his back on nonviolence to protect a woman he is growing to love—The Wolverine must figure out how to regain his powers and determine who is trying to have Mariko killed.
Director James Mangold and writers Mark Bomback, Scott Frank, and (the criminally underrated) Christopher McQuarrie nail the character of Logan. He is tormented but funny, possessing a deep reservoir of rage from which he draws during hand-to-hand combat. The action sequences are coherently pieced together without losing their energy.
Unfortunately, the supporting characters are something of a mess. The motivations of everyone other than Logan, Mariko, and Yukio are hard to pin down. Determining the desires of the aforementioned oncologist—revealed early on to be a mutant whose body produces all manner of toxins—is problematic. It does not help that the character is cringe-inducingly campy: her lime green costume, revealed during the climactic battle late in the film, elicited guffaws from several audience members.
The 3D is, unsurprisingly, unnecessary and obtrusive. The effect is a distraction and frequently poorly done. Watch the film in 2D if given the choice.
The Wolverine is at its best when it deals with Logan’s internal struggles and helps return fans of the franchise to the modern day. (Make sure to stick around for a mid-credits sequence that sets up the next film, X-Men: Days of Future Past.) Too bad the creative team didn’t give The Wolverine a slightly more substantial story to sink his claws into.