(Movie Review) The Wolverine (2013)

The Wolverine is going to be my new term for when too much of a good thing turns out to be bad

For those that know me they who that I am a lover of sweets. Ice cream is my sugary treat of choice. I have often said that I could eat it every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. But that isn’t true. I know me too well. At some point, no matter how great something is, I get bored and am ready for a change. I feel the same way about Wolverine. Jackman has been playing this character for 13 years. He has played the same part in 6 movies. So, while I don’t think that my problem with this movie is Jackman or how he plays the part I do think it is more about how bored I am with the character. Wolverine is getting a little long in the tooth and I think that it is time that they hang up his adamantium claws for a while and focus on a new superhero. Gambit? Cyclops? Nightcrawler? Any of them. Just give ole Logan a break for a while. 

Storyline: Years after the events that led to Logan (Jackman) being forced to kill the woman that he loved, he has retreated into the wild. Living amongst wild animals. Only interacting with humans when he must. When a woman named Yukio (Fukushima) tracks him down to inform him that an elderly man, one that Logan saved many years prior, is on the verge of death and would like to speak to Logan one last time, they make their way to Japan. The dying man tells Logan that he can cure him of his immortality by having it transferred into the dying man, but Logan refuses. After the man passes away Logan soon realizes that his powers to heal himself are gone. He is vulnerable. Faced with the one this that he has wanted for so long, mortality, he realizes that he might have been too hasty in wishing away his gifts.  

Worth the admission? It is, but there is a lot going against it. Almost every trick that they pull with the character has been done before. Ever y look, every catchphrase, every animalistic growl…it’s all old hat. Also, Viper (played by Svetlana Khodchenkova) is the worst on screen villain I can remember seeing in a long time. And the fact that her voice was budded over her scenes (all done in post-production), every scene that she is in is annoying. Parts of the movie seem more like a Nicholas Sparks book than a superhero film, as it is extremely heavy on dealing with love, relationships, etc. But all of that aside, this is one of the only movies that the character has been in that I felt actually helped develop the character in any way and gave you some idea of the struggles that are associated with immortality. It’s the best Logan film so far, but still a pretty weak Wolverine film. I would give it a C+.