At Least It's Not "X-Men Origins": "The Wolverine"

To say that I was excited about The Wolverine would be a bit of an understatement. Wolverine has been my favorite of the X-Men since I was first introduced to them, and I lovelovelove Hugh Jackman.

So I went into this film intentionally knowing very little about the premise and having high hopes. After all, after the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad X-Men Origins: Wolverine, anything had to be better. And "Wolverine becomes a ninja" seemed like a very fun idea indeed.

The good news: it's way, way better than Origins: Wolverine. The bad news: it could have been way, way better.

Even the epic stench of Wolverine could not entirely obscure the pleasure of watching Hugh Jackman inhabiting that character onscreen, and so it is here. The movie looks great, and Jackman looks great.

Yet this pleasure is not unalloyed. The film's central premise -- mentioned in the trailer, so I'm not spoiling anything -- is to ask what would happen if Logan weren't The Wolverine anymore. What happens if someone who's been essentially a god for decades finally knows what it's like to not heal from a bullet wound? Considering what might happen when a power we have come to take for granted is taken from us is an idea that comes up quite a lot in comic book stories; that may be one of the reasons I find them fascinating. Americans have always had too much of a tendency to consider ourselves invincible.

Unfortunately, there really isn't enough time devoted to exploring the psychological effects of events on Logan's character, which is a shame because Jackman has increasingly convinced me over the years that he's an actor capable of nuance and power (I hate to admit it, because I don't enjoy musicals, but he really was stunning in Les Miserables), and Mangold has produced fine, subtle character scenes before. Two things seem to stand in the way of more character development: the requisite love-interest plotline and the increasingly common overwhelming of audiences with ALL THE PUNCHING.

The love-plot is what irks me most. There are two female main characters here, which is promising for a Comic Book Movie (a genre sorely lacking in strong female leads). One of them, the sword-wielding Yukio, eschews romance in favor of asskicking, which is refreshing, and her camaraderie with Logan is fun to watch. However, the film tries to shoe-horn in a relationship between Logan and Mariko, a corporate tycoon's daughter, with no reason given other than that they went through a traumatic few days together. Now, Jackman is a beautiful man, so I can kinda understand sleeping with him almost immediately...

Because seriously with those abs.

...but in order for a relationship to hold the kind of emotional weight that is asked of it later, there needs to be more than some stress-induced sexual attraction, and there isn't. Mariko is relegated to "damsel in distress" and Logan to "passionate rescuer" almost by rote. If the film had suggested a connection between Logan's torturing guilt over killing Jean Grey and his desperation not to "let" another woman die, I would have been pleased, but it doesn't aim that high. I wish it had.

The film's Japanese setting is another promising aspect that seems sorely underemployed. Logan/Wolverine is about as far from Japanese cultural ideals of politeness, indirectness, and respect as someone can get, and that sharp juxtaposition could have been very interesting. Yet other than a few scenes played for humor -- Logan finds out what the interior of a Japanese "couple's hotel" looks like, Logan is scolded for his ominous use of chopsticks -- the Japanese element of the story seems largely window-dressing rather than integral to the story. This is problematic for many reasons; the use of "other" cultures as exotic flavoring smacks uncomfortably of unthinking Western cultural imperialism. And in sheer story terms, it's an opportunity to explore a complicated and, in many ways to Western minds, peculiar culture that goes too often undeveloped.

The trend in comic book adaptations is to go for gritty, dark, psychologically incisive, and I like that. It's a particularly fitting feel for Wolverine, who has always been a little rough around the edges. Captain America he ain't. 3:10 to Yuma director James Mangold brings dark grittiness to The Wolverine, and initially, the movie feels a lot like a well-directed suspense thriller: someone is trying to kill someone else, and our hero must figure out why while protecting his charge. Information is fed out very slowly here, revealing only a little bit of the story at a time, which put me in mind of the best Batman stories, where he too plays detective. I was engaged with finding out what was happening and who was behind it, and things weren't telegraphed too overtly.The film's denouement, though, descends into the maelstrom of punching that has come to mark CBMs of late (I'm looking at you, Man of Steel), and sort of falls apart. What had been a lack of blatantly telegraphing plot points becomes a lack of coherence. The action still satisfies, and one scene involving a host of ninjas straining to keep Wolverine in check is really beautiful visually, even though it's pretty painful-looking. Yet big reveals are made that don't make a lot of sense (giant adamantium samurai robot?!), motives of fairly significant characters (most importantly, the Viper) remain barely hinted at, and why this really needed to be set in Japan remains a bit of a mystery.

All this isn't to say that it's not enjoyable. If this review seems to focus mostly on missed opportunities, it's because there is a great deal of visible potential here. Some scenes are quite beautiful, and there are some lovely touches of foreshadowing. The pacing often works well, and the action scenes are visceral, swift, and engaging. And I will absolutely pay money to watch Jackman be Wolverine whenever I get the chance. One could do far worse with a comic book movie. It's just that, like a slow-burn TV romance, the build-up here is better than the payoff.

PS - AT ALL COSTS STAY FOR THE POST-CREDITS SCENE.